Purpose:
Monastery libraries have, for centuries, been the hub of religious education and research. They house collections that are unique and even rare and have been useful to students of religion ...as well as to members of the public. Some, along with the monasteries to which they are attached, even serve as tourist attractions, being as they are ancient relics with rich culture and history. The Tawang Monastery, in Arunachal Pradesh, India, is one such monastery whose libraries are unique and valuable. This paper reports results of a study on the collection in the two libraries of Tawang Monastery which not only found that they are among the best in terms of format, variety and value but also discovered shortcomings like shortage in staff and space which need to be addressed at the earliest.
Design/methodology/approach
For this research, case study method was used by the researchers. The tools used for data collection were questionnaire and interview. This is because they were found to be easier and convenient methods to carry out this research. Apart from that, observation method was also carried out throughout the research period. Besides these field work research methods, literature review was also carried out to gather mostly historical and some background information about the monastic libraries in India. Internet searching was also carried out to find out other relevant information.
Findings
This study provides an enumerative account of collection development in the Tawang monastery libraries. During the study, certain pitfalls were noted. First, the ancient Parkhang library building is in a very precarious state of existence. In fact, the library building was undergoing renovation during the period of this study. Due to this very reason also, it’s collection of Kanjur and Tanjur religious texts have not been subjected to any preservation methods, although it is of utmost necessity.
Research limitations/implications
During this particular period of study the ancient Parkhang library was undergoing the process of building renovation. In fact, the whole library building was deserted as a result, and was in topsy-turvy condition. The tour of the library hall was given, for whatever it was worth by the librarian himself, during which some photographs were taken. Hence, most of the data collection was possible only due to the dedicated cooperation of the monks and a few learned teaching staff of the monastery school. Much relevant information was collected through personal interviews, apart from the questionnaire sets. On the other hand, no such hindrance was faced for the data collection from the school library.
Originality/value
This study, to an extent, shows that the collection development in the Tawang monastery libraries (especially Parkhang library) is a very vital and important asset, both for the state of Arunachal Pradesh and for India as well. It is the first full-fledged study on collection development in the Tawang Monastery libraries, covering all aspects of the topic at hand, and can serve as a precedent to other such studies.
The inventory lists of private library collections may be counted among the most significant sources for the study of the history of books in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. These inventories ...provide a true picture of the reading material used in a given historical period and reveal their owners’ spiritual preoccupations as well as those of their contemporaries. Many books listed in the inventories had disappeared from the collections over time, so the inventories remain the sole indicators helping us to reconstruct the spiritual life of the different social environments. The inventories deserve to be treated with exceptional reverence by the book historians.Example used by the author to show the type of information that might be learned from the inventory of a private library is the inventory of books that Nikola Pavlov de Gondola of Dubrovnik gave as a gift, in 1469, to the Benedictine monastery of St. Mary’s on the island of Lokrum near Dubrovnik. The inventory list comprises sixteen titles; among them are two milestones, Boccaccio’s The Decameron and Genealogies of the Gentile Gods. The two are the oldest specimens of these books ever to be discovered in Croatia. Using the standard methodology for book inventory analysis, developed by the so-called ‘middle generation’ of book historians, the author first establishes which book the inventory entry refers to and, then, he supplies information on the book. Finally, for the most important books, he sketches for the reader a wider context of the book ownership and use. The author also stresses the importance of the numerous private library inventories kept in the archives of Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar, etc. He argues that the publication and an in-depth analysis of the surviving inventories would supply valuable information not only on the books bought and read by their owners but also on the intellectual and cultural preoccupations of the social environments (towns) in which the owners lived.
