The digitalisation project was presented by Katarina Čeliković and Josip Bako of the Institute for the Culture of Vojvodina Croatians, and Vlatka Lemić, the head of the ICARUS Croatia association.
Zagreb’s Bogdan Ogrizović public library was the venue on 17 December for a presentation of a project that aims to see the ethnic Croatian cultural heritage of the Vojvodina region digitalised. The digitalisation project was presented by Katarina Čeliković and Josip Bako of the Institute for the Culture of Vojvodina Croatians, and Vlatka Lemić, the head of the Croatian chapter of ICARUS, an international archival research consortium.
The Institute for the Culture of Vojvodina Croatians has for a number of years now been active in the effort to digitalise material comprising the heritage of the ethnic Croatians of the Vojvodina region. What is new here in these efforts is the link with digitalisation projects in the Republic of Croatia. This has seen the legacy of the ethnic Croatians of Vojvodina showcased across two Internet platforms; znameniti.hr and the Topotheque.
The znameniti.hr (http://znameniti.hr) site is a collaborative Internet portal dedicated to figures of prominence in the domains of culture, the arts, the sciences and other similar fields of human endeavour. The portal offers, along with bibliographic information, the digitalised works of the featured personage. As of recently distinguished ethnic Croatians from the area of modern Vojvodina have also found their place on this Internet portal.
The other Internet platform on which one can find material associated with the heritage of the ethnic Croatian population of Vojvodina is the Topotheque, an Internet platform that is dedicated primarily to preserving privately held local history and cultural heritage and making it available online. The Topotheque ( www.icarushrvatska.hr/projekti/topoteka) is a simple way for institutions and individuals to store and present digitalised content related to the broader neighbourhoods in which they reside and work. The ethnic Croatians of Vojvodina have recently also found their place on the Topotheque network.
Content related to the ethnic Croatian enclaves in Serbia will soon be available at the following site: https://hrvatisrbija.topoteka.net/.
Text and photography: Marin Knezović