Compiling, processing and accessing Compiling, processing and accessing the collection of legal regulations of the the collection of legal regulations of the

Republic of CroatiaRepublic of Croatia

TT.. Didak Prekpalaj Didak Prekpalaj, , TT.. Horvat Horvat, , DD.. Miletić Miletić, , DD.. Mokriš MokrišCroatian Information Documentation Referral AgencyCroatian Information Documentation Referral Agency

INFuture2009: “Digital Resources and Knowledge Sharing” INFuture2009: “Digital Resources and Knowledge Sharing”

4-6 November 20094-6 November 2009

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” Croatian Information Documentation Croatian Information Documentation Referral AgencyReferral Agency (HIDRA) (HIDRA)

Main goal:• enabling simple user’s access to official documentation

from a single point

HIDRA offers:• The Collection of official documentation of the Republic

of Croatia - complete Croatian legislation, including that enacted

prior to 1990 is for the very first time available on-line on www.hidra.hr

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” The importance of information systems The importance of information systems provided by governmentprovided by government administrationadministration

General benefit:• high service quality • comprehensive, official

data • stimulating e-democracy• strengthening confidence

in democratic processes Benefit for final user:• clear and simple use• easily accessible for

everyone• free of charge

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” The importance of information systems The importance of information systems provided by governmentprovided by government administrationadministration

User-friendly environment:

• coherent and long-term formats

• intelligible documentation tools

• simple, fast navigation

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” Creating Creating thethe collection of legal collection of legal regulations of the Republic of Croatiaregulations of the Republic of Croatia

The Official Gazette

Selection of documentsData processing

Collection available on

www.hidra.hr

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” Creating Creating thethe collection of legal regulations collection of legal regulations of the Republic of Croatiaof the Republic of CroatiaSelection of documentsSelection of documents

• respecting legal theory and practice• immediately upon an e-version of Official Gazette is

published • primary criterion → addressee

to select → general acts (enforceable against all citizens or a particular group of citizens of the Republic of Croatia)

to left out → singular acts (enforceable against an individual or a group of individuals and bylaws passed by bodies of local and regional self-government )

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” Creating Creating thethe collection of legal regulations collection of legal regulations of the Republic of Croatiaof the Republic of CroatiaData processingData processing

• access to information • administrative transparency

• right to information • State secret

• confidentiality • disclosure of

information

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” Creating Creating thethe collection of legal regulations collection of legal regulations of the Republic of Croatiaof the Republic of Croatia Eurovoc ThesaurusEurovoc Thesaurus

multi-disciplinary, multi-language documentation tool

21 fields

127 microthesauri

more than 7000 descriptors and approximately the same number of non-descriptors

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” Creating Creating thethe collection of legal regulations collection of legal regulations of the Republic of Croatiaof the Republic of Croatia Eurovoc – Eurovoc – Croatian appendixCroatian appendix

• State institutions• Diplomatic relations • Local and regional self-government • Geography• Political parties• Institutions

…of the Republic of Croatia

total of 3500 normative records

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” Creating Creating thethe collection of legal regulations collection of legal regulations of the Republic of Croatiaof the Republic of Croatia Data processingData processing

• all documents are processed in the same place applying international recommendations and standards for bibliographic description and HIDRA‘s normative infrastructure

• automating this process ensures reliable and durable access to legislative and sources

• for efficient retrieval of legislative documents from a database the application of manual and/or (semi)automatic document indexing is necessary

• implementation of Eurovoc Thesaurus into AIDE (Automatic Indexing using Eurovoc Descriptors)

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” Creating Creating the the collection of legal regulations collection of legal regulations of the Republic of Croatiaof the Republic of Croatia Data processingData processing

AIDE – Automatic Indexing using Eurovoc Descriptors

• software system for indexing official texts in Croatian language by using Eurovoc descriptors

• project launched by HIDRA in 2004 • intelligent software learns from examples and is based on

the principles of machine learning • today AIDE software efficiently proposes ways of indexing

texts of legal regulations which are still unindexed, while the team of experts revises the accuracy and completeness of recommended drafts

• the database of indexed official documents is a part of the information infrastructure of the public authority bodies of the Republic of Croatia

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” Data search and displayData search and display

Searching for legal regulations through an E-catalogue

Direct full text search through CADIAL search engine

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” Data searchData search and displayand display E-catalogue of official documentation of the E-catalogue of official documentation of the Republic of CroatiaRepublic of Croatia

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” Data search and displayData search and displayE-catalogue of official documentation of the E-catalogue of official documentation of the Republic of CroatiaRepublic of Croatia

Data display on chosen regulation

black font: annotationblue font: links

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” Data search and displayData search and display CADIAL – CADIAL – Computer Aided Document Indexing Computer Aided Document Indexing for Accessingfor Accessing LegislationLegislation

• Department of Computer Science, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

• Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER), University of Zagreb, Croatia

• Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (FFZG), University of Zagreb, Croatia

• Croatian Information Documentation Referral Agency (HIDRA), Croatia

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” Data search and display Data search and display CADIAL CADIAL search enginesearch engine

• search by full-search by full- text,text, title and title and EurovocEurovoc descriptorsdescriptors

• morphologicalmorphological normalizationnormalization proceduresprocedures

• display ofdisplay of Thesaurus treeThesaurus tree

• exact and fuzzyexact and fuzzy phrasephrase matchingmatching

• cross-languagecross-language retrievalretrieval

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” Data search and displayData search and display Cadial – data displayCadial – data display

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” ConclusionConclusion

• accessibility of legal regulations is an important aspect of e-democracy

• creating the collection of legal regulations that offers high-quality information and makes it easily and quickly accessible to the user is very important

• CADIAL search engine offers simple access to a complex legislation content

• bilingual Eurovoc overcoming language barriers while searching Croatian text

• further development objectives – to insure the infrastructure for durable public access to Croatian legislative documents in national and multilingual European context

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Compiling, processing and accessingCompiling, processing and accessingthe collection of legal regulations the collection of legal regulations

of the Republic of Croatiaof the Republic of Croatia

Thank you!

More information on www.hidra.hr

Croatian Information Documentation Referral Agency – HIDRA 10020 Zagreb, Siget 18c, P.O. Box 327