More than 1,000 manuscripts and magnetic tapes with folkloric materials that are kept in the archive of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova were digitized and conserved. These date from 1946-1991 and were gathered on the territory of Moldova and Bucovina, in Cernăuți region.

Contacted by IPN, director of the Institute of Cultural Heritage Victor Ghilaş said the digitization was possible owing to a project financed by the British Library of the UK with a budget of £32,400. The project was won at the start of last year and lasted for a year. It was implemented by the Institute of Cultural Heritage, the Institute of Philology and Eurocentrica Association of Romania.

The goal of the project was to save by digitization the archive materials kept at the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, which are seriously damaged. Now, 450 manuscripts with folkloric creations and about 630 magnetic bands with audio folkloric materials will be available in electronic format. Over 100 damaged magnetic bands can no longer be used.

Victor Ghilaş noted the digitized materials will be kept in the folklore archive of the Institute of Philology. There was created a website onto which these will be loaded. Folk songs, carols, legends, narrations, including the musical folklore of the Gagauzians and Bulgarians of Moldova, were moved to digital support.