History enthusiasts to enjoy more access to National Museum, Parliamentary Library collections

Two Tbilisi-based institutions with rich historical archives are joining forces for ensuring better research and access to their collections of some of the unique materials illustrating the Georgian history.

The Georgian National Museum (GNM) Library and the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia will look to create a single database for their book collections that include important medieval publications.

The two venues will also launch a joint effort in conserving, maintaining and digitising periodicals and rare publications in their archives and utilise each other's technical means and professionals.

National Parliamentary Library visitors will also be able to access GNM Library material, while professionals of the former venue will digitise rare publications from the museum archives to make them accessible to interested readers.

In an occasion marking the memorandum on November 1, the GNM Library will also be enriched with "extremely important" publications on medieval art and Byzantine history, said a release by the museum network.

The material will be presented to the library by the Philipps University of Marburg professors Heidemarie and Guntram Koch. 

The two professors have enjoyed decades-long ties with Georgian historians through their cooperation with the Otar Lordkipanidze Archaeological Research Centre and promoted research on the Georgian culture at various European venues and scientific circles.

For the event the library will also put some of its rare publications on display, including a 1709 Gospel printed in Tbilisi during the reign of King Vakhtang VI.

Other exhibits will include early issues of the pioneering Georgian newspapers Droeba and Iveria from the second half of the 19th century, and photographs of illustrations depicting western Georgian kingdoms of the first half of the 17th century.