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REPORT ON THE COLLABORATION OF THE INSTITUTE FOR FOLKLORE RESEARCH AND THE UNIVERSITY COMPUTER CENTER - TEAM FOR COMPUTERIZATION OF FOLKLORE DOCUMENTATION AND MATERIALS*
We took the commonplace ■ that computers and all other technological aids can have no place or role in the processing of data other than what we assign them as our starting point, and set out goals in three complementary fields in which electronics/computers can be of use.
1.	A project for offering systematic and comprehensive information on existing materials ahout traditional culture and foklore: the creation of a reference center, that is, an organized services offering users guidance in finding information source on the basis of secondary and tertiary source (answering questions about where what can be found).
2.	The creation of a folklore materials information base with uniform general data (research, title of materials, date and location recorded, manuscripts, medium). This represents a step forward from the question of where to find what to where to find what type of content in the materials.
3.	The application of two types of processing to each unit of material individually. They are:
3.1.	Bibliographic processing of unit according to u predesignated index (of classifications).
3.2.	Analysis of written materials by textual processing.
The problems arising in projects such as this, which have also been observed by other institutions involved in this kind of work, fall into three main ureas:
time - the programming base for a computer program thus conceived should take about five years to compile (this is supported by the experience of centers that have introduced experimental computerization).
funds - computer is very expensive considering the means at our disposal; one hour gross on a UN/VAC system processor costs the user 30,000 dinars.
collaboration ■ among folklorists, and between folklorists and documentation experts, folklorists and computer specialists. Since the two problems areas are beyond our control, our foremost task is to ensure smooth cooperation between those collaborating, for the first requisite of a system thus conceived is team-work.
PRIMARY RESULTS OF ELECTRONIC DA TA
PROCESSING
A questionnaire (suitable for computerized data analysis) was written as a step towards establishing the reference center. Three rounds of surveys using this questionnaire brought in data on 90% of the instituotions in SR Croatia involved in the collection and storage of materials on traditional culture and folklore. The questionnaire asked for information on the following: I. name of institution/organization, 2. name of the collection or department that acquires and stores materials (with names of directors), 3. address of the collection or department. 4. other collections within the sanie institution (if applicable), 5. type of institution or collection (scientific or academic Institution, museum, private collection, school collection, church collection, Departments for the Preservation of Historical Monouments), 6. user service (number of visitors yearly), 7. head of documentation and libraries (if documentation is centralized: if not, the mUseum or collection custodian is considered the head), 8. year in which the collection or department wws established, 9. ¡^formation about materials (type of materials and inventory numbers). 10. information on catalogues systematizing the Materials in any way. It. information on publications by the institution (title of annual, catalogue no,, etc.), 12. date on which the questionnaire was completed, and first and last names of the person responsible for the accuracy of the information given.
This questionnaire has also been completed by a small percentage of the relevant institutions in (SR) Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Slovenia.
In SR Croatia 118 institutions with 136 collections or departments that collect or house materials on traditional cuhure and folklore have been regis!red. Seven of these are academic institutions, 74 are museums, 9 school collections, 2 Private collections, IS curch collections, 3 collections belonging to art and culture associations and five Departments for the Preservation of Historical Monouments. 105 offer services to users, the average number yearly ranging from lo00-10,000. 40 institutions have manuscript collections, 108 ethnographic artifacts, 56 photograph collections, 18 collections of phonograph records; 2 institutions have video-tape collections, 14 films, 31 centralized documentation, and ?3 have libraries. According to our data the oldest collection was founded in 1860 (the collection of the Franciscan Monastery in Sinj) and the newest in 1981 (the Local Heritage Museum in Zelina); we can assume that the materials in Afférent collections also follow some sort of chronology. We are reasonably certain that we can now determine the total number of etnographic artifacts in museums in SR Croatia, the total number of manuscript collections, photographs, Ma8netic tapes recorded during fieldwork, the total number of visitors and users who take advantage of these Materials, the total number of museum catalogues and a complete list of the ethnographic and folklore annuals and ethologies appearing in SR Croatia. Given the comprehensiveness of this information, we can move on to the second Phase of data collection, during which bibliographical data about materials is to be collected. The results wilt comprise data base for our reference center.
The following data on folklore materials will be included in the data base (which has been experimentally formulated f<>r the documentation at ZIF - the Institute for Folklore Research):
data on mongraphs (anthologies or studies, with documentation) 2- data on articles and contributions to journals, with documentation ■ Data on unpublished materials.
