As we all know, the declaration of official holiday for the universities was given due to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and at the same time, stay-at-home measures were implemented. Within this context, the scientific publications and projects that are made available by İstanbul University in digital media contribute to the education process efficiently. New coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has required many public and social life restrictions. Meanwhile, İstanbul University is fulfilling its social obligation with digital media publications.

Scientific Sources from Our Publishing House

In accordance with international publishing standards and ethical principles; İstanbul University Publishing House offers open access to high quality scientific journals and books, in Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences. Our University offers thousands of scientific works in these fields to the researchers.

More than 9,000 sources, especially the journals such as Darülfünûn Faculty of Medicine Journal, Darülfünûn Faculty of Letters Journal, Darülfünûn Faculty of Science Journal, which started to be published in 1916 and have continued with different names in the present period and they are very important primary sources. They are the basic resource in many subjects from the disciplines of science, medicine, social science and humanities. İstanbul University; having carried out scientific production in various fields such as medicine, mathematics, astronomy, cartography, geography, history, philosophy, religion, literature, language, law for centuries, now offers these resources to the benefit of society with its open access feature in digital environment.

Cultural and Art Projects of Our Virtual Library

The virtual libraries of İstanbul University are another digital medium that can be used in this period where stay-at-home measures are implemented. In the virtual library, which was transferred to digital media by İstanbul University Library and Documentation Department; it is possible to reach many projects from your home such as: “Reading with Atatürk”, “II. Abdülhamid Han Photo Albums Collection”, “The World Ruler”, “A New Look at the Old World” and “Looking at the History Through the Newspapers”.

On the other hand, the collection of books that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk borrowed from İstanbul University Central Library can be accessed through the virtual libraries of İstanbul University. Sultan II. Abdülhamid Khan's Yıldız Photography Collection, which consists of 36,585 frames of photographs in 918 albums, is one of the richest visual archives in the world, and it can be examined virtually.

Kanuni Sultan Suleiman's works and 3 important manuscripts of his period (Divan-ı Muhibbi, Ilan-ı Menazil-i Sefer-i Irakeyn, Kitab-ı Bahriye) can be accessed via virtual gallery in digital media.

"A New Look at the Old World: Thanks to the project, which was implemented under the name of “Virtual Library of Maps and Plans of II. Abdulhamid Era”, 120 selected sample maps with a single copy and high international historical value can be accessed from 789 map collections.

The newspaper archive offers newspapers published in various languages such as, Turkish, German, Bulgarian, French, English, German and English in the period between 1928 and 1942. And, virtually 581,106 pages of images from national and local newspapers in 55 titles can be examined within the scope of the” Gazetteer to History Project".

Hundreds of Years of Musical Note Collections in Omarşiv

Another study of İstanbul University, which is also a pioneer in the field of art, is the Multimedia archive of Ottoman-Turkish music accumulation, which is a sustainable project; OMARŞİV. With OMARŞİV, which aims to bring together the musical repertoire of the Ottoman period from past to present on the basis of individual works and to create a sustainable archive containing all kinds of sources related to the works, it is possible to reach hundreds of years of note collections.

Herewith, a basic and reliable portal can be used to scan the written, visual and audio primary and secondary sources of music accumulation in the geography reached by Ottoman culture in history and to provide detailed information such as composers, lyrics, types, forms, maqam and procedural structures, sources.

With all of these works, İstanbul University presents its historical and cultural background to the benefit of the society and will continue to serve people in the digital environment with its Open Access feature.

To reach İstanbul University Press, please click here

To reach İstanbul University Library and Documentation Department, please click here

To reach İstanbul University Virtual Libraries, please click here

To reach OMARSIV portal, please click here

News: Tuğçe Ayçin
Translated by: Yasemin Uğurlu
İU Department of Corporate Communication