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.