The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. Vol. XXXVII. Part B4. Beijing 2008
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Finally, Section 5 concludes the discussion by summarizing
some thought as regards to our future activities.
2. THE METHODOLOGY
The Project consists of four (4) main Phases, which are
expected to be concluded by the end of 2008. Namely,
Phase 1: Recording of the Archives Content
In this Phase the content of the Museum Archives will be
recorded and digitized. Specifically, the following items will be
recorded:
a) the rich and rare collection of historical photographs
(about 1000 photographs from the first half of the
20th century). Notice that the Museum Archives
preserves unique analogue copies of these
photographs.
b) the dossiers and diaries of the ship admirals and crew
(donations to the Museum from crew descendants;
also unique copies are preserved in the Archives).
c) the articles and other documents from historical
magazines and newspapers.
d) the plans of the decks and machines as of the
shipbuilding company.
Phase 2: Analysis and Enrichment of the Content from
other Sources
In this Phase the content collected in Phase 1 will be analysed
and documented. Appropriate metadata will be generated and
attached to the recorded items (e.g., the space-time location of a
photograph).
Additionally, the content will be enriched from other sources,
such as the Archives of the Hellenic Navy Museum, the History
Museum, etc.
Phase 3: Organization and Filing of the Digital Content
In parallel with Phases 1 and 2 the organization of the digital
content using an appropriate filing system will be attempted.
This Phase comprises the following activities:
a) the design and implementation of a Geographic/
Multimedia Information System to accommodate the
following entities: (i) photographs, (ii) documents, (iii)
engagement/ operation maps, and (iv) ship plans. The
system database will follow advanced recording
techniques and will comply to the international
standards.
b) the insertion of the content and the corresponding
metadata items in the system database.
c) the development of mechanisms to retrieve the
content items based on various (spatio-temporal and
thematic) criteria.
Phase 4: Content Processing and Products
This Phase summarizes all efforts towards the exploitation of
the recorded/analysed content and the generation of appropriate
products.
Specifically, this Phase aims at the production of both
analogue/paper and digital products (such as maps, reports and
multimedia presentations) with a well documented research
work and educational significance. Many of the products will
be also available through the web.
3. SIGNIFICANCE
The significance and originality of this research project has
been recognized by the Admiral in duty, the personnel of the
Museum and the Hellenic Navy, who approved the
methodology in Section 2.
The following list summarizes the gaining of the research work:
- The recording and digitization of the valuable and rare
content available at the Museum Archives. Notice that
most of the items are unique copies.
- The research and historical documentation of the
content, plus its enrichment by additional items
available elsewhere.
- The development of an Information System with
retrieval and visualization capabilities based on
thematic, spatial and temporal criteria. This System is
aimed to become available at the Museum or the Web
and assist the historical research and documentation.
- The generation of analogue/paper and digital products
(such as maps, reports and multimedia presentations)
to promote and make-known the battleship rich
history.
- The education and training of a number of students
and young researchers, who are being involved at all
Phases of the project.
4. THE PROJECT OUTCOMES
As mentioned already one of the scopes of this paper is to
present the first outcomes of the project. Being currently at the
middle of the project schedule (May’07 to Dec’08) we have
already developed a series of tools towards “the promotion and
enrichment of the Museum Archives”.
Special attention has been given to the spatio-temporal
dimension of the battleship history, while appropriate systems
and tools offered by the current technology in web mapping and
catalog services have been adopted.
Specifically, the following systems and tools are already
available:
1. An image database, which accommodates the
historical photographs of the Archive.
2. A web photograph gallery, which serves the historical
photographs on the web.
3. A spatial database of the ship decks, generated by the
digitization of the initial analogue plans of the
shipbuilding company.
4. A series of virtual visits in the ship decks and the
Museum.
5. A series of web mapping applications presenting the
main events of the ship history (using geographic
mashups).
6. A geographic catalog server, which diffuses all the
digital content on the web using widely accepted