With the financial help of a CENL Skills & Knowledge Exchange Bursary in 2018, the national libraries of Armenia and the Czech Republic have forged a strong and mutually beneficial relationship.

In September 2018, the then Director of the National Library of Armenia, Tigran Zargaryan, made a visit to Prague (read more about his visit in his report). A year later, the library in Yerevan welcomed Zuzana Milnerová from the Czech library’s department of restoration for a return visit. We caught up with the current director of the National Library of Armenia, Hrachya Saribekyan, who told us about the legacy of that original CENL bursary, and the ongoing collaboration and friendship between the two institutions.

“… Let me share the information about the mutual visits between the National Library of Armenia and the Czech Library. Last year we welcomed and hosted in Yerevan Zuzana Milnerová, an employee of the Department of Restoration of the National Library of the Czech Republic. She was on a working visit from October 9th to 11th, 2019, the main goal of which was to participate in an experience exchange programme. In parallel with a presentation, she presented to our staff the ways in which they restore used books in their country, and she also spoke about technological innovations in the Czech Library. Within the framework of the experience exchange programme, she touched upon issues of digitization.

“In addition to employees of Armenia’s National Library, the experience exchange programme also included some attendees from the Restoration Department at the Mashtots Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, (known as Matenadaran). Ms Milnerová’s presentation was followed by a professional discussion, and afterwards a visit to the restoration department dealing with printed materials, and the National Library’s publishing services department. Here she became acquainted with the whole process of treating and restoring damaged, diseased books in the department. She then visited the Museum of Printing, which is located within the National Library of Armenia, where she learned about the history of Armenian literature and the rare books kept in the Special Collections department. Ms. Milerova also visited the M. Mashtots Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, (Matenadaran), to find out more about the restoration work carried out by the departments looking after rare material: manuscripts, parchment, fragments and ancient books.

“We continue to keep and we are willing to deepen our productive collaboration with the National Library of Czech Republic.”

Hrachya Saribekyan
Director of the National Library of Armenia

CENL Bursaries of up to €1000 are available all year round for projects encouraging the sharing of skills and knowledge between CENL members. Read more.