Project Runeberg
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:More citations needed Template:Infobox website Project Runeberg (Template:Langx) is a digital cultural archive initiative that publishes free electronic versions of books significant to the culture and history of the Nordic countries. Patterned after Project Gutenberg, it was founded by Lars Aronsson and colleagues at Linköping University and began archiving Nordic-language literature in December 1992. As of 2015 it had accomplished digitization to provide graphical facsimiles of old works such as the Nordisk familjebok, and had accomplished, in whole or in part, the text extractions and copyediting of these as well as esteemed Latin works and English translations from Nordic authors, and sheet music and other texts of cultural interest.
Nature and historyEdit
Project Runeberg is a digital cultural archive initiative patterned after the English-language cultural initiative, Project Gutenberg; it was founded by Lars Aronsson and colleagues at Linköping University, especially within the university group Lysator (see below), with the aim of publishing free electronic versions of books significant to the culture and history of the Nordic countries.<ref name=ne>Ingemar Breithel, Ed., 2015, "Posten: Projekt Runeberg" [in Swedish; Engl., "Entry: Project Runeberg"], at Nationalencyklopedin (online encyclopedia), see [1], retrieved 22 April 2015. Template:Subscription required</ref><ref name=Boldemann03>Marcus Boldemann, 2003, ""Kultur: Ugglan" hoar gratis på nätet" [in Swedish; Engl., Culture: "'The owl' hoots for free online"], Dagens Nyheter (online), 23 April 2003, see [2]. Retrieved 22 April 2015.</ref> The Project began archiving its first Nordic-language literature pieces (parts of the Fänrik Ståls Sägner, of Nordic dictionaries and of a Bible from 1917) in December 1992.<ref name="comp_Visi">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
NameEdit
In its naming, a moniker similar to "Gutenberg" was desired. The Project was thereby given the name of Finland's national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg, and so contained a further allusion based on the meanings of its component parts — Rune (letter in Runic script) and berg (mountain) — so that in most Nordic languages it can be translated loosely as "mountain of letters".Template:Citation needed
AchievementsEdit
Template:Expand section The Project began archiving Nordic-language literature in December 1992.<ref name="comp_Visi" /> As of 2015 it had accomplished digitization to provide graphical facsimiles of old works such as the Nordisk familjebok,<ref name=Boldemann03 />Template:Better source needed and had accomplished, in whole or in part, the text extractions and copyediting of these as well as esteemed Latin worksTemplate:Citation needed and English translations from Nordic authors – e.g., Carl August Hagberg's interpretations of Shakespeare's plays<ref name=Boldemann03 /> – and sheet music and other texts of cultural interest.Template:Citation needed
TechnologyEdit
By 2001, technology – image scanning and optical character recognition techniques – had improved enough to allow full digitization and text extraction of important target texts, e.g., of both print editions of the Nordisk familjebok (45,000 pages).<ref name=Boldemann03 /> Project Runeberg is hosted by an academic computer group, Lysator, at Linköping University, in Linköping in southern Sweden.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>