About the project
A cultural heritage website of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences: Telling Digital Stories
Project implementation time frame
August 3, 2020 – December 31, 2020
Funding institution
Lithuanian Council for Culture
Project Implementing Organization
The Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences
Project Manager
Ramutė Grabauskienė
Project Description
Based on resolution No. 1LKT-74(1.2) issued on July 28, 2020 in Vilnius, the Lithuanian Council for Culture partially financed the project “A cultural heritage website of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences: Telling Digital Stories” from the funding of the program “Creation of new products and/or services by cultural and art organizations” (Cultural Heritage Area) (Code 02-007-01-01-02).
The Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences is one of the first cultural heritage institutions to have initiated the digitization of cultural heritage with a view to preserving the unique cultural heritage and promoting its further use for cultural purposes, through its appropriate presentation to user communities both in Lithuania and internationally. Digitization and dissemination of cultural assets remains a strong priority at the Library.
Today’s challenges impel the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences to change the ways and forms of its activities and create new services for the users, making the most of opportunities provided by the virtual space for digital presentation of cultural heritage and for provision of digital services.
At present, the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences makes its priority to transfer traditional exhibitions into digital space, thus achieving synergy of digital heritage content with the virtual way of its presentation.
Therefore, it is of importance to make all the documentary heritage items kept in the digital archive of the Wroblewski Library accessible to the users, expanding the range of services related to the presentation of cultural heritage and creating convenient user interfaces on the new website of the Library.
All the virtual exhibitions presented on the cultural heritage website of the Wroblewski Library, will have the following features:
– Images of the cultural heritage items will be of a much higher definition and will be linked to metadata in the Digital Archive of the Library;
– Objects will have clear legal labeling (information related to the copyright status and terms of use), allowing their repeated use;
– Virtual exhibits will be presented in the form of illustrations to the stories told by means of digital storytelling;
– All the virtual exhibits will have links to the portals Europeana and ePaveldas, which contain collections of digital heritage documents from various memory institutions.
Project Activities:
The new website based on a new information/visual architecture model is created in the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. Virtual exhibitions are put on the website in the following order:
– A new representational virtual exhibition, created in the frame of the project to mark the 1600th anniversary of the death of St. Jerome;
– Two unique virtual exhibitions, which are most relevant and interesting for the users;
– All the other previous virtual exhibitions run by the Library and put on its previous website.
The new cultural heritage website will be able to contain an indefinite amount of virtual exhibitions and will have an English interface.
Project Participants:
Skirmantė Smilingytė-Žeimienė, Ph.D., art historian, Senior Researcher at the Department of Sacral Art Heritage of the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, participates in the project as its creator and consultant, selecting unique exhibits, making their descriptions, and consulting other participants in the production of the virtual exhibition mounted to celebrate the 1600th anniversary of the death of St. Jerome.
The Lithuanian Association of Literary Translators, as a project participant, will consult the Wroblewski Library on the linguistic aspects of preparing high quality texts in Polish, Latin, and Russian languages for the virtual exhibitions on the cultural heritage website.
Expected Project Outcome:
Having implemented the project, the users of the Wroblewski Library will have the benefit of:
– A new virtual service: a cultural heritage website created by the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences;
– A unified user interface, based on an innovative information/visual architecture model;
– An attractive visualization of virtual exhibits;
– A more extensive and effective presentation of cultural heritage.
Project Impact:
– The accessibility of the digital cultural heritage kept at the Wroblewski Library of LAS will be increased; its more extensive use will be encouraged.
– The quality and development of virtual service will get a new added value;
– The users will be provided with a new form of communication;
– All the targeted groups of users: school children, students, scientists, cultural history and heritage specialists, educators, tourism workers and all interested in cultural heritage will be given better conditions and possibilities for access, use and repeated return to the assets of cultural heritage kept in the Library.