Digitization of mathematical textbooks used in Serbia in the past

Nadežda Pejovićnada@matf.bg.ac.yuUniversity of BelgradeFaculty of Mathematics

3rd SEEDI Int. Conf. Cetinje, Montenegro

13-14 September 2007.

The Project The part of the ongoing digitization

project of the scientific and cultural heritage

Institutions:• The Faculty of Mathematics, University of

Belgrade• The Mathematical Institute of Serbian

Academy of Sciences

The goal of the project To digitize the most important Serbian

textbooks used in the secondary and undergraduate education in the past.

To help historians of education and educators for better studies of education, modern and in the past.

To remove some myths, “The current education and textbooks are much better than those used in the past”.

Problems

Significant variations in materials sources and qualities

The data and metadata organization and modeling

Data access

Technical issues

Stored in the Virtual library of NCD www.ncd.matf.bg.ac.yu

-> Projects -> Virtual library Formats

• Image format: tiff 300 dpi• Target format: PDF, DJvu

OCR Primary problems are :

• Large varieties and high font stylization used in the corresponding time period.

• Significantly low material quality, because of aging. No OCR software satisfied, primarily because of the low material readability.

• A lot of mathematical formulas, there is not OCR software capable of recognizing mathematically oriented texts.

Searching The multiple criteria for searching are

available, including searching byo Metadata

• Author• Title• Key words• Period

o The text content, on texts where OCR was performed.

Digitized textbooks

Vasilije Damjanović, Aritmetika, Venice, 1767• Area: mathematics.• The first mathematical textbook

written in Serbian.• Used in diaspora, mainly in parts of

Austrian-Hungarian Imperia.

Digitized textbooks Jovan Došenović, Čislenica,

Budim (Budapest), 1809• Area: mathematics• Text dealing with basic arithmetical

operations, percentage calculus, quotients etc.

• The first textbook in mathematics used in liberated Belgrade after the First Serbian Upraising, 1804, against Ottoman Imperia.

Digitized textbooks Milan Andonović, Kosmografija,

Belgrade, 1888.• Area: astronomy• Rigorous presentation of modern

astronomy at the time of writing the book.

• Very nice style of writing, a book worth reading even today.

• Nice drawings and color illustrations.

Digitized textbooks Rista Karljiković, Trigonometry,

Belgrade, 1926.• Area: mathematics• One of the finest mathematical textbooks for

high-schools written in Serbian.• Advanced topics: spherical trigonometry,

applications in geodesy and astronomy.• Many historical notes, origin of mathematical

notions and problems, sources of presented problems.