The Sixth SEEDI Conference 2011 18-20 May 2011, ,

Overview of certain digitization projects in

Žarko Mijajlović , Serbia [email protected]

The aim of this paper is to present the main results of a project Application of information technologies in digitization of scientific and cultural heritage (Project No. 13017) in the area of digitization. The project was carried out during 2008-2010 by the Mathematical Faculty in Belgrade and the Mathematical Institute of the Serbian Academy of Science and Arts. The project was financed by the Serbian Ministry of Science and Technology.

The focus of the project was to preserve the national scientific and cultural heritage in digital form. Also, the important goal was to present to the wide audience Serbian scientific and cultural heritage. All the databases with digital records except one are in English and have free access. These databases are Internet oriented and have a few dozens to hundreds visits a day.

Activities and results of this project were observed and recorded in many foreign publications and by foreign authors. The participants and users of the project results are or were important Serbian scientific and cultural institutions: the Museum of the City of Belgrade, National Museum, the Museum of Nikola Tesla and the Institute for Serbian Language. The activities on the project were divided into the following parts.

1. Virtual Library is the largest Serbian Internet oriented database of digitized books containing about 1500 items with, approximately, 450 000 digitized pages.

The main collection of the database are Serbian books in the mathematical sciences (mathematics, mechanics, astronomy and mathematical geography) published up to the fifties of the XX century, then all doctorates in mathematical sciences defended at the University of Belgrade (360) and the collected works of most important Serbian scientists in this field (Milutin Milanković, Đuro Kurepa, Jovan Karamata, Mihailo Petrović, Bogdan Gavrilović). Also, there are other rare Serbian books, some of them dating from the 18th century.

2. eCatalog of cultural monuments in Serbia is the most complete Serbian Internet oriented database of cultural and historical monuments in Serbia including Kosovo and Metohia. Data for about 2000 archeological, historical and religious monuments are included in the database.

Included are all the monuments of the Serbian cultural heritage of extraordinary and great importance according to the categorization of the Institute for Cultural Heritage Preservation. Just for the Monastery Kalenić this database contains several hundred entries.

3. eLibrary of Mathematical Institute is a database of scientific journals in the area of mathematical sciences. The database at this moment contains 9 journals, 301 volumes and 3820 articles with over 50 000 digitized pages.

Digitization of mathematical journals printed in Serbia started in 1995 with the oldest (founded in 1932) and most important one - Publications de l’Institut Mathématique. The corresponding presentations of journals are dynamically generated from the database and can be searched (both in English and Serbian) by: authors’ names, titles, titles of special sections within the journals, key words and words contained in abstracts, classification numbers, and downloaded and printed.

4. Nikola Tesla - Clippings Library, an Internet database of newspaper clippings collected by Nikola Tesla during his life. The base is located all 400 clippings from the 19th books of the 20 are located at the Nikola Tesla.

Today we often concentrate on Nikola Tesla’s results, ignoring the circumstances of his time and environment. But any in-depth analysis of his work and results should consider all available information on acceptance and disapprovals of his work by his contemporaries. What is amazing is that great work in providing such information did Nikola Tesla himself. Such type of data is contained in his collection of newspaper clippings.

5. NCD Review (SEEDI Communication) (published by the Faculty of Mathematics) is the journal devoted to the publica- tion of papers related to digitization. The journal is founded in 2002 and 19 volumes are published until now with 220 articles.

During the first SEEDI conference, held in Ohrid in Macedonia in 2006, it was decided that this journal to become the messenger of SEEDI organization. Since then, NCD Review carries the second name, SEEDI communication. Also, the scope of the journal became wider. Many articles published there now describe various digital collections, or they are of the historical nature, but related to works contained in the Virtual Library.

Besides the main goals, there were other important assignments performed by the members of the project:

- Over 100 papers were published in the past six years. - Two of the participants defended the doctoral dissertations, one master of science thesis and three master works. - They were the principal organizers of 10 national conferences and three international meetings. - Members of the project were the initiators and drivers of the international association SEEDI which brings together experts and scientists from Southeast Europe in this field.

Members of the project:

Faculty of Mathematics in Belgrade: Žarko Mijajlović (project leader), Nadežda Pejović, Nenad Mitić, Saša Malkov, Vesna Vučković, Nada Đorđević, Tijana Zečević.

Mathematical Institute in Belgrade: Zoran Ognjanović, Dragan Blagojević, Dragi Radojević, Stefana Janićijević, Miloš Milovanović, Aleksandar Pejović, Vojin Jovanović.

Arheological Institute in Belrade: Miomir Korać.

Faculty of Science in Kosovska Mitrovica: Dragan Radovanović.