Digitization in Bulgaria: A Look from Inside and Outside

Dr. Milena Dobreva, Assoc. Prof.Institute of Mathematics and Informatics

Sofia, Bulgaria

Coordinator of KT-DigiCult-Bg project, FP6

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Topics

The look from inside: Bulgarian experience Mediaeval manuscripts Virtual reality

The look from outside EC priorities DigiCult project Technology Watch Reports

(www.digicult.info)

The KT-DigiCult-BG project

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Are we similar?

What is more likely you will find if you search the web for Portugal and Bulgaria?

Not digitisation (yet!)

Football!

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Some comparison…

Portugal Bulgaria

Founding of the state

1143 681

Area 92,142 km2 111,000 km2

Population 10,358 thousand

8,421 thousand

11 May 2004, Lisboa

The View

FromInside

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Scope: Some Holdings in Bulgarian Repositories

8500 Christian manuscripts + 4000 Islamic More than 35000 early printed booksThird largest collection of epigraphic inscriptions in Latin and Ancient Greek in the worldOld Bulgarian runic inscriptions… and numerous other

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Why publish them in electronic form?

Access issues

Scattered collections

Preservation issues

Policy issues What priorities to follow?

The challenges of the new media How to present cultural heritage content?

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Applications of IT to Mediaeval Bulgarian Manuscript Studies

First attempt: c. 1970,

DBMS

Now

(based on 90 publications)

9%

61%

14%

4%

1%

11%

General

Text analysis

Imageprocessing

Data bases

Multimedia

Applicationsof AI

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Previous experience

Previous initiativesCatalogues: ISIS, Repertorium, MASTER,

XEditManTexts and images – isolated attemptsElectronic publications on CD-ROMs: Balkan

manuscripts, Quran, Iconography; The Treasury of Lysimachos

Boyana church – 3D model

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Boyana church – view from the outside

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Boyana church – inner view

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Manuscripts: Electronic Cataloguing

Example: TEI approach, MASTER project (2000)<marginalia>

<p lang="ENG">Inscriptions in red or dark ink by the principal scribe Dobrejsho? On fol. 3r <q lang=" OBG ">åäå ïðîêëÿòà õàðòèà</q>; on fol. 16r <q lang="OBG">+ïðîñòè ìÿ ñòàià Áöå íåäîñòîèíà</q>;fol. 18v <q lang="OBG">äà çà÷íу ïî çäðàâîó ñòãî Èwàíà åó(ã)ëèñòà</q>;fol. 120v with red ink <q lang="OBG">ïðîñòè è ïîì(ë)îó ñòîû èwàíå iåó(ã)ëèñòå:</q>; on the same folio a later hand imitating the main scribe<q lang="CHU">Å(ä)ðåíå ïîïú Äîáðýøî</q>; by the same hand on fol. 18v<q lang="CHU">Åäðåíå</q>; fol. 5r later inscription in black ink <q lang="BUL">Ãîäèíà wò Õð. "ÀÑÊÀ" 1221</q>; another late inscription in blue ink on fol. 77v-78r<q lang="CHU">Èìåëú ñ÷àñòiå ÷èòàòü ñiþ êíèãY åó(ã)ëiå íàïðèñòîëíîå Ãðèãîðié Èâàíîâú Òóë÷àíñêîé Ç×S ãîäà Òóë÷à</q>; </p>

</marginalia>

Additional info: http://www.cta.dmu.ac.uk/projects/master/

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Manuscripts: problems with Mediæval Text presentation

ApproachesLatin transliterationWSDFont and code tables problems -> UNICODE

Normalised textsSuper-, in-script and subscript letters; abbreviations,

initials and other ornamentation

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Isolated example of digitized images (not supplied with texts): The Enina Apostle

11 century (the oldest Bulgarian manuscript stored in Bulgaria)

39 folios survived in a lime-pit, badly damaged

Manuscripts: images

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Presentation of images

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Images

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Conclusions

Scattered experience

No mass digitization

Pure cultural heritage institutions’ involvement

11 May 2004, Lisboa

The

View

From

Outside

11 May 2004, Lisboa

European priorities

Expressed in Lund Principles:making visible and accessible the digitised

cultural and scientific heritage of Europe; coordination of efforts; development of a European view on policies

and programmes, as well as of mechanisms to promote good practice in a consistent manner

Digitization itself is not supported

11 May 2004, Lisboa

DigiCult Technology Watch Report 1 (S. Ross, M. Donnelly, M. Dobreva)

Customer Relationship ManagementDigital Asset Management SystemsSmart Labels and Smart TagsVirtual Reality and Display Technologies Human InterfacesGames Technologies

11 May 2004, Lisboa

DigiCult Technology Watch Report 2 (S. Ross, M. Donnelly, M. Dobreva)

The Application Service Model

The XML Family of Technologies

Cultural Agents and Avatars

Mobile Access to Cultural Information Resources

Right Management and Payment Technologies

Collaborative Mechanisms and Technologies

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Local specific features

European importance of collections……but they are not accessible in electronic formMain experience in pre-digitisation work, such as cataloguing, and text encoding…… but mass digitisation never started anywhereDigitisation work per se has not been done…… thus we do not match current EC prioritiesNo governmental programme (resp., funding)…… i.e. external financial support is needed

It is not economically feasible separate cultural institutions to build their own digitisation units.

11 May 2004, Lisboa

KT-DigiCult-BG project

Knowledge Transfer for Digitisation of Cultural and Scientific Heritage in Bulgaria

Starting in 2004, 4-years project, supported by FP6

Phase 1: acquisition of knowledge

Phase 2: absorption of knowledge (visits to our institute)

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Basic Fields of Work - 1

General methodology and practical setting for digitisation of cultural and scientific heritage

Digitisation of mediaeval manuscripts (incl. digital imaging, cataloguing, text representation, electronic publishing)

Digitisation of mathematical texts and building digital mathematical library of works of Bulgarian mathematicians

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Basic Fields of Work

Virtual reality applications for presentation of immovable cultural heritage.

Audio archives: methods for digitisation and restoration.

Application of quantitative methods for the study of data related to the cultural heritage.

Applications of edutainment to cultural heritage studies.

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Conclusions

We hope that through the project we will raise the interest of scientific and cultural heritage institutions to start REAL work

Interested colleagues are welcome to contribute to our project

We are open for collaboration

11 May 2004, Lisboa

Thank you for your attention!