IBR/INR Library

The Library of the Institute for Byzantine Research and of the Institute for Neohellenic Research (formerly called Centre for Byzantine Research and Centre for Neohellenic Research respectively and renamed according to the new terminology introduced by the 1514 law on scholarly and scientific research) was founded in the year 1960 adjunct to the Institutes. It is a specialised library with titles relevant to the areas of interest of the two Institutes. Its main task is to cover the needs of the researchers working for the two Institutes. The Institute for Byzantine Research focuses mainly on the study and promotion of the Byzantine history and culture, its relation to and influence on the Latin West, the Serb people. It also promotes auxiliary historical disciplines such as paleography, diplomacy, archival studies, chronography, as well as historical geography. The Institute for Neohellenic Research is mainly interested on the study of Modern Hellenism in relation to European, Balkan and Ottoman history from the 15th to the 20th centuries. The axes of the research pursued integrate historiographical recording within the context of fields like the history of ideas and institution, financial, social, political and diplomatic history, as well as comparative literature, literature and history of art, theatre and music.

The Library of IBR and INR is housed in the same space and contains approximately 40.000 titles of books, pamphlets, periodicals, maps and audiovisual material. The periodicals collection numbers 1.100 titles while of equal importance is the collection of Greek printed material -books and pamphlets- as well as the film archive where rare publications covering a wide spectrum of Hellenic bibliography from the 16th to the 19th centuries are preserved. From its very beginning the Library was enriched by donations offered by institutions, writers, scholars and bibliophiles. Special mention is due to the donations of Ioannis Sareyiannis (1962, 4.866 titles - closed collection), Alexandros Benakis (1979, 1.494 titles incorporated in the main collection) and Michael Stefanides (1995, 100 titles - closed collection).

The user may search for -mainly- Greek titles in the collection of the Library through the Internet, via a Web Interface in the address <http://argo.ekt.gr>, in the ''Humanities Libraries in Greece'' database hosted in the Web Server of the National Documentation Centre (NDC). The periodicals collection is also searchable in the same address, in the database of the Collective List of Periodicals of the NDC. The Library participates in the National Network of Scientific and Technological Libraries whose main activity is the online document ordering (of Xerox copies). In 1994 the Library was renamed ''Library of D.A. Zakythinos'' in memory of the late first Director of the Centre for Byzantine Research and co-founder of the National Hellenic Research Foundation.