Project Rastko - Internet Library of Serb Culture (
SerbianSerbian is a South Slavic language, spoken chiefly in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, and in the Serbian diaspora...
: Пројекат Растко - Електронска библиотека српске културе,
Projekat Rastko - Elektronska biblioteka srpske kulture) is a non-profit and non-governmental publishing, cultural and educational project dedicated to
SerbSerbs are a South Slavic people living in the Central Europe and the Balkans , between the Balkan- and Carpathian mountains in the east and the Adriatic sea in the west. They are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, to a lesser extent, in Croatia...
and Serb-related
artArt is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture, and paintings...
s and
humanitiesThe humanities are academic disciplines which study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytic, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural and social sciences....
. It is named after Rastko Nemanjić.
The project was established in 1997 as a part of a pan-regional Balkans Cultural Network Initiative .
Project Rastko - Internet Library of Serb Culture (
SerbianSerbian is a South Slavic language, spoken chiefly in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, and in the Serbian diaspora...
: Пројекат Растко - Електронска библиотека српске културе,
Projekat Rastko - Elektronska biblioteka srpske kulture) is a non-profit and non-governmental publishing, cultural and educational project dedicated to
SerbSerbs are a South Slavic people living in the Central Europe and the Balkans , between the Balkan- and Carpathian mountains in the east and the Adriatic sea in the west. They are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, to a lesser extent, in Croatia...
and Serb-related
artArt is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture, and paintings...
s and
humanitiesThe humanities are academic disciplines which study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytic, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural and social sciences....
. It is named after Rastko Nemanjić.
The project was established in 1997 as a part of a pan-regional Balkans Cultural Network Initiative . Its main activities are:
- electronic publishing
Electronic publishing or ePublishing includes the digital publication of e-books and electronic articles, and the development of digital libraries and catalogues. Electronic publishing has become common in scientific publishing where it has been argued that peer-reviewed paper scientific journals...
in the fields of SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
n and Serbian-related arts and humanities
- scientific and cultural conferences and studies about Balkan cultural-civilizational integration
- bilateral and multilateral activities with other Balkan and world countries
- establishing regional centres
- technical training
The apex of the project is its
electronic libraryA digital library is a library in which collections are stored in digital formats and accessible by computers. The digital content may be stored locally, or accessed remotely via computer networks...
with more than half a
gigabyteThe gigabyte is an SI-multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109, therefore 1 gigabyte is ....
of material, comprising
electronic booksAn e-book , as known as a digital book, is an e-text that forms the digital media equivalent of a conventional printed book, sometimes protected with a digital rights management system...
and
articlesAn essay is usually a short piece of writing. It is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can be literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author....
,
photographA photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
s and
comicA comic strip is a sequence of cartoons that tells a story, often humorous, though adventures and soap opera-like dramas are also prevalent. They are written and drawn by a comics artist or cartoonist, and many are published on a recurring basis in newspapers and on the Internet.In the UK and the...
s. Though most texts are in
Serbian languageSerbian is a South Slavic language, spoken chiefly in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, and in the Serbian diaspora...
there is a body of material in other languages, again mostly in
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
and
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
, but also in
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
,
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
,
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
and other languages.
The library contains material in both the
public domainThe public domain is a range of abstract materials—commonly referred to as intellectual property—which are not owned or controlled by anyone. The term indicates that these materials are therefore "public property", and available for anyone to use for any purpose...
and
copyrightCopyright is a form of intellectual property that gives the author of an original work exclusive right for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation, after which time the work is said to enter the public domain...
ed texts published with the authors' permissions , dating from earliest medieval Serb texts to contemporary
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
. The site of the project also hosts several sites not directly related to the project.
Project Rastko also hosts the European version of
Distributed ProofreadersDistributed Proofreaders is a web-based project that supports the development of e-texts for Project Gutenberg by allowing many people to work together in proofreading drafts of e-texts for errors.- History :...
