Project in the frame of the community initiative programme Interreg IIIA Italy – Slovenia/Phare CBC 2000-2006
Project promoter: SLORI-Slovene research institute
Project performer: SLORI-Slovene research institute, NŠK – Slovene National and Study Library
Project implementation period: 2003-2004
The project is the result of an idea, born in the frame of the community initiative programme Interreg III A Italy-Slovenia/Phare CBC 2000-2006. In cooperation also with other institutions and organisations, such as the Slovene National and Study Library in Trieste, the Scientific research centre of the Republic of Slovenia in Koper, the Slovene Cultural and Economic Union, The Confederation of the Slovene Organisations and the Italian Union in Slovenia, the project wanted to establish a documental and information centre for Slovenes in Italy (not only meant for the members of the minority, but also, and especially, to non-Slovene users) and a net for the promotion of the Slovene culture and language in Europe.
The documental and information centre is a place, where people gather, meet, exchange opinions and documents, and of course study. The centre offers: a) information about the events and the cultural workers within the Slovene minority in Italy, b) the opportunity to consult a wide range of materials, publications, newspapers, books and multimedia resources about the Slovenes in Italy, the Slovene culture and the Slovene minority in general.
The centre is located on the ground floor of the Advanced School of Modern Languages for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste (former “Narodni dom”), in an ideal position in the city centre, in tight contact with the students. From the very beginning the centre has been equipped with all the necessary technology (photostat, computers, notebooks, printer, scanner, projector with the necessary accessories and an important collection of information and documents).
The project envisaged the promotion on the world web as well. In this light an autonomous portal www.slovenci.it was created, representing thus an innovation in the systematic collection of documents, information and dynamic links of web pages and portals, dedicated to the Slovene language and culture and to the minority as a whole. The aim of the portal of the Slovenes in Italy is: a) to give the whole minority the opportunity to come into contact and communicate through electronic media, both among its members and with others; b) to offer the minority the possibility to present its activity both to the majority population, with whom it lives, and to the wider international community.
Among the main achievements of the project has to be mentioned the two-year (2004-2005) publication of the bulletin Kam? (Where?). The bulletin has shown the wide offer of the diversified cultural activity of the Slovene minority in Italy as a bilingual calendar report about the various manifestations, organisations, associations and clubs on the whole ethnically mixed territory. For the Slovene reader the bulletin has represented a systematic and clear resource of information, while for the Italian public a unique means to get to know the Slovene minority, culture and creativity. The first three issues were published in 2004 as separate booklets divulgated in schools, libraries, bookshops, media and other strategic places. The following five editions were issued in 2005 as a supplement to the Slovene local newspaper Primorski dnevnik, while the last one again in an autonomous edition at the end of the same year. Apart from the first three issues all the others were also available online, on the website www.slovenci.it.