During 1998 – 2006, the endeavor to preserve the CAMS valuable archival material took on a new form: our institute received funding to implement the project "Exploitation of modern telecommunications and information technologies for the Centre of Asia Minor Studies" in the framework of the Information Society program.
The digitized material comes from the Oral Tradition Archive (around 160,000 manuscript pages containing testimonies of 5,000 refugees from Cappadocia, Pontus and Ionia), around 500 manuscripts (the larger part of which has been written by Asia Minor literate individuals after the historical divide of the Asia Minor disaster), 7,000 photographs depicting the everyday life of Asia Minor Greeks in their homeplaces, the tragedy of the Exodus and the resettlement in Greece, 100 maps and cartographic sketches of Asia Minor, drawn by the Cartographic Service of CAMS and a small number of audiovisual tapes on related issues.
Digitization will enhance to a large degree, both qualitatively and quantitatively, simple users' and researchers' relationship with Asia Minor Greeks, as they will be able to exploit the Centre's valuable archives for scientific, research and educational objectives. It will promote the cultural heritage of Asia Minor Greeks through the systematic documentation and promotion of the cultural archival material.