King's College London newsletter
GREEK A
BASSADOR
ISITS
grant, partly funded b the uropean Com.mi sion, has made this initiative po Slble. This project was of pecial intere t to the Ambassador, becau e when the work i completed, it will be offered as a data source to the niver ity of Crete, as, presently, Greece doe not po ess a nattonal database of bibliographical records. Eventually it is hoped that the database will be extended to other Greek univer ities. While in the Burrows Library, His Excellency also took the opportunity to view the Library' extensive collection of Modern Greek material
The Principal greets The Greek Ambassador, His Excellency, Mr Stephanos Stathatos at a lUl1ch given in honour of his visit. The College was pleased to welcome The Greek mbassador, Hi Excellency, Mr Stephanos Stathatos, to King's on Thursday 9 March. The Ambassador was invited to King' to see demonstration of tw important new Library projects, which have noteworthy Greek connections and to be pre ented with the proposals f~r the new Centre for Hellenic Studie that is being established here. ' In the Library, the Ambas ador was given a demonstration of the new equipment that has recently been installed. Evelyn Comell, Assistant Librarian, showed how the Library will have access to the whole of ancient Greek literature up to AD 600, together with many Latin, Hebrew, Coptic and Syriac texts, on compact disc. The various tasks that can be performed, such as searching texts for a particular phra e, were shown. Classicists and theologian will especially benefit from this
new technology. The system, acquired with the assistance of Swan Hellenic is initially running on the IB YCUS sy~tem, although it is hoped to become more widely available.on IBM pcs and Apple Macintoshes. The party, which also included Professor Roderick Beaton, Head of the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, Professor veri! Cameron, Head of the Department of Classics and Mr Derek Law, College Librarian moved on to the Burrows Library of Modern Greek which houses the best collection of Greek-language books in Europe (outside Greece itself). The Am bassador was a ble to see the work underway to convert the Library's catalogue from the old card index system ~to computer form. The cultural attache, (and former student of King's), Victoria Solomonides, gained hands-on experience using the new online bibliographic records. A ÂŁ 100,000
During his visit the mbassador learnt of the plans and aims for the new Centre for Hellenic Studies - a unique research centre concentrating on the study of Greek civilization from classical antiquity to the present day. It will be based in the Departments of Classics and Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies. Creation of the Centre has been made possible due to the strength of the departments coupled with a distinguished Faculty of Theology and Department of Philosophy, both of which will also be participating in the work of the Centre. Professor Cameron, newly appointed Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, will head the Centre. The creation of the new Centre will be formally announced later in the year when Professor Beaton delivers hi inaugural lecture, Korae , Toynbee and the Modern Greek Heritage. The main activity of the Centre will lie in the promotion of the Hellenic Studies by the attraction of postgraduate students, the establishment of links with institutions overseas, an annual programme of public events and lectures, ano me co-oromatlOn 01 research projects, presently including work on the cataloguing of the shmole Archive of photographs of ancient sculpture, collaborative work on Byzantine and the rise of Islam and an investigation into the compute;ised teaching of Modern Greek. The visit ended with a small reception and lunch in the Principal's Office, attended by members of the Classics and Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies Departments and the Library. Further picture on back page.