Karl Franzens University Graz, Austria

From 01.03-01.04.2008 I was awarded a Teacher CEEPUS scholarship for the Karl Franzens University of Graz. It was an excellent opportunity for me to present and talk about my researches and my expertise in the field of digitization. I had some 5 lectures at the University Library at the end of my stay as a CEEPUS scholarship:

Mittwoch, 26. 03., 14:00 h - 17:30 h
1. Optical Character Recognition of Slavic Rare Books: An introduction to Pattern Recognition Techniques on Rare Books written in non-existing languages i.e. old Macedonian
2. The use of digital camera in the process of Rare Books Digitization: An introduction of the Abbyy Finereader 9.0 and it's new features in Second-generation Digital Camera OCR
Donnerstag, 27.03., 15:00 h - 18:30 h
3. EBSCO database: Visual search 2d Vs 3D interface and possible future 3D graphical interface for Digital Libraries
4. How to promote your library in the Web 2.0 digital environment using social tools: Blogger, Facebook, MySpace
Freitag, 28.03., 13:00 h - 16:30 h

5. Digital preservation challenge: An historical overview of the various research initiatives and some recommended solutions by international teams of scientists dealing with the subject

During the month spend in Graz I had some interesting meetings with the people from the Information Science field: Dr. Karl Zotter (the Director of the University Library with whom I have talked about the preservation problems of the library material), Mr. Karl Lenger (Head of the Digitization Centre – TRAVENTUS scan robot used at the centre – very interesting approach but some software improvement can be (should) be done), Mr. Erich Reinhard and Mr. Manfred Mayer from the VESTIGIA manuscript center (I had worked with the digitization stand that uses digital camera for digitization of Manuscript, Rare and Fragile books).

Anyway, just before the end of the stay I had a meeting with Mr. Hubert Stigler (about the use of FEDORA at the Uni Graz) and Mr. Branko Tosovic (GRALIS Corpora Linguistics).

Last but not least, I would like to thank my CEEPUS coordinator Mr. Peter Deutschmann who puts a great deal of effort to help foreign scholars without whom all these meetings would be impossible and unfruitful.

BOBCATSSS 2008 Symposium, Zadar, Croatia

BOBCATSSS is an annual symposium organized by students at a number of universities in Europe. It takes place under the auspices of EUCLID (European Association for Library and Information Education and Research) and deals with themes from library and information science. Every year it is organized, managed and filled with content by students from an Eastern and Western European university.
The universities have in common that they educate in the field of Library and Information sciences. Target groups of the BOBCATSSS-Symposiums are information specialists, students, professors in the field of Library and Information Education and Research and employees of libraries and information departments.

I have actively participated with my poster presentation which is still actual especially after the Abby Finereader 9.0 version which includes Second-generation Digital Camera OCR.

Strategy development for the digitization of special collections within the NUL in order to protect and provide access to the Macedonian written CH

The Workshop was held at the National and University Library "St. Kliment Ohridski". I have accepted the invitation from the Director of NUBSK to participate at the workshop with my presentation, but it seems to me that the unprofessional approach is something that I am getting used to when it comes to my colleagues from the National Library. I will need to emphasize the unprofessional approach by Mrs. Zlata Talaganova who changed my presentation schedule 24 hours before the workshop and didn't introduce me in front of my colleagues at the official introduction!

Nevertheless, in spite of everything that happened to me that day, I have find a strength to held my presentation and accented the importance of experts in the role of the digitization process and gave the perfect examples of how to make the digitization process more cheaper and effective. You can download my power point presentation titled: "Digitization of Macedonian Rare Books written in non-existing languages" which lasted around 45 minutes.

COBISS 2007 Conference "COBISS – SUPPORTING INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE"

The Annual COBISS conference"COBISS – SUPPORTING INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE" held its place in Hotel Habakuk, near Maribor, Slovenia (28–29 November 2007). I have participated at the conference in order to get an insight to the COBISS OPAC which is used by the National and University Library in Skopje.

To quote my colleague Alenka Kavcic-Colic from the National and University Library in Ljubljana, Slovenia “COBISS is a dinosaur!”. It seems that the Slovenian business lobby in Macedonia is still strong and that we wont have the opportunity to experience more advanced OPAC’s in the near future on the national level. As always, it is a real pity and shame that most of the important issues concerning the Information Science are made by unprofessional people who don’t seems to have a vision for the future development of the one of the most important sciences in the networked world today. The lack of knowledge management, i.e. information management professionals in my country will become a bigger problem for the years to come, and everyday work from my colleagues from the National University Library “St. Kliment Ohridski” are a real proof for my pessimist (but realistic) predictions.

FOR MORE INFO PLEASE VISIT MY SITE!!!

Interview for A1 TV

SEEDI “Digitization of Cultural and Scientific Heritage” conference

The Third SEEDI “Digitization of Cultural and Scientific Heritage” conference held its place in Cetinje, Montenegro (13-th until 15-th of September 2007).

South Eastern Europe Digitalization Initiative conference was a nice opportunity for me to meet some interesting that work for the Macedonian Ministry of culture that have made an short review of the whole conference at the web site of the Macedonian Cultural Heritage Protection Office.

Anyway, I have seen some amazing presentations using Fedora DL architecture (done by Mr. Georgios Markakis) along with some trendy 3D presentations of the cultural institutions in Sarajevo. Long story short - we shouldn't expect too much from the digitalization initiative in South Eastern Europe! It will be done mainly by Technical faculties and National Libraries and will not include the recommendations of Information Scientists and Digital Library experts which are not involved in the whole process at all.

