VIKELAIA LIBRARY
Vikelaia Municipal Library of Heraklion is considered the most historic library in Crete. Its main purpose is to provide important collections of archives and books of various topics and form, useful to its visitors, as well as services and sources of information, which will generally serve their research needs and promote their education and information.
HISTORY
Vikelaia Municipal Library was founded in 1908 and was installed in the ground floor rooms of the prefectural office. The scholar and cosmopolitan Dimitrios Vikelas, who was born in Syros in 1835, donated to the municipality of Heraklion his rich and valuable library. To date, it has not yet been clear why he offered his personal library to Heraklion and not to his hometown of Syros or to the city of his origin, Veria. The answers that are usually given are that Vikelas was delighted with the treasures uncovered during archaeological excavations in Crete, as well as with his visit to Heraklion shortly before his death.
In 1912, following a decision of the Municipal Council, 1,130 volumes of books were recorded in the Vikelaia Library from the Heraklion Educational Association, which was founded in 1880 and collected several interesting books regarding Crete. In 1920, the library was moved into three northern rooms of the City Hall’s ground floor, where today Theotokopoulos Park is located, and it was housed there until 1932. It was then transferred to the Municipal Hall of Aktarika, where it is still located, except for a short period of time.
The growth of the library began in the early 1980s with the acquisition of material, in various formats and broad thematic topics, as well as the preservation of archives. Many distinguished intellectuals wished to strengthen the library by donating their personal libraries. The first donor is Ioannis Lybritis, followed by the High School of Crete, Stefanos Xanthoudides, Andreas Andreadis, Zacharias Economou, etc. One of the most important donations to Vikelaia is the library of George and Maro Seferis.
The collections of Vikelaia Library consist of books, magazines, newspapers and audiovisual material, covering the whole range of human knowledge, as well as many unique historical items of the island.
The principal collections of public documents of the Archive Department are:
- The Cretan Archives of Venice. Archives of the “Kingdom of Crete” that are being kept in the State Archive of Venice to this day.
- The Turkish Archive of Heraklion. It consists of handwritten codices of the Court of Heraklion spanning a period of 230 years and written in the Turkish language in the old Arabic script.
- The archive of the Municipality of Heraklion. The institution of “demogerontia” was in force in Crete during the Ottoman rule from 1858 to 1900. The archive designates the privileges granted by the Ottomans to Christians in order to avoid the outbreak of national revolutionary uprisings.
AUDIOVISUAL DEPARTMENT
The archival nature of the department in visual and acoustic material serves all the events of Vikelaia Library with modern electronic audiovisual media. As part of the operation of the Department, the “Cinema Club” was founded in collaboration with executives of the old Heraklion Film Club and operated for eight years, showing great films.
In collaboration with expert musicologists, lessons on classical music, jazz, New Age, etc. were offered to the friends-members of the Library, on a weekly basis for three consecutive years.
All library activities, as well as other important events held in municipal halls and open theaters are being recorded and videotaped.
A series of “live” testimonies were recorded on videotapes regarding the events of the German occupation period.
In collaboration with specialized professors of the University of the Aegean and the University of Crete, the Library makes recordings and video recordings of scientific interest, not only for the wider area of Heraklion but also for areas outside Crete – such as Gavdos, Chios and Samos. Documentaries produced for this purpose won awards at the festivals where they were screened.
THE PROJECT
The project entitled “Digital applications of culture through the audiovisual treasures of Vikelaia Municipal Library with the use of cutting-edge technologies” aims to disseminate the audiovisual content of the Library to the wider public through the use of high standard digital information services.
The project was carried out under the Operational Program “Crete 2014-2020”. It is a co- financed project by the European Regional Development Fund and national resources. UniSystems as the contractor company implemented the project with the contribution of the Foundation for Research & Technology – Hellas.
Vision
The project aims at multiple benefits that concern:
- the promotion of the cultural heritage and history of Crete, as recorded through the rich audiovisual archive of the Library
- digital recording and preservation of documents
- the provision of enhanced digital experience and information through modern, multimedia environments.
The vision of the Audiovisual Department is the continuous recording-updating of its archive with new digitized and documented material, in order to promote and support its research, study and utilization by specialists and the general public.
Project results
In the framework of the project, the following were designed and implemented:
- Documentation and digitization of the audiovisual archive of the Vikelaia Municipal Library. A total of 350 videotapes, 400 audio cassettes, 300 bobbins, 100 postcards, 50 maps were digitized
- Content management system and web portal for the promotion of the audiovisual archive of the Vikelaia Municipal Library
- Interactive audiovisual application using augmented reality technologies
- Interactive educational applications
