Manuscripts department is the corner that attracts the visitors, researchers and heritage lovers, as it is the treasures store of knowledge left by the ancestors of this nation.
Acquisitions of this department exceed two hundred thousand of original and photocopied manuscripts.
In general, tasks of this department include enriching the center’s library with rare Arabic and Islamic manuscripts, original or photocopied, then cataloging and classifying them in various ways to facilitate and provide researchers with cataloged manuscripts in order to be spread among people as the heritage is the basis of civilization and prosperity.
Tasks of this department are divided into the following three sections:
-Acquisition & Researchers Guidance
-Cataloging & Classifying
-Preservation, Storing & Photocopying
Acquisition & Researchers Guidance Section
This section in cooperation with the other sections of manuscripts department aims to acquire the rare and useful manuscripts of Arabic and Islamic heritage to facilitate using them by the scholars and researchers.
Goals
-Enriching the center with original and photocopied manuscripts and documents of all sciences from all over the world according to measured scientific criteria.
-Tracking all the rare and precious of the international manuscripts and enabling the researchers to get them.
-Paving the way for the researchers in the field of verifying heritage and guiding them to its hidden treasures in order to save time and effort.
-Enriching this department with the new printed catalogs of international manuscripts.
Tasks:
-Studying all the manuscripts’ catalogs in the department, choosing the important ones and arranging them in lists in order to get them from their resources.
-Checking all the photocopied manuscripts received by the department, stating the number of their copies that are available in the center and indicating their states of printing.
-Preparing scientific reports about the manuscripts which are offered to the department whether for purchase or exchange and evaluating their scientific and material value.
-Setting relations with the cultural centers and international libraries concerned with manuscripts.
-Collecting all the articles and leaflets concerned with heritage books.
-Answering all the scientific questions and inquiries of the researchers regarding the manuscripts such as determining their places in the libraries and determining the manuscripts that are verified scientifically.
-Contacting the libraries on behalf of the researchers in order to provide them with manuscripts if they aren’t available in the center.
-Nominating the manuscripts that are proper to be verified as scientific letters.
-Helping the beginner researchers who aspire to work in the field of verification and clarifying the proper approach for them.
Cataloging & Classifying Section
This section is considered the starting point in preparing the detailed information about the manuscripts of the department seeking hardly to provide the researchers with accurate information easily in order to save time and effort.
Goals
-Preparing detailed information about the manuscripts in the center.
- Providing the researchers with correct and precise information about the center’s manuscripts according to the rules of cataloging.
-Classifying the manuscripts in the center to facilitate getting them by the researchers using more than one way with short time and less effort.
Tasks
1-Cataloging the various kinds of manuscripts in the center: original, photocopied, microfilms, microfiches and CDs according to the rules of manuscripts cataloging by using a card containing the basic terms of various manuscripts.
2-Documenting the information mentioned in the card from biographies and manuscript’s catalogs available in the department in order to help the researcher to know other copies of manuscripts and their places in the libraries all over the world.
3-Checking the information mentioned in the card to assure its correctness and accuracy.
4-Entering the data of the cataloged manuscripts including all the necessary information according to a system designed to facilitate the process of retrieving information by the catalogers and researchers.
5-Classifying the catalog cards into four kinds:
A-According to the author
B-According to the title
C-According to keeping number in the center.
D-According to the subjects.
In order to help the researchers who are not proficient in the electronic search to met their needs easily.
This section cataloged many of the center’s manuscripts and their photocopies and participated in training cadres of the Emirati local community on cataloging and classifying manuscripts.
Department of manuscripts accomplished three catalogs of the photocopied manuscripts on microfilm as the following :
1-Selected manuscripts from St. Petersburg University, College of Eastern Studies.
2-Selected manuscripts from Al Bairooni Institute for Eastern Studies in Toshkent-Uzbekistan
3-Selected manuscripts from the acquisitions of Manuscripts Institute, Baku-Azerbaijan.
Preservation, Storing & Photocopying Section
It is one of the main sections in the manuscripts department as it keeps the manuscripts of the center. This section has many branches
1-Original Manuscripts: all means of preservation, care and safety have been observed upon designing this place. The temperature should be between 15-20 degree and humidity should be between 50-60 degree. The number of manuscripts is 8000 volumes till now and contains more than 15000 titles of different subjects and ages.
2-Photocopied manuscripts : they are copies of the original manuscripts collected from various resources with a number of 2.800 copies, containing more than 3500 titles which are kept in a special store where all means of keeping and safety are available.
3-Microfilms : copies of the film manuscripts which were collected from different world libraries are kept in bookcases with drawers manufactured for this purpose containing about 9000 microfilms of more than 80.000 titles.
4-Digital manuscripts : they are the manuscripts which are kept on CDs collected from various libraries by exchange, purchase or photographing by the foreign delegations of the center and the number exceeds 7000 CDs including more than 120.000 titles.
5-Cabinet of the international manuscripts catalogs : it contains about 80% of the international libraries catalogs of manuscripts arranged according to countries to be easily referred to.
6-photography: this branch is specialized in photographing all materials of the department as manuscripts and documents, providing the researchers with their needs by photocopied papers, films, and CDs, and transferring films and microfiches on papers.