Category: Section

The National Library of Mongolia (NLM) is partnering with two US organizations to scan and catalog its large collection of Tibetan Buddhist texts. The Asian Classics Input Project (ACIP) and the Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC) are providing funds and working with the Director of the National Library of Mongolia, Ichinkhorloo Bayarkhuu, and her staff to do this work.

Scans and catalog information will be made available online on the websites of the National Library of Mongolia, ACIP and BDRC on an ongoing basis as work proceeds on the project.

Current staff of the project includes eight Mongolian employees based in the National Library of Mongolia and four U.S.-based staff. With support from U.S. staff, Mongolians are pulling uncatalogued volumes of Tibetan texts from the NLM stacks; unwrapping them; cataloging them; and scanning them using technology provided by the project. All technology provided to the project—computers, monitors, cameras, scanners–will be donated to NLM at the conclusion of the project.

The discovery phase of the NLM Online project uncovered approximately 31,990 uncataloged volumes in the stacks at NLM. Each volume can contain between one and ten different titles; in some cases, more than ten titles can be contained in a single volume. The volumes have been donated to NLM over the years, some from private collections, some from other institutions that have closed their doors, some from discoveries in the countryside where villagers may have hidden volumes in caves or buried them in previous centuries to protect them from political upheaval or war.

The uncatalogued volumes are in varying stages of preservation. Many are wrapped in rough cloth which has exposed the enclosed pages, called pechas in Tibetan, to damage from weather, the elements, or insects. Some are in original woodblock form. Other volumes may be contained in paper or wooden boxes. The project scope includes a thorough assessment and capture of NLM’s Tibetan collection.

After scanning, the volumes will be re-wrapped in fresh cloth bookcovers. NLM has had a nation-wide community project underway for several years, encouraging Mongolians to donate bookcovers to the Library to help preserve this valuable collection. To date, Mongolian citizens have contributed approximately 25,000 bookcovers. In addition, global non-profits have contributed another 1,000 bookcovers to the Library to help in preservation efforts.

It is estimated that the work of cataloging, scanning and digitizing the Tibetan collection will take about seven years. Funding has been secured for four years, and efforts are underway to develop additional support for the remaining time needed to complete NLM Online.