Project: Contemporary approaches to research, presentation and access to the literary heritage of Gabrovo Province

Why is this project needed?

Currently, in Gabrovo region there are many cultural institutions – museums, libraries, etc.., which are keeping in their funds antiquarian, rare and valuable editions of the chronological range from the 14th century to 1878 (books and periodicals) in Old Bulgarian, Church Slavonic, Hebrew and other languages, which are part of the cultural heritage of the region, but also have national importance. These objects of cultural heritage, however, due to their poor conditions and restricted access, are inaccessible to benefit not only by the general public but even for specialists, they remain closed in specialized and often inappropriate repositories.

What are the project subjects?

• To preserve cultural heritage for future generations;
• To provide free and unrestricted informational access to the cultural and literary heritage of Bulgaria;
• Integration of the Roma population into the local and national community.

Project summary

The project goal is to preserve cultural heritage for future generations and to provide free and unlimited access to it for local, national and international public. This will be achieved by converting the objects of cultural value – rare, valuable and early printed books in digital format for the first time. Storage conditions of book collections will improve for all cultural institutions involved in this project.

Two digital centres will be built in Regional historical museum of Gabrovo and “Aprilov-Palauzov” Regional library which will allow sustainability and upgrade of project activities through the provision of modern equipment and training of specialists for long-term digitalization of stored cultural heritage for future generations, a substantial part of which are funds of manuscripts and early printed books. An expert capacity will develop to adapt to the challenges related to the advent of digital technology and the need to reach for a new audience. The digitization of manuscripts and books will provide unlimited access via the Internet and will eliminate the need for physical contact with cultural values while broaden the range of Bulgarian and foreign users who are interested in the literary heritage of Bulgaria. It will be built a digital library of manuscripts and early printed collections. To provide full information access with search capabilities, collections will be catalogued in a special general catalogue based on specialized software. Through training of Roma children and the inclusion of the Roma population in the promotion of the project results it will be achieved their better integration into the local and national community.