The basic aim of the research is the invention, realization, implementation and gradual improvement of a three-dimensional virtual library model. In the development stage of the first version of the model we chose some illustrious and well-known authors who represented the ancient Greek poetry and drama from the 3rd century BC. Their short biography and certain parts of their works formed the initial content of the database where the selected content of the virtual library model was stored. As regards the data structure, we applied a four-level hierarchical structure based on the classification scheme of the ancient Library of Alexandria created by the famous librarian Callimachus. Our general purpose is to select and process as many ancient literary works of great cultural value as possible by the continuous enlargement of the database of the virtual library content.

In the first version of the model both the biographies and the selected literary works were in English, but we have already started to upload Hungarian translations of some items in the database. Moreover, we are enhancing the content of the database with additional items of different verbal and/or multimedia text types (e.g. illustrative images, commentaries, annotations, encyclopaedia entries, webpages, various kinds of web 2.0 content, translations, adaptations and so on). With respect to the efficient use of the model, it is essential to create various inter- and hypertextual relationships between the corresponding items of the database. In view of these features our aim is to create a comprehensive information system which is capable of retrieving the stored information and of providing a three-dimensional and spatial hypertext representation of the retrieved content.

In order to improve our research project, we are willing to apply the results of the detailed study of the characteristics of ancient information and library systems.

The virtual library model is currently based on PHP/MySQL technology and uses the three-dimensional representation capabilities of the VirCA (Virtual Collaboration Arena) system. In the VirCA representation the retrieved content can be presented in a so-called virtual room. Certain elements of the model can also be represented on web interface in a more or less similar spatial arrangement as the same elements may appear in the three-dimensional space. Therefore the web-based representation can be considered as a kind of two-dimensional projection of the three-dimensional appearance. It is also possible to present the content of the virtual room described by an XML file directly with a corresponding style sheet based on XSL/jQuery technology.

Among the possibilities of further improvement, we analyze primarily how we can display the three-dimensional content in an interactive way on the VirCA-based as well as on the web interface and how we can integrate this content into the implemented system. Besides this, it is worth mentioning that we would like to investigate the cognitive and linguistic aspects of the spatial hypertext concept as well which serves as a basis for the virtual library model and promotes the multidisciplinary use of the model in education and in language learning. In this three-dimensional environment we see a good example of efficient knowledge organization .Our aim is to provide a preprocessed, „memorize at once” content for those users who are interested in the ancient period and literature, thus supporting their learning activity.

P. Galambos and P. Baranyi, “VirCA as Virtual Intelligent Space for RT-Middleware,” in AIM 2011. Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, (Budapest, Hungary, July 3-7 2011,) 140–145. I. Boda, M. Bényei and E. Tóth: New dimensions of an ancient library: the Library of Alexandria. In: P. Baranyi et al. (eds.): Proceedings of the 4th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications. CogInfoCom 2013. (Budapest, Hungary, December 2-5. 2013.) Budapest: IEEE Hungary Section, 2013. 537-542. István Boda, Erzsébet Tóth, Miklós Bényei, István Csont: A three-dimensional virtual library model of the ancient Library of Alexandria. In: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Applied Informatics. ICAI 2014. (Eger, Hungary, January 29-February 1, 2014.) Volume 1. 103-111. Papers | 9th ICAI 2014 (2015-05-25) Boda István, Tóth Erzsébet, Bényei Miklós, Csont István: Kulturális örökség és virtuális valóság - az ókori Alexandriai Könyvtár. In: Kunkli Roland, Papp Ildikó, Rutkovszky Edéné (szerk.): Informatika a felsőoktatásban 2014. Konferencia kiadvány. Debrecen: Debreceni Egyetem Informatikai Kar, 2014. 384-390. István Boda, Erzsébet Tóth, István Csont and László T. Nagy: Toward a knowledge base of literary content focusing on the ancient Library of Alexandria in the three dimensional space. In: CogInfoCom 2015. 6th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (Győr, Hungary, 19-21. October 2015).