The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) has digitized and is making accessible through its online library catalogue a collection of more than 100 rare and fascinating taregirks (տարեգիրք) or “yearbooks” and taretsoyts (տարեցօյց) or “almanacs” from the holdings of its Mardigian Library. This project was undertaken through the generous support of the SJS Charitable Trust.

The collection of digitized volumes spans from the 1890s to the 1960s and includes titles published in Alexandria, Athens, Beirut, Boston, Constantinople, Paris, Tehran, Venice and elsewhere. NAASR has one of the most substantial collections of these extraordinary publications outside of university libraries, which are often not available to the public. NAASR selected these as priorities for digitization because they are a treasure trove of information, written to inform Armenians at the time about what was going on in various communities both politically and culturally.  These yearbooks serve as important resources for any scholar or member of the public looking into a particular time and place in Armenian history.

The terms “yearbook” and “almanac” do not fully convey the significance of these publications, which are vital sources of information on the affairs of particular communities and contain important literary and artistic works often not otherwise available elsewhere. Many of them are also strikingly designed and impressive visual works in their own right. For example, the still little-studied Gavrosh (Կավռօշ) yearbooks, published between 1906 and 1933 in Constantinople and Paris by Yervant Tolayan, was a feast for the eyes and specialized in humor. Navasard (Նաւասարդ), a Yearbook of Literary and Fine Arts published in Constantinople in 1914 and overseen by Daniel Varoujan and Hagop Siruni, is both beautiful and loaded with writings from some of the leading Armenian writers of the time and also contains translations into Armenian of works by Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949), Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) and Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855). Many others are more prosaic in appearance but no less rich in information.

You can read more in an article in the Armenian Weekly at: https://armenianweekly.com/2022/11/14/naasr-digitizes-collection-of-yearbooks/