The Russian National Library scanned the card catalog of its Armenian-language holdings (over 64,000 items) and
made it available online some time ago. They recently added part of their
Georgian card catalog (from ა through დუმბაძე
) as well, which will contain records for over 100,000 items when fully mounted.
While many of the cards include Russian versions of the titles and authors' names, these cannot serve as access points since the full text of the cards is not searchable (unlike
the State Public Scientific- Technical Library's scanned card catalog, where this kind of thing can be done). This means that search terms must be entered in Armenian or Georgian script, respectively. It also means that search capabilities are limited to browsing the portion of the Armenian or Georgian
alphabetical order where the search term (i.e., an author's surname or the first word of a title or institution) may appear as the first word on the card (i.e., as the main entry), just as if one was standing in front of an actual card catalog and flipping through the cards one by one. Nevertheless, this is a major resource for scholars of the south Caucasus, as it provides access to the National Library's monographic holdings in these languages dating from the early 17th century to the present. General records for serials (without holdings information) are also included, and the Georgian catalog also includes records for avtoreferaty of dissertations.
While many of the cards include Russian versions of the titles and authors' names, these cannot serve as access points since the full text of the cards is not searchable (unlike the State Public Scientific- Technical Library's scanned card catalog, where this kind of thing can be done). This means that search terms must be entered in Armenian or Georgian script, respectively. It also means that search capabilities are limited to browsing the portion of the Armenian or Georgian
alphabetical order where the search term (i.e., an author's surname or the first word of a title or institution) may appear as the first word on the card (i.e., as the main entry), just as if one was standing in front of an actual card catalog and flipping through the cards one by one. Nevertheless, this is a major resource for scholars of the south Caucasus, as it provides access to the National Library's monographic holdings in these languages dating from the early 17th century to the present. General records for serials (without holdings information) are also included, and the Georgian catalog also includes records for avtoreferaty of dissertations.
