Lana Križaj
(Ministry of Culture, Zagreb, Croatia)
Project of the development of the Croatian information system of cultural heritage “Teuta” was initiated in 2002 by the Ministry of Culture and its primary goal was to serve as a tool for the efficient preservation of cultural heritage by ensuring the “base of knowledge” needed for any intervention in that field.
Besides the cultural heritage service, targeted users are professionals from variety of related disciplines, such as art historians, archaeologists, architects, urbanists, university teachers, etc., as well as the public.
The ultimate objective of the Croatian information system of cultural heritage “Teuta” is to ensure a national inventory of monuments, historic buildings and sites in Croatia, and provide it with appropriate digital documentation to enable its full protection and preservation. It consists of several integrated databases: Central inventory of cultural heritage (historic buildings, archaeological sites, historic ensembles and movable objects); Documentation collections (Photo library; PhotoCD library; Plan library; Microfilm collection; Press clipping collection); Database of Croatian cultural heritage monuments and sites damaged in war 1990-1995; and several auxiliary databases such as Official list of places and towns in Croatia, Address book of people and institutions relevant for protection of cultural heritage and Thesaurus of monument types.
Since, Teuta has been designed as an open system it is constantly being updated – development of databases of organs, mosaics, and intangible cultural heritage is under way.
Its interoperability has been ensured by the application of international standards and guidelines (Council of Europe, ISO) in respect to data content and structure, and technical platform. At the moment its primary users are cultural heritage professionals but soon it will be available on the Internet for the public (XML standards).