Digitisation of Cultural Heritage: between EU Priorities and Bulgarian Realities

* The part of this article presenting institutional involvement is an extended and updated version of the respective part of a report on Bulgaria prepared by Milena Dobreva for a MINERVAPlus Global Report (Coordinating digitisation in Europe. Progress report of the National Representatives Group: coordination mechanisms for digitisation policies and programmes 2004, forthcoming).The paper presents the Bulgarian setting in digital preservation of and access to cultural and scientific heritage. It mentions key Bulgarian institutions, which take or should take part in digitisation endeavours. It also presents examples of building and adapting specialised tools in the field, and more specifically SPWC, ACT and XEditMan

Promotion interregional air transportation in Russia

Civil aviation plays a big role in development of national economy. The solution of social and economic tasks is particularly important for the Russian Federation as a tool for international and long-distance main passenger traffics, and also as an intermedium between regions. Many parts of the country have practically no alternative to air traffic. The airlines connecting Moscow and East areas (such as St. Petersburg, resorts, the capitals of the CIS and the large European countries) transport the majority of passengers. However, it should be noted that the routes which are carried out on interregional air routes are equally important. Maintenance of providing regional flights contributes to full functioning of passenger aviation network of the Russian Federation.Гражданская авиация играет большую роль в развитии экономики страны, решении социально-экономических задач, имеет особое значение для Российской Федерации как средство обеспечения дальних магистральных пассажирских сообщений, в том числе международных, а также как средство сообщения межу регионами. Многие районы страны практически не имеют альтернативы воздушному сообщению. Наибольшее количество пассажиров перевозится на авиалиниях, соединяющих Москву с восточными районами, Санкт-Петербургом, курортными районами, со столицами стран СНГ и крупных европейских стран. Однако стоит отметить, что не менее важными являются маршруты, осуществляемые по межрегиональным воздушным магистралям. Поддержание обеспечения региональных перелетов способствует полноценному функционированию пассажирской авиационной маршрутной сети Российской Федерации

CREATION OF A DIGITAL CORPUS OF BULGARIAN DIALECTS

The paper presents our considerations related to the creation of a digital corpus of Bulgarian dialects. The dialectological archive of Bulgarian language consists of more than 250 audio tapes. All tapes were recorded between 1955 and 1965 in the course of regular dialectological expeditions throughout the country. The records typically contain interviews with inhabitants of small villages in Bulgaria. The topics covered are usually related to such issues as birth, everyday life, marriage, family relationship, death, etc. Only a few tapes contain folk songs from different regions of the country. Taking into account the progressive deterioration of the magnetic media and the realistic prospects of data loss, the Institute for Bulgarian Language at the Academy of Sciences launched in 1997 a project aiming at restoration and digital preservation of the dialectological archive. Within the framework of this project more than the half of the records was digitized, de-noised and stored on digital recording media. Since then restoration and digitization activities are done in the Institute on a regular basis. As a result a large collection of sound files has been gathered. Our further efforts are aimed at the creation of a digital corpus of Bulgarian dialects, which will be made available for phonological and linguistic research. Such corpora typically include besides the sound files two basic elements: a transcription, aligned with the sound file, and a set of standardized metadata that defines the corpus. In our work we will present considerations on how these tasks could be realized in the case of the corpus of Bulgarian dialects. Our suggestions will be based on a comparative analysis of existing methods and techniques to build such corpora, and by selecting the ones that fit closer to the particular needs. Our experience can be used in similar institutions storing folklore archives, history related spoken records etc