I have presented my work done so far in the field of digitalization/OCR of Cultural Heritage done with cheaper methods than the conventional ones. Having in mind that there is a big money laundering involved in the whole process (UNESCO and EU fonds), national representatives from the region will be more interested in doing it with expensive equipment and international DL companies.

However, it is pretty obvious that Croatia seems as the unofficial leader of the whole process and we can only hope that the EU and UNESCO will appreciate their hard work in the field of Library and Information Science. For more pictures from the conference visit my public photo gallery at http://picasaweb.google.com/poposkidimitar/

International Conference on Knowledge Management 2007

My researches were also accepted on the 4th International Conference on Knowledge Management 2007 that have taken place in the heart of Vienna which was a huge success for me. Unfortunately, being unable to pay 490 euro for the registration I haven’t participated with my 15 minutes presentation. I think that a lot of you will agree that it is a pure insanity to give my 2 month salary for a 2 day conference.

Being in Vienna provided me with the opportunity to visit International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and OSCE and to talk with the Information managers and colleagues over there about possible employment or use of my services. Needles to say, I have demonstrated my skills along with the future use of OCR and provided them with some practical advices on how to improve theirs OCR accuracy and build a cheap digital library using my services.

Well, what can I say: The US and EU views on creating and using a digital library/ scientific repository and the use of OCR software are quite different! Since my main progress was done at Rutgers Alexander’s Library (i.e. in USA) I can say that I will always prefer more advanced OCR techniques and the use of new cheap technology instead of use of expensive and old technology which is at the same time less efficient. Not to mention the professionalism approached by the Institution in the research development that will serve as an important factor staying on track with the rapid changes of todays information society.

LIBRARIES IN THE DIGITAL AGE (LIDA) 2007

LIBRARIES IN THE DIGITAL AGE (LIDA) 2007

The themes of this year's conference where

Part I. Users and Use of DL.

Part II. Economics and digital libraries.

I have meet a lot of people over there and again actively participated with my "futuristic" poster about OCR done with cheap point and shoot digital camera. A lot of people where again interested in my work (some of them where skeptical about the whole issue) and my researches. Well, I can only tell you that my researches are distinguished and they have great results, sometimes better than most of the expensive scanners used at International Libraries.
Since most of my work was done almost 2 years ago you should check the site of ABBYY who has recently published the tips&trick for using your digital camera for OCR!
Well, I was always a way a head of time (and it seems that that my biggest problem in finding a decent job around the world) and I am very aware of that but as M.C. Escher would have said: "Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible."

Kind regards,

Dimitar Poposki,
one of the few OCR Specialists in the whole world :)

Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management

David Schwartz, «Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management»
Idea Group Publishing | ISBN: 1591405734 | 2005-09-23 | 902 pages | PDF | 10.4 Mb

New Directions in Cognitive Information Retrieval

Amanda Spink, Charles Cole, «New Directions in Cognitive Information Retrieval»
Springer | ISBN: 140204013X | 1 ed. (Dec 22, 2005) | 250 pages | PDF | 1.6 Mb

Edward R. Tufte, «Envisioning Information»

Edward R. Tufte, «Envisioning Information»
Graphics Press | ISBN: 0961392118 | 1990-05 | 126 pages | PDF | 35 Mb

TERRA INCOGNITA : ART OF LIBRARIANSHIP Third international convention of Slavic Librarians in Sarajevo 19-23 April 2007

At the Sarajevo conference I have done 2 different presentations:

I Advanced OCR of Rare Books and Special Collections Using cheap digital cameras
II 3D Visual Search presentation about the Interface Design of the future web search.

I had a great honour to meet in person Mr. Jens Redmer, Director of Google Book Search (Europe, Middle East, Africa) and have a talk with him about the OCR problems that Google is dealing with on his Google book Project on digitalizing the World biggest University Libraries and making the books accessible for everyone. For more info visit http://books.google.com/.

I must thank him for his high professional approach and his ability to look you straight in the eyes and talk/listen about my OCR passion in recognizing every possible World language (living or dead/pictured or graphic/Egyptian hieroglyphs or Maya logograms).

I've also meet some old friends (Thank you/Hello to Vaska Sotirov-Djukic - pioneer of the BiH digitization process! From my point of view she had one of the best presentations on the conference) and new ones also: Mr. and Mrs. Lea and Wolfgang Klotz from www.ceeol.com, Mrs. Janet I. Crayne, Vanja Kenjic (great presentation about e-business and e-libraries), Samir Lisancic, Mladen Vukovic and a lots of other colleagues.

Cultural Heritage Protection Office

On February 20-th, 2007 I had a great honour to meet with Mr. Pasko Kuzman, Director of Cultural Heritage Protection Office at the Ministry of culture of the Republic of Macedonia.

We have discussed the different possibilities for preservation of the written cultural heritage of Macedonia and the interesting project for the opening of the "St.Kliment Ohridski" University at Plaosnik, Ohrid. I can only tell you that Mr. Pasko Kuzman is one of the few honest and hard working people that I have meet in the last two years since I've been trying to find a job as a librarian or OCR specialist. His open attitude and dedication to the Archeology and the cultural heritage of Macedonia is fascinating and inspires a lot young people. I wish him good health and a lot of success in his work. I will always be open for collaboration and free advices with this kind of honest and dedicated people.