Provider: - Institution: - Data provided by Europeana Collections- p. 155-164- Sum. eng.- s. 155-164- Streszcz. ang.- All metadata published by Europeana are available free of restriction under the ...Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. However, Europeana requests that you actively acknowledge and give attribution to all metadata sources including Europeana
Poticaj za pisanje rada autoru je dalo objavljivanje knjige Kanonske vizitacije Zagrebačke nadbiskupije koju je uredio Andrija Lukinović. U knjizi je uočljivo da su pohoditelji župa u arhiđakonatu ...Gora zapisivali i podatke o župničkim knjižnicama, s popisom knjiga koje posjeduje neka župa (inventarium librorum). Takvi su popisi zanimljivi iz tri razloga: a) omogućuju uvid u to koje su hrvatske knjige, osobito propovjedničke, bile popularnije, dakle koje su se češće pojavljivale u zapisnicima kanonskih vizitacija
u rubrici inventarium librorum; b) omogućuju donošenje zaključaka o publici kojoj se župnik u propovijedima obraćao, pripremajući se za propovijedanje pomoću onih hrvatskih propovjedničkih knjiga koje su najčešće bile na policama župničkih knjižnica; c) omogućuju provjeravanje bibliografskih podataka o hrvatskim knjigama za koje nemamo pouzdanih podataka da su zaista i tiskane, dakle da ih je neka knjižnica imala u svome fondu.
Pri istraživanju knjiga bilježenih u zapisnicima kanonskih vizitacija Zagrebačke nadbiskupije korištena je induktivna metoda: odabirom naslova koji su se najčešće pojavljivali u popisima knjiga zaključivalo se o razlozima veće zastupljenosti pojedinih naslova, odnosno o vjerničkoj publici kojoj se župnik u svojim propovijedima obraćao.
Zapisnici kanonskih vizitacija čuvaju se u Nadbiskupskom i kaptolskom arhivu u Zagrebu (NKAZ, KV) i uglavnom nisu objavljeni. Tako zamišljeno istraživanje dovelo je do zaključaka da je vjernička publika kojoj se obraćao župnik propovjednik, a koji se za propovijedanje pripremao na temelju knjiga koje je imao u župničkoj knjižnici, bila bolje upućena u pitanja vjere i općenito bolje obrazovana nego što se to danas misli.
Istraživanje je bilo ograničeno fizičkom nemogućnošću autora članka da samostalno pregleda sve zapisnike kanonskih vizitacija svih arhiđakonata Zagrebačke nadbiskupije, što bi zahtijevalo timski rad. 10 Željko Vegh, Zapisnici kanonskih vizitacija Zagrebačke nadbiskupije kao izvor podataka za povijest hrvatske tiskane knjige, Libellarium, 1, 1(2008): 9 - 25 Praktična je vrijednost istraživanja popisa knjiga koje su vizitatori bilježili pri svojim pohodima u župe Zagrebačke nadbiskupije otkrivanje recepcije djela pojedinih hrvatskih pisaca u 18. stoljeću, potom otkrivanje podataka o naobrazbi župnikâ i obrazovanosti stanovništva koje je živjelo na području Zagrebačke nadbiskupije te, naposljetku, o utjecaju Katoličke crkve na obrazovanost stanovništva. Istraživanje je omogućilo i potvrđivanje bibliografskih navoda o postojanju nekih hrvatskih tiskanih knjiga.
Svrha ovoga rada jest istražiti problematiku zaštite pisane baštine u samostanskim knjižnicama unutar legislativnih, institucionalnih i organizacijskih okvira te utvrditi nužne organizacijske ...pretpostavke za njezino poboljšanje. Polazeći od pretpostavke da je knjižna građa pohranjena u samostanskim knjižnicama građa od iznimne kulturne vrijednosti te kao takva ima svojstva kulturnog dobra i dio je hrvatske nacionalne pisane baštine, u radu se propituje prepoznavanje potrebe za sustavnim pristupom njezinoj zaštiti na operativnoj razini, unutar samih knjižnica, kao i na strateškoj razini, od strane nadležnih i drugih relevantnih ustanova u Republici Hrvatskoj. Uz analizu pravnog i institucionalnog okvira djelovanja samostanskih knjižnica te projekata zaštite građe pohranjene u njima, provedene su i tri studije slučaja knjižnica franjevačkih samostana u Mostaru, Požegi i Zadru, intervjui s njihovim voditeljima te intervju s ispitanikom u Hrvatskom zavodu za knjižničarstvo. Rad se konceptualno temelji na teorijskom modelu upravljanja zaštitom pisane baštine u RH te se na temelju prikupljenih podataka i oslanjajući se na model definira postojeće stanje zaštite građe u samostanskim knjižnicama te se predlažu potrebne mjere za sustavnije i učinkovitije upravljanje zaštitom pisane baštine u samostanskim knjižnicama.
