The project «Open archive SB RAS» as synthesis of humanities and information technology

The article presents a conception and several implementation results of an integration project «Open Archives of the Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences» based on the fundamental studies (2012-2014). The project is being implemented by a number of museum units of the institutes affiliated with the Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, and rests on the synthesis of humanities and information technologies. Its structure can be divided into the following topical aspects: programming, content, information technologies, and research. The aim of the project is to develop an electronic system for accumulation, presentation, and conservation of cultural heritage. A platform for conservation and actualization of the collections that reflect the scientific heritage of the Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, owned by the academic archives and museums, is based on the technologies of historical factography. They represent a universal instrument for archiving the arrays of diverse artifacts both in accordance with their types and places of conservation and for linking these arrays with relevant information (authors, participants, organizations, events, and documents). Methodological studies and applied elaborations in the context of the project are conducted based mainly on the materials of museum and archive collections of the institutes and museums affiliated with the Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences. These are the sources of personal origin (the archives of A.A. Lyapunov, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and Yu.B. Rumer, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics; these sources are difficult for storing), little-known collections of documents and materials of the archeographic and ethnographic expeditions of the institutes, and the Archives of the Scientific Council for Museums of the Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences. The electronic system for accumulation, presentation, and conservation of cultural heritage consists of software and a Database located on a server available for remote users. The Database comprises the reference materials, namely, the scanned documents and photographs, description of the data (documents and collections of documents), and private information. A collection is considered as a logical combination of data elements which can be both documents of one particular type (or other objects) and various types of documents. The Open Archive possesses a simple logical structure based on a tree structure, which comprises 10 holdings, including five personal, and the holdings of the Rare Book Museum, Scientific Council for Museums of the Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences (15 thematic collections), Museum of Oral History and Recollections, and others. The implementation of the integration project "Open Archives of the Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences" will facilitate the expansion within the information environment of new forms of actualization of the scientific and cultural heritage and encourage the development of interdisciplinary and international programs for accumulation, presentation, and conservation of all forms of cultural heritage.

Keywords

Authors

References