Project Rastko

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Project Rastko - Internet Library of Serb Culture (Пројекат Растко - Електронска библиотека српске културе) is a non-profit and non-governmental publishing, cultural and educational project dedicated to Serb and Serb-related arts and humanities. It is named after Rastko Nemanjić.

The project was established in 1997 as a part of a pan-regional Balkans Cultural Network Initiative. Its main activities are:

electronic publishing in the fields of Serbian and Serbian-related arts and humanities
scientific and cultural conferences and studies about Balkan cultural-civilizational integration
bilateral and multilateral activities with other Balkan and world countries
establishing regional centres
technical training

The apex of the project is its electronic library with more than half a gigabyte of material, comprising electronic books and articles, photographs and comics. Though most texts are in Serbian language there is a body of material in other languages, again mostly in English and Russian, but also in French, German, Spanish and other languages.

The library contains material in both the public domain and copyrighted texts published with the authors' permissions, dating from earliest medieval Serb texts to contemporary science fiction. The site of the project also hosts several sites not directly related to the project.

Project Rastko also hosts the European version of Distributed Proofreaders, which intends to supply Project Gutenberg with public domain texts in European languages. Project Rastko is organising a coalition of European e-libraries for the purpose of collecting public domain works, aiming to eventually have a node of Distributed Proofreaders in each European country.

Currently (2007) the project has following regional centres:

Belgrade (central project)
Romania (Project Rastko - Timişoara, e-library of culture and tradition Romanian-Serbian cultural ties)
Montenegro (Project Rastko - Cetinje, e-library of culture and tradition of Montenegro)
Subproject for Kosovo and Metohia (Project Rastko - Gracanica-Pec, e-library of culture and tradition of Kosovo and Metohia)
Boka Kotorska (Project Rastko - Boka, e-library of culture and tradition of Boka Kotorska)
Hungary (Project Rastko - Budapest-Szent-Andrea, e-library of culture and tradition of Hungaro-Serbian cultural ties)
Ukraine (Project Rastko - Kiev-L'vov, e-library of Ukrainian-Serbian cultural ties)
Bulgaria (Project Rastko - Bulgaria, e-library of Bulgarian-Serbian cultural ties)
Bosnian Krajina (Project Rastko - Banja Luka, e-library of culture and tradition of Bosnian Krajina)
Drina (Project Rastko - Drina, e-library of culture and tradition of Drina basin)
Slovenia (Project Rastko - Slovenia, e-library of Serbian-Slovenian cultural ties)
Gora region (Project Rastko - Gora, e-library of culture and tradition of Gora and Goranies (ethnographical region and group in Kosovo))
Albania (Project Rastko - Shkoder, e-library of culture and tradition of Albano-Slavic cultural ties)
Lusatia (Project Rastko - Lusatia, e-library of culture and tradition of Sorbs)
Poland (Project Rastko - Poland, e-library of Polish-Serbian cultural ties)
Kashubians (Project Rastko - Kaszëbë (Kashubia), e-library of culture and tradition of Kashubians)

Each of them is independent, and develops its projects and activities through local academic, cultural, media NGO-s and individuals, including strong co-operation with ethnic minorities centres. Future activities of Belgrade centre will include projects about Slovak, Jewish and Roma/Gypsy as well as for 29 other ethnocultural minorities in South-Eastern Europe.

See also: List of digital library projects