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In processing the data we rely on .standard bibliographical descriptions and Electronic Data Processing Practice with bibliographies, which we have attempted to modify in accord with our specific documentation needs. The following are included: author (rescarcher) (of a monograph, paper, article, manuscript materials, taped materials, photographs, phonograph records, films or video tapes); title {of a monograph, article, paper, or servis, of manuscripts, taped materials, photographs, phonograph record, films or video tapes), facts of publication (journal, year, series, number, volume, number of pages, and for monographs the total number of pages), date of publication, publisher, place of publication, langugagc, langugae of summary, geographical area dealt with, key words first by field, and secondly by content classifications), comments on the data (if necessary), designation by medium Laban (if manuscript: text notes, kinetograms of dances, drawings; also tape-recorded materials; photographic materials, films, video tapes, index cards) call number with organizational code for material storage, references in or relevance to published materials (where applicable) dale of research, and notes (field worker who recorded the materials, etc.). In addition to recording the data on magnetic tapes, the system will make possible all of the following:
1.	Data search in each of the 16 fields included
2.	Continuing entries of new information, keeping the data up to date.
3.	Publication of all data from the following regbters by author in alphabetical order: title of the journal in which an article was published, location, medium, specialized field according to key words.
4.	Print outs of data on the materials in the form of catalogue cards; in the other words, the creation of an up-to-date centralized data file.
5.	Retrieval at any time of any given data from the data base, according to user needs.
3000 bibliographical units from the materials at the Institute for Folklore Research have been processed so far, and we also plan to process and include in the central data base data from other centers included in our survey of institutions involved in the collection and storage of traditional culture and folklore materials.
Another type of data that is potentially suitable for inclusion in a data base such as ours is the description of ethnographic artifacts according to universally accepted uniform standards.
An appropriate place to begin processing the units of folklore as separate bibliographical units is with the materials already classified in the central data base. However, in order to enter them as such, expert and detailed classification of folklore materials, preferably uniform classification for the area which the reference center is to cover, is essential. Also necessary is extensive cooperation on the part of folklore, library science, and computer experts. The main problem to overcome at this time, with regard to both formulating models for entering units of folklore materia! and formulating models for textual processing, is the adaptation of the somewhat "intractable" material of folklore for computer processing. To achieve a suitable mode! for computerization certain abstractions must he made, and this entails the loss of some of the information. Furthermore, efforts to make the model "cover" alt the elements of the materials that it needs to handle cannot help but leave the model superficial, a priori it cannot delve into deep considerations of specific question relevant to the materials, but on the other hand it must make use of the theoretical conceaptions and classifications intended to illuminate such deep considerations. If this can be achieved, the model we have presented and elaborated may, in addition to alt Its above-mentioned advantages, secure for folklore documentation the place it deserves in the world of academic research.
LITERATURE
/1/ First Nordic Folktoristic Archive and Documentation Conference: Report. NIF Newsletter, 2. Turku 1974, 4, p. 3-9
/2/ George*, R. A., Blumenreich, B., O Reilly, K.: Two Mechanical Indexing System for Folklore Archives: A Preliminary Report,
Journal of American Folklore, 87, Austin 1974, 343, p. 39-52 /3/ NIF i second Archive and Documentation Conference, NIF Newsletter. 6, Turku 1978, 1, P. 2-10 /4/ NIFŠ third Conference on Archiving and Documentation, NIF Newsletter, 10, Turku 1982, 4. p, i-15
/S/ Nordisk Folkedigtning og Folkemusik: in venter in g a o original-materiate i nordiskeinstitutioner, Nordisk Institute for Folkedigmifig'
Kobenhavn 1972, 192 p. (NIF Publications No. 1) /6/ Radič, A,: Osnova za sabiranje i prou¡¡avanje grade o narodnem životu, Zbornik za narodni iivol i običaje južnih Slavena, I'« Zagreb 1897, str, 1-88
/7/ Rosenberg, B.A., Smith, J.B.: The Computer and the Finnish Historical-geographical Method, Journal of American Folklore, 87> Austin 1974, 344, P. 147-154
Vesna Turčin
* The ANKETA 01 team (processing data on the institutions thai collect and store data) includes: Mirena Paviovič, Vesna Turčin (ZlR-Ljubinka Durovič (SRCE). The team working on project BIBLIOGRAPHY (compiling the data base from bibliographical data of materials) includes: Mirena Paviovič, Vesna Turčin (ZIF), Miaden Varga (SRCE), Dubravka Katii (consultant). The project director* are; Dunja Rihtman-Avguštin (ZIF), Ratko Gospodnetič (SRCE).