The Library of the Hellenic Parliament, the second and most important library of the country, uses now the openABEKT platform of the National Documentation Center (EKT), for the management and public availability of its Catalog (http://parliament.οpenabekt.gr).
The results of the collaboration between the ESF and the Library of the House of Representatives on the implementation of the Open and Open Library Catalog and Functioning Platform were presented on Thursday 19 April 2018 Thursday at a joint meeting of the Library Committee and the Standing Committee on Educational Affairs of the Parliament.
Many MPs from all parties, who praised the collaboration of the two institutions, stressed the rich and important work produced by the Parliamentary Library (http://library.parliament.gr), καθώς και τον καθοριστικό ρόλο του ΕΚΤ σε ζητήματα οργάνωσης και διάθεσης ψηφιακού περιεχομένου και στην ανάπτυξη και διάχυση σχετικής τεχνογνωσίας. Αναφέρθηκαν, επίσης, στη συμβολή του ΕΚΤ σε ό,τι αφορά την υποστήριξη του δημοσίου συμφέροντος στη διάχυση της γνώσης που παράγει το ελληνικό σύστημα, την ενσωμάτωση νέων τεχνολογιών στις βιβλιοθήκες και την resolution interoperability issues.
This openABEKT (www.oftabekt.gr) is a modern cloud infrastructure service that has been fully deployed by the ECB based on the modern needs of libraries. As part of the first phase of the cooperation of the EKT with the Library of the Parliament, the transition of the library catalog to the new environment of openABEKT was carried out and new functionalities were integrated in a friendly search and navigation environment in content of the directory.
At the same time, the remote online training of the staff was carried out through the modern openABEKT eLearning environment, while continuous online support is provided through the eHelpdesk and eKnowledgeBase services. It is worth noting that the ESF cloud infrastructure ensures the full provision of library services (functions management of members and transactions, such as material borrowing and reservations, availability of copies, statistics), the seamless operation of the service with high levels of availability (24/7/365) and with high internet connection speeds.
The Library of the Parliament's Library currently includes 366.616 bibliographic records and 590.686 copies and issues. Especially important and interesting for users is that 878 digital releases of important publications for medical practice and hygiene of the last century, after appropriate digital editing, are displayed and freely available in the Catalog for browsing and reading through the special application of an electronic reader has the openABEKT.
Most bibliographic records concern textual evidence, while it also includes smaller collections of cartographic, audiovisual material, some manuscripts and a small number of sound recordings and files multimedia. Apart from some tens of thousands of periodicals and monograph series, most of the content is monographs, and indeed much of it is in foreign languages: French, English, German and Italian mainly, while there is content in Latin and Ancient Greek.
The oldest book in the Catalog is from 1435, i.e. before printing, while in the Library's collections there are periodicals from the beginning of the 19th century, such as e.g. the Naval Chronicle or the Journal du Palais; In the Catalog there is rich and interesting material from the 20th century as well, such as e.g. purchases by E. Venizelou, E. Repoulis, D. Politou, G. Kafantaris and D. Ralli since 1917 and documents from World War II, which will be fascinating to scholars of Greek history, but also to students and teachers who wish to frame the lesson of history in the classroom.
