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 ( 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… PortugalBulgaria Founding of the state Area92,142 km 2 111,000 km 2 Population10,358 thousand 8,421 thousand

11 May 2004, Lisboa The View From Inside

11 May 2004, Lisboa Scope: Some Holdings in Bulgarian Repositories 8500 Christian manuscripts Islamic More than early printed books Third largest collection of epigraphic inscriptions in Latin and Ancient Greek in the world Old 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)

11 May 2004, Lisboa Previous experience Previous initiatives  Catalogues: ISIS, Repertorium, MASTER, XEditMan  Texts and images – isolated attempts  Electronic 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) Inscriptions in red or dark ink by the principal scribe Dobrejsho? On fol. 3r åäå ïðîêëÿòà õàðòèà ; on fol. 16r +ïðîñòè ìÿ ñòàià Áöå íåäîñòîèíà ;fol. 18v äà çà÷íу ïî çäðàâîó ñòãî Èwàíà åó(ã)ëèñòà ;fol. 120v with red ink ïðîñòè è ïîì(ë)îó ñòîû èwàíå iåó(ã)ëèñòå: ; on the same folio a later hand imitating the main scribe Å(ä)ðåíå ïîïú Äîáðýøî ; by the same hand on fol. 18v Åäðåíå ; fol. 5r later inscription in black ink Ãîäèíà wò Õð. "ÀÑÊÀ " 1221 ; another late inscription in blue ink on fol. 77v-78r Èìåëú ñ÷àñòiå ÷èòàòü ñiþ êíèãY åó(ã)ëiå íàïðèñòîëíîå Ãðèãîðié Èâàíîâú Òóë÷àíñêîé Ç×S ãîäà Òóë÷à ; Additional info:

11 May 2004, Lisboa Manuscripts: problems with Mediæval Text presentation Approaches  Latin transliteration  WSD  Font and code tables problems -> UNICODE Normalised texts  Super-, 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 Management Digital Asset Management Systems Smart Labels and Smart Tags Virtual Reality and Display Technologies Human Interfaces Games 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 form Main experience in pre-digitisation work, such as cataloguing, and text encoding… … but mass digitisation never started anywhere Digitisation work per se has not been done… … thus we do not match current EC priorities No 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!