YEREVAN. – Digitizing process at Matenadaran (Armenian ancient manuscript museum) will accelerate, Matenadaran will soon receive new digitizing equipment, Matenadaran Director’s advisor Gurgen Gasparyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.  In his words, this equipment, which is fairly expensive, will be acquired through benefactors. According to Gasparyan, more employees will be hired for Matenadaran’s digitizing department, which will now have 15 instead of just the current 6 staff members. Quality equipment and more personnel will enable faster and better-quality digitizing.   

“At present, approximately 2,000 manuscripts are digitized, but there are a total of 17,000,” Gasparyan said, adding that, on the average, one employee digitizes around 500 stills per day, and 80,000 per year.    Digitizing at Matenadaran had begun in early 2008. As Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier, digitized material can be read on computers at the reading room of Matenadaran’s new building.