A lecture followed by a discussion entitled: Creating a digital database with the archival folklore material of the SASA IE: challenges, experiences and the first results was held on December 26 as part of the Forum of the SASA Institute of Ethnography. The working group for documentation (archival and fieldwork records) of the Institute of Ethnography, comprising Đorđina Trubarac Matić, PhD, (the lead), Milan Tomašević, PhD, Nina Aksić, PhD, library adviser Biljana Milenković-Vuković and Bojana Vuković, MA, spoke about various aspects of its work on this project. Attendees were introduced to the history of the creation of the folklore archival collection of the SASA IE, which consists of more than 20,000 songs and other short folklore forms gathered shortly after the WWII, as well as its content and the importance it has as a valuable document of an era. Wishing to make this collection available to the general public, the group designed a project to systematise this impressive, yet unorganised and, therefore, difficult to read collection of folklore material. With systematisation and digitalisation, this collection will be available to the general public in the form of a digital database, which will enable different types of advanced searches of the entire material. Sharing the experience gained in processing this extensive collection, they introduced attendees to the process of working on the project’s realisation and its challenges, as well as the future plans and directions. The audience was shown the internet version of the database with free access, the 538 units that have been entered, as well as all the possibilities it has to offer to its future users.

This version of the digital database of the Folklore Collection of the SASA IE can be accessed using the following link https://folklornazbirka.ei.sanu.ac.rs/lppesme/index.php