Oriental Library and Archives (OLA) is in charge of the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Xylographs (DOMX) of the Institute of Oriental, Mongolian and Tibetan Studies of Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences. It was founded with the aim to preserve and study rich written heritage of Buryat people.
The funds of OLA contain one of the largest collection in the world of Buddhist scriptures and other written sources in Mongolian and Tibetan, historical archival documents and materials on history and culture of Buryatia and Inner Asian region, traditional paintings, rare photos, tape records of Buryat folklore.
OLA is the well-recognized base for Inner Asian, Buddhist studies Russia-wide. Being integrated into the world scholarly community by means of modern information technologies it will become the international center of oriental studies.
At present intensive work on informatization of OLA's funds is conducted. It means scanning rare documents that are subject to decay, making catalogs and descriptions of collections in electronic format. A comprehending IS for easy access to anew created resources is under development as well.
The aim is making the results of these works available via Internet services worldwide. Unfortunately, we have no sufficient resources to do it at present time. But we hope that academic community will support us in our work. We have a competent enthusiastic crew. We have an experience. And we will do our work in the best way.
We would ask you to join us in realization of our projects. We need different kinds of support. Contact us via e-mail [email protected]
Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Xylographs actively establishes strong and stable connections with international community of orientalists and experts in information exchange, computer science joining the following consortiums:
Also DOMX has established collaborative programs with Japanese Society for Buddhism Propagation and Taiwanese (ROC) Governmental Commission on Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs.
Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Xylographs has initiated a number of projects aimed at computerization of artifacts of culture heritage stored in its funds and by this way making them available for scholarly and public.
These projects are open for all interested organizations and individuals. Additional information you can obtain referring to Dr Tsymjit Vanchikova, the Head of the Department. �
� 1998, Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Xylographs, IMBTS SB RAS
