Significant changes are expected in E-varamu in the coming years. As part of ERCDI’s activities, the portal’s search function and user interface are being developed so that research and cultural heritage collections are easier to find and more convenient to use. The technical development of the portal is carried out by Cybernetica AS, which introduced the planned updates in a short interview.
1. What is the central problem that the development of E-varamu over the coming years will solve? How will E-varamu become better for users after the development?
The current E-varamu search does not always give users the results they expect. The new development will add the following features:
- a more relevant and comprehensive semantic search, including from audio materials;
- a more compact data layer for persons;
- the AI-based search assistant MARI;
- transcription of audio and video materials and the creation of summaries.
2. What are you currently working on in the development of E-varamu?
We are currently working on creating a new semantic search layer and testing the new user interface.
3. What is the greatest technical challenge in the development of E-varamu?
The greatest technical challenge is creating an effective search system for very different types of materials, since E-varamu contains digital objects in various formats like newspapers, books, images, audio and video recordings.