New chapter: A landmark move for Greece`s national library
(Artdaily.org)

Wearing masks and gloves, specialised staff gingerly place their treasured cargo inside wheeled, shock-absorbing boxes for a historic trip to the other end of Athens in the biggest book move in Greek history. From January until April, the National Library of Greece is moving root and branch, out of its 100-year-old home in central Athens and literally into the 21st-century. `This is no simple move. It`s a journey into a new era,` says library general director Filippos Tsimpoglou. More than 550 staff worked on the two-year operation to clean, digitise, tag and relocate over 700,000 manuscripts and books, made possible by a massive donation from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), one of the country`s leading philanthropic organisations. The foundation in 2016 unveiled the library`s new home -- a 20-hectare (49-acre) cultural centre designed by famed Italian architect Renzo Piano on the Athens seafront that also hosts