Provider: - Institution: - Data provided by Europeana Collections- p. 95-108 : ill.- Sum. eng.- Text pol., partly lat.- s. 95-108 : il.- Streszcz. ang.- Tekst pol., częśc. łac.- All metadata ...published by Europeana are available free of restriction under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. However, Europeana requests that you actively acknowledge and give attribution to all metadata sources including Europeana
Provider: - Institution: - Data provided by Europeana Collections- Η μονή της Aγίας Tριάδος ή του οσίου Διονυσίου στον Όλυμπο ιδρύθηκε στο πρώτο μισό του 16ου αιώνα και απέκτησε σιγά-σιγά μια αρκετά ...αξιόλογη βιβλιοθήκη χειρογράφων κωδίκων και εντύπων βιβλίων. Σήμερα όμως σώζονται in situ μόνον 2-3 έντυπα και άλλα τόσα χειρόγραφα της αρχικής συλλογής, γιατί το Mοναστήρι, λόγω των πολλών και συνεχών καταστροφών που υπέστη μέχρι και τον 2ο Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο, έχασε μαζί με πολλά άλλα και τη βιβλιοθήκη του. Eν τούτοις, όπως προκύπτει από κάποιες αρχειακές ενδείξεις και διάσπαρτες βιβλιογραφικές πληροφορίες, δεν καταστράφηκαν όλα τα χειρόγραφα και τα έντυπα. Oι πληροφορίες αυτές μας ώθησαν σε “αναζήτηση του χαμένου θησαυρού”, η οποία απέδειξε ότι πράγματι ένα μέρος των χειρογράφων και των εντύπων διασώθηκε μέχρι σήμερα, περνώντας αρχικά σε χέρια ιδιωτών και αργότερα σε διάφορες βιβλιοθήκες της Eλλάδας και του εξωτερικού. Συγκεκριμένα καταφέραμε να εντοπίσουμε τα διασωθέντα χειρόγραφα και έντυπα ή τουλάχιστον πολλά από αυτά, να παρακολουθήσουμε ―πηγαίνοντας αντίστροφα, από το τέλος προς την αρχή― την πορεία και τις περιπέτειές τους και να ανασυγκροτήσουμε θεωρητικά ένα μέρος της αρχικής βιβλιοθήκης της Mονής. Tην έρευνα αυτή και τα συμπεράσματά της, όσον αφορά τα έντυπα, περιγράφουμε εν συντομία στην παρούσα ανακοίνωση. Πέραν τούτου όμως σκοπός μας είναι να επισημανθεί και η σημασία των παλαιών βιβλιοθηκών που αφθονούν στην Eλλάδα και περιμένουν τους μελετητές τους.- All metadata published by Europeana are available free of restriction under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. However, Europeana requests that you actively acknowledge and give attribution to all metadata sources including Europeana
Microbial contamination and damaging effects due to environmental factors (temperature, humidity) of old books is an extremely important issue in the heritage preserving field, being a great threat ...to this unique cultural and literary treasure. This paper analysed the indoor environmental conditions, the microbiological characteristics of the air and the condition itself of 27 clerical books (from eighteenth to nineteenth centuries), randomly chosen from the library of Bistrița Monastery, Romania. The analysis revealed that most of the books were contaminated and damaged by moulds and yeasts. The statistical analysis (chi-square test) shows that the incidence of mould species was not coincidental. The most common isolated fungi discovered on old books were
Penicillium
spp. (40.7%),
Cladosporium
spp. (33.3%) and
Fusarium
spp. (29.6%). Fungal contamination was observed in 17 books. Microbiota air tests have shown possible contamination by air flow. Often, the measured temperature/humidity values are not in line with the requirements of the legislation in force, especially during the cold seasons, the average minimum temperature varying from 3 to 6 °C to an average maximum temperature of 22–25 °C; the values of relative humidity were between 27 and 77%. In terms of storage conditions, the recorded values of temperature and humidity are extremely harmful to the stored documents. Therefore, these indoor environmental conditions have to be improved, in order to reduce/eliminate potential sources of fungal contamination and to achieve optimal environmental preserving conditions.
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