Academician-Arabist Ignaty Krachkovsky: his Collection of Oriental Manuscripts in the National Library of Russia
O. V. Vasilyeva
Electronic Catalogueue of the Krachkovsky Collection
Descriptions in the electronic catalogue of the Krachkovsky collection (Ф. 1125. Оп. 1) are based on: a brief inventory of the collection, data from catalogues of Arabic manuscripts (typescript), Persian and Tajik manuscripts (compiled by G. G. I. Kostygova. Leningrad, 1988. Issue 1–2), Ethiopian manuscripts (compiled by V. M. Platonov. St. Petersburg, 1996), review articles by G. I. Kostygova and V. V. Lebedev, as well as other materials. While preparing the electronic catalogue, many data were clarified and supplemented: in particular, information on the number of sheets, including blank ones, and the type of paper was specified, descriptions of bindings and covers were added, ownership marks were read, references are given to printed items in which the manuscripts were mentioned, described or used in the publication of the text. It's possible to search by title and author in both Cyrillic and Arabic script.
The descriptions are included in the electronic catalogue of the Manuscripts Department, created using the Depository Information Retrieval System. This multifunctional database is intended for cataloging manuscript materials of various types in any languages, including Oriental ones. Within the framework of the Depositary Information System, description form fields have been developed that take into account all aspects of manuscripts - the shape of the books, the languages found in them, the types of handwriting, as well as the need to duplicate titles in Cyrillic and Arabic script..
The electronic catalogue was prepared by V. A. Kalenova, a librarian of the Oriental Sector of the Manuscripts Department, with the participation of E. A. Filonov, a researcher of the Old Russian Sector of the Manuscripts Department and L. V. Emelyanova, the Head of the Electronic Catalogue Support Sector of the Department of Integrated Library Systems.
Currently, the inventory of the collection of I. Yu. Krachkovsky contains 84 items (out of 85 numbers, one was transferred to the inventory of the Krachkovsky Archive).