The Documentation and Photo documentation Center, which is a part of the Institute and Museum Bitola, experienced its foundation during the 60s of the past century in the frame of the National Museum of Bitola, at first as a photo workshop and later gaining its complete physiognomy from 1975.
In the frame of this center there are three sections: The Section for documentation of the monuments of culture from the aspect of protection activities, section of museum documentation and section of photo documentation.
The section for the protection of the cultural heritage carries out the documentation, registration and establishment of a file that includes the prescribed protection regime and appropriate architectural documentation for each individual monument of culture, which is treated.
In the section of Museum documentation are kept the inventory books, entrance books in which are registered all the museum items found in this institution and acquired through archaeological excavations, investigations, purchase, donations etc. For the purposes of a more complete and precise following of the activities of the institution presented in the printed media, a ‘hemeroteque’ was established for the collecting, processing, organizing and keeping of the acquired information. In the last few years, work has started on a process of the computerization of this department and its connection to the computer net of the State.
Photo documentation as a section of this center is an important segment of the entire activity of the institution which, through its development as a collection fund of documented and processed photo lists and negatives, contact copies of all the activities of the institution, has reached a number which is the result of its 70 years of working and is counted at: contact copies around 5000; entire number of photos is 70 000 of which 40 000 are black-white; over 30 000 color photos and 17 video tapes.
Tourist guide and marketing service
The tourist guide as an essential part of the museum’s activity has existed since the foundation of the museum of Bitola, at first as a part of the primary tasks of curators. Today, in fact since 1995, this service has developed and includes tasks such as guiding, marketing, education and the full range of advertising activities concerning the events organized by the institution.
The main accent is put on the visitor, who is naturally the main focus of any marketing oriented museum, and this has to a large extent intensified relations with the public and the media.
This service has particularly emphasized the significance of the education projects entitled “How do we learn about us?” These projects have been aimed at groups of pupils of different ages and multiethnic composition. This has helped accomplish the main goal of the museum’s existence, through the implementation of such educational and interactive creative workshops to supplement and not to imitate the classical education in those subjects where the children learn about the cultural heritage. In other words, the primary goal of this section in the museum is to make the museum as accessible to the public as possible.
Library
Since the foundation of the museum in 1934 the library was founded as a separate entity which now possesses an impressive librarian fund of more than 11300 editions including books, magazines, newspapers as well as other library material such as: legates, video and audio materials collected through purchase, exchange or donations from other similar institutions.
An important place in this collection is given to the fund of 110 rare manuscripts and old printed religious books in the ancient-Slavic, ancient-Greek, Arabic, Turkish, Latin, German and Serbian languages. This library is of a professional character but nevertheless is open for public use.
