EXPLORAL

Exploring the cultural heritage through a digital library and oral sources.

EXPLORAL will provide engaging means to offer tourists in the cross-border area of Greece-Albania, the opportunity to experience a unique personalised tour of this rich in culture, traditions, arts and natural beauty area and visit multiple urban and rural points of interest.

The overall objective is twofold:

(i) to transform libraries into a reference point for all tourists visiting the cross-border area and

(ii) identify and promote the common heritage of the cross-border region through the study and analysis of the oral history and tradition and their interconnection to the written sources.

The content of those oral sources have an inherent additional social value by contributing to the social cohesion, dynamic evolution, and durability of the cultural heritage.

There is a significant interest, from an ethnographic, cultural and historical perspective, to record testimonies from oral sources in the cross-border area of interest (Greece-Albania).

In the regions of Permet, Gjirokastra and Konitsa we can discover different sides of history and traditions and identify and promote common cultural characteristics that are associated with the areas of interest.

To this end, testimonies will be recorded and connected to the digital content that is already stored in the Balkaneana digital library and the new Exploral digital repository will be an enriched version of Balkaneana in terms of content and functionality.

Finally, EXPLORAL includes the development of an application for mobile devices (mobile app) that includes interactive information on a map of the wider border area. The interactive map will be interconnected with the content from oral sources and the digitized material of Balkaneana in the form of a customized documentary.

Thus, this connection of the touristic information with valuable information acquired from oral and written sources, would result to transforming the Library, in its physical or digital form, to a reference point for all tourists in the area.