The article is devoted to the analysis of the results, problems and prospects of digitalization of the Oriental Manuscripts Fund of the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography (IIAE), Dagestan Federal Research Centre, RAS. This collection is one of the largest collections of Oriental manuscripts, old printed books and archival documents in Arabic, Turkish, Persian and the languages of the peoples of Dagestan (ajam) in Russia. In 2016, a number of projects were launched to bring the description and study of this rich Arabic manuscript collection to a qualitatively new level. The activities were aimed at the creation of an electronic automated catalog, the implementation of digital processing and the restoration of manuscripts.

An integrated approach was used in the work, in which the creation of laboratories for digitization and restoration of manuscripts proceeded simultaneously. The article describes in detail the scheme of the description of manuscripts developed during the discussion in the Department of Oriental Studies. For each item, explanations are provided, containing the principles and approaches that guided the research group.

Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation (Spain). A special server was equipped to store digital copies of the manuscripts. The final result of this project will be the creation of a website that will host digital copies of the manuscripts of the Oriental Manuscripts Fund of IIAE, as well as the most valuable manuscripts from private Dagestan manuscript collections.