The Corfu Reading Society was founded in 1836 by a group of fourteen young citizens. A prototype already existed in the eponymous society in Geneva (Societé de Lecture de Genève). The Reading Society owns rich collections of books, papers, engravings, pictures, furniture and records.

The Society has in its possession newspapers and maps which because of their size, nature and age have become inaccessible due to their irreversible wear and tear from constant use. The only solution is the digitization of the material so it can be fully utilized by researchers and accessed through the Internet. For this reason the Harvard University Annex in Nafplion was contacted regarding the use of the required equipment.

The John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation through its Scientific Associations Programme is funding the digitization of the archival material. Upon completion, the project will provide access to a broad range of information from the newspapers and allow researchers to study them both in the Society’s Reading Room and online. The project will also allow scholars to study the Society’s map collection.