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Digital archive stores Bulgarian literature classics

Thursday, Nov 10, 2016

A day before the National Revival Leaders Day in the Media Centre of the Bulgarian National Radio, a project of the Institute of Literature at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences was presented. It is implemented under the BG 08 program - "Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Art." The project includes digitizing of documents and books by Bulgarian writers such as: Ivan Vazov, Slaveikovs, Mihalaki Georgiev, Yavorov, Nikolay Liliev, Smirnenski, Assen Raztsvetnikov, Elisaveta Bagryana, Fani-Popova Mutafova, Elin Pelin, Nikola Vaptsarov, and Dimitar Dimov. They will be presented for free in a portal called "Bulgarian Literature Classics - Knowledge for All" - bglitarchives.org.

There are more than 206,000 archival units in this collection and time leaves its traces on physical documents. "The very act of digitizing such a huge number of documents and books was heavy physical labor,” says Elka Traykova, director of the Institute of Literature at BAS. But this, of course, is not the end and the project is not exhausted yet. “We need to continue with the development of this huge corpus of materials that people could use.”

"There are really interesting things in the archive both for professional literary scholars, historians and literary historians, as well as for all people who love Bulgarian literature and want to explore Bulgarian culture of the twentieth century.“

Julia Tsinzova, director of the City Library, says this is one of the largest digital platforms not only for Bulgarian literature, but also in Bulgarian culture as a whole. It is important to point out participants with valuable manuscripts, books and magazines they store are the Institute for Literature at the Academy of Sciences, the National Museum of Literature and the city library headed by Mrs. Tsinzova.

"The City Library already has digital resources, there are several platforms, but this one was a true challenge. We did not know if our system could handle the vast amount of data or if the graphic environment would be enough user-friendly. Our goal was to make it easily accessible to students, researchers, parents, but also to Bulgarians living abroad."

According to Ms Tsinzova reviews in foreign languages would be a good addition to the archive as there is huge interest towards it, not only among Bulgarians abroad but among their children who are not fluent in Bulgarian.

Initially, an electronic catalogue of Bulgarian periodicals before 1944 was created. Then children’s magazines were added. Works by 13 Bulgarian writers, published in children's periodicals from the period can be found on the site. Digitalisation of children’s periodicals before 1944 continues.

Katya Zografova, head of Nikola Vaptsarov Museum called the project enlightening.

"This is the first successful European project for the National Museum of Literature. Of course, before that I was personally involved as an external consultant in several European projects. It was a great challenge and a pleasure to work with such ambitious and experienced partners such as the project beneficiaries - the Literature Institute and the City Library who were our teachers in this complex matter. Of course, the National Museum of Literature has a huge archive and only part of it is now digital. In the future we should continue with the sustainable development of this project. "

Source: bnr.bg