Rare 500-year-old maps computerized

TIRANA, April 11 – Fifty-four rare maps dating back from the 16th to 18th centuries, part of the National Library’s collection, have been computerized and made available on the library’s website. The maps are part of the antiques the National Library is computerizing in order to protect the original copies.
“The computerization of these maps marks an important step not only in the ease to their access but also for the protection of the original copies. If researchers previously needed special permission to work for a limited time on these maps, now they can have access to them with a simple click on the library’s website,” says Behije Luha, the head of the Albanalogy department at the library.
The maps belong to well-known cartographers such as Mercator, Gastaldo, Cantelli, Coronelli, Sanson, Ortellio, Konard.
The computerization process at the National Library started three years ago with rare items in the library collection. Lack of appropriate facilities to store its collections which increase every day remains a key obstacle.
In 2011, The National Library in Tirana marked celebrations on its 90th anniversary of foundation with the promotion of two special publications tracing the history of Albanian books from the early 16th century authors to the end of World War II.
Founded on July 10, 1920, the National Library initially had only 6,000 volumes mainly from the collection of the Albanian Literary Commission (Komisija Letrare Shqype), set up in cooperation with the Austro-Hungarians in 1917 to decide on questions of orthography for official use and to encourage the publication of Albanian school texts.
The end of the World War II found the National Library with a collection of 15,000 volumes. The library moved to its current premises at the Palace of Culture only in 1966.
The collapse of the 45-year communist regime in the early 90s brought crucial changes in the functioning of the National Library which removed barriers to subscribers and enriched its collection with books which were not deemed appropriate under communism.