, which intends to supply
Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain...
with public domain texts in European languages. Project Rastko is organising a coalition of European e-libraries for the purpose of collecting public domain works, aiming to eventually have a node of Distributed Proofreaders in each European country.
Currently (2007) the project has following regional centres:
- Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
(Projekt Rastko - Denmark, network of electronic libraries and achievements regarding Danish culture and Danish-Serbian cultural and historical links)
- Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country in the central Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
(Project Rastko - Macedonia, electronic library of culture and tradition of Macedonia)
- Russia
Russia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
(Project Rastko - Russia)
- The Drina (Project Rastko - The Drina, electronic library of culture and tradition of the Drina)
- Kashubians
Kashubians/Kaszubians , also called Kashubs, Kaszubians, Kassubians or Cassubians, are a West Slavic ethnic group in Pomerelia, north-central Poland. Their settlement area is referred to as Kashubia ....
(Project Rastko - Kashubia, e-library of culture and tradition of Kashubians)
- Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north...
(Project Rastko - Slovenia, e-library of Slovenian-Serbian cultural ties)
- Gora
Gora is a geographical region in southern Kosovo, mostly inhabited by the Gorani people. Between 1992 and 1999, Gora was a municipality, and its population was 17,574 people according to 1991 census. Today, the region is part of the municipality of Dragaš...
(Project Rastko - Gora, e-library of culture and tradition of Gora and Goranies)
- Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
(Project Rastko - Poland, library of Polish-Serbian cultural links)
- Lusatia
Lusatia is a historical region between the Bóbr and Kwisa rivers and the Elbe river in the eastern German states of Saxony and Brandenburg and south-western Poland ....
(Project Rastko - Lusatia, electronic library of Sorbian-Serbian cultural ties)
- Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
(Project Rastko - Bulgaria, library of Bulgarian-Serbian cultural links)
- Albania
Albania , officially the Republic of Albania , is a Mediterranean country in South Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Montenegro to the north, Kosovo to the northeast, Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south-east...
(Project Rastko - Shkoder, library of Slavs in Albania and Albanian-Slavic cultural links)
- Bosnian Krajina (Project Rastko - Banja Luka, electronic library of culture and tradition of the Bosnian Krajina)
- Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
(Project Rastko - Kiev-Lavov, electronic library of Ukrainian-Serbian cultural links)
- Hungary
Hungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
(Project Rastko - Budapest-Saint Andrew, library of culture and tradition of the Serbs in Hungary)
- Bay of Kotor
The Bay of Kotor in south-western Montenegro and south-eastern Croatia, is a winding bay on the Adriatic Sea. The bay, sometimes called Europe's southernmost fjord, is in fact a submerged river canyon of the disintegrated Bokelj River which used to run from the high mountain plateaus of Mount Orjen...
(Project Rastko - Bay of Kotor, electronic library of culture and tradition of Bocca)
- Montenegro
Montenegro , is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Kosovo to the east and Albania to the south...
(Project Rastko - Cetinje, electronic library of culture and tradition of Montenegro)
- Kosovo
Kosovo is a disputed territory in the Balkans. Its majority is governed by the partially-recognised Republic of Kosovo , a self-declared independent state which has de facto control over the territory; the exceptions are some Serb enclaves...
(Project Rastko - Kosovo and Metohija, electronic library of culture and tradition of the southern Serbian province)
- Romania
Romania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
(Project Rastko - Romania, library of the culture of Serbs in Romania)
- Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
(Rastko Project - Italy, electronic library of Serbian-Italian cultural links)
Each of them is autonomous, and develops its projects and activities through local academic, cultural, media NGO-s and individuals, including strong co-operation with ethnic minorities centres. Future activities of Belgrade centre will include projects about
SlovakThe Slovaks are a western Slavic people that primarily inhabit Slovakia and speak the Slovak language, which is closely related to the Czech language....
,
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish and Roma/Gypsy as well as for 29 other ethnocultural minorities in South-Eastern Europe.
External links