Moldavica, the first digital library in Moldova, opened today in Chisinau as part of a project started two years ago. It contains old and rare publications, manuscripts, archive documents, artifacts, and museum items that constitute the core of the written and print national heritage, Info-Prim Neo reports. Alexe Rau, the director of the National Library, said the project was financed by European donors that offered money for a modern scanner and a server to archive the items; the software was provided by UNESCO. Moldavica project coordinator Elena Pintilie, the vice director of the National Library, says the digital library will help to better preserve the originals by limiting access to them. At the same time, it will advance the population’s access to the national written and printed heritage, as the digitalized copies have become available to anyone with a computer connected to the Internet. The digital library is part of the national program Moldova’s Memory, a component of the global UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program. Moldavica contains over 100,000 digitalized pages in six categories: manuscripts, old books, old papers, maps, postcards, ex-libris. The address is www.moldavica.bnrm.md.