TOMSK, Mar 2 – RIA Tomsk. The staff of Scientific library of Tomsk State University (SL TSU) conducts work on digitization of book collection of skete of the Siberian Old Believers; age of some copies is more than five hundred years, the press service of the higher education institution has reported.
"In SL TSU "Skete library" is digitized– the book collection of the community of Old Believers-wanderers with about 200 copies. The Cyrillic manuscripts, kept or created by the Siberian Old Believers, will be open for all scientific world community. The project is carried out within the Archives in Danger program, supervised by the British library", – it is said in the message.
It is specified that the library started collect the copies about 30 years ago, when TSU began to carry out regularly archaeological expeditions to the remote areas of the region. In 2015 SL TSU has received the international grant of 14,3 thousand pounds sterling on digitization of "Skete library", works have to come to the end by September."The manuscripts have come to library in bad shape. Often they were stored in adverse conditions. Difficulties for restoration are caused also by unusual character of materials: for manuscripts "improvised materials" – school notebooks, paper for economic needs were often used. People write with self-made ink from natural materials, for example, from juice of berries", – it is noted in the higher education institution.
It is explained that the biggest part of a collection is manuscripts and old printing books of XVIII-XX centuries. Besides, in a collection there is "Prologue" (it is made at the end of the 15th century), "Psalter" (it is published in Moscow in 1602).
According to the press service, restorers,archaeographer, librarians and translators participate in the project. The manuscripts will be available on the website of the British library, in the TSU electronic library they appear already now. It is planned to create the separate website, devoted to the collection, in the future. It is supposed that books will help scientists to understand processes of "mental development of taiga Siberia by a peasant colonist".