Towards Online Towards Online Accessibility of Accessibility of

Valuable Phenomena Valuable Phenomena of the Bulgarian of the Bulgarian

Folklore HeritageFolklore HeritageRadoslav Pavlov1

Konstantin Rangochev1

Desislava Paneva-Marinova1

Maxim Goynov1

Detelin Luchev2

1 Institute of Mathematics and Informatics-BAS2 Ethnographic Institute with Museum -BAS

International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies

17-18 June 2010, Sofia, Bulgaria

Presentation overview

• Intangible Cultural Heritage - documentation and archiving

• National research project: “Knowledge Technologies for

Creation of Digital Presentation and Significant

Repositories of Folklore Heritage” (FolkKnow)

• Digital libraries

• Bulgarian folklore digital library: services and functionalities

• Conclusions and future works

Intangible Cultural Heritage

• Documentation and archiving on:

• Magnetic records (tapes), audio cassette records,

photographic films, photos, papers, VHS, Betamax, etc.

traditionally saved in drawers and boxes

• Problems arising:

• Threatened by natural destruction, because of expired

period of usage

• Disappearing of reader devices (Tape recorders,

Cassette recorders, Video recorders, Dictaphones,

etc.)

Intangible Cultural Heritage

• Digitization initiatives:

• “Yuper” project (http://yuper.hit.bg/),

• “Folklore Motives and Anthologies” project

(http://liternet.bg/)

• “WebFolk Bulgaria” project

• “Living Human Treasures” project

(http://www.treasures.eubcc.bg/main.php)

• “Bulgarian folklore and traditions” (http://www.bulgarian-

folklore.com/news.php)

FolkKnow project

• National project: “Knowledge Technologies for Creation of

Digital Presentation and Significant Repositories of Folklore

Heritage” (FolkKnow, contract number: IO-03-03/2006)

• Supported by National Science Fund of the Bulgarian Ministry

of Education and Science

• Partners: Institute of Mathematics and Informatics - BAS,

Institute for Folklore-BAS, Veliko Tarnovo University

• Module 3: “Development of Digital Libraries and Information

Portal with Virtual Exposition - Bulgarian Folklore Heritage”

FolkKnow project

Why to use digital libraries?

“Digital Libraries should enable any citizen to access all human knowledge any time and anywhere, in a friendly, multi-modal, efficient, and affective way, by overcoming barriers of distance, language, and culture and by using multiple Internet-connected devices”

(“Digital Libraries: The Future Directions for European Research Programme”, Brainstorming Report, San Casioano, Italy, 2001)

Digital libraries functionalities

• Content creation: add (annotate and semantic indexing), store, edit, preview, delete, group, and manage multimedia digital objects (images, text, sound, video) and collections;

• Metadata description, metadata management;

• Preview, browse, navigate digital objects, collections and their descriptions;

• Information retrieval and mining;

• Search (simple, extended, semantic, context-based, etc.), filtering, selection and group of objects;

• User modeling/Personalized and adaptive access to the content

• Protection and preservation of the digital content;

• Multilinguality;

• Administration and tracking services, etc.

Bulgarian folklore digital library

Web address: http://213.191.194.27/folklor/

ArchitectureMultimedia Digital Library Architecture

Add object services

Annotation and indexing services

Preview services

Preview objectPreview thematic grouped

objectsPreview collection

Search object services

Simple searchExtended search

Complex semantic searchSearch with grouping results

Delete services

Delete objectDelete collection

Group object services

Thematic selection by simple value

Collection creation

Object data management Administrative services

Edit services

Edit objectEdit collection

User data management

Tracking services

Tracking user’ activities

RegistrationLogs

Activities in the MDLUser data changes

Tracking MDL objects

Export data services

Export object/sExport Collection/sExport user data

Media repository User profile repository

User profilesMetadata catalogue Content

Demographic dataUser activities

User access level

Main services (1)

• Folklore object with video demonstration

• Description of folklore object

Folklore object preview

Part of the concepts and properties in the Bulgarian folklore ontology

Semantic of the folklore object

Folklore Object

Language{Dialect, Dialect Region}

Period

Folklore Ontology Concept

Folklore Object TypeTitle

Publication{Caption,Pages}

Informant{Id, Name, Surname,

Occupation}

hasFolkloreObjectType

hasLanguage

hasCurrentLocation

hasRecordInformation

Song

Family song

Calendar song Labour Song

Song on the table

Song for rain

Horo

Winter horoSummer horo

Horo during work activities

Engagement song

Wedding song

Name-day song

In the bride house

In the bridegroom house

Annotation

Ritual song

Record Information{Date, Type, Place,

Situation}

Record Maker{Id, Name, Surname, Sex,

Ages,…}

...

...

...

...

Archival Signature

Location{Region,Town/

Village}

Example:

• CFO A1_146_2-14 - an interview containing

information of the catholic community in the village of

Oresh, Svishtov region, northern Bulgaria. The

emphasis in the interview is on the ritual, festival, and

everyday life in the village, on the popular beliefs and

knowledge.

Complex folklore object

Semantic description of a complex folklore object

A1_146_2-14

FolkloreObjectType

FirstLevelDescription

SecondLevelDescription

Faith and Knowledge

Calendar rituals

Labour rituals

Family rituals

Rituals for rain

Annunciation

Interpretations

Demonological personages

Ritual food

Easter

Wedding rites

Funeral rites

Spinning bee

Working bee

Other practices

For wood-nymphs

Ritual

Food

Dreams

ComplexFolkloreObject

Main services (2)

Main services (3)

• Extended search through all the object’s characteristics

Main services (4)

• Module for

– Managing and monitoring users’ data and activities:

registration, logs, data changes, level set; actions,

related to the object manipulation: search, preview,

delete, add, edit, select, etc., administrative actions.

– File format conversion

– XML export of the BFDL objects

Implementation of the Bulgarian folklore digital library

The main tools and languages used:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 x64 Standard;

• Web server: Apache HTTP Server v 2.2, PHP v

2.2.9;

• Database management system: MySQL v 5.1

Standard;

• Tools for the additional modules: FFMPEG, vwWare,

HTML, JavaScript, AJAX;

• Database query language: SPARQL

Conclusions and future works

Bulgarian folklore digital library:

– Enrichment the folklore object repository by a

team from the Institute for Folklore-BAS

– Functionality tests and assessment

– Functionality improvement

Final stage: Design and development of

Bulgarian folklore

portal