Paper short abstract:

The Geographic Information System of traditional folk culture 1750–1900, developed by Masaryk University, interconnects the maps with the information from the field of traditional folk culture. The information is defined by place (historic land of Moravia) and time (years 1750–1900).

Paper long abstract:

The possibility to use the ethnocartographic method for scientific purpose, however, was always limited by the static character of the displayed data with no option to adapt them to user´s requirements. Alongside the development of IT technologies, these natural imperfections can be eliminated partially - for example through the Geographic Information System. This can be used to capture, store, manage, analyse and present geographical data including map outcomes. The Geographic Information System of Traditional Folk Culture (1750 - 1900) (briefly Gistralik) is an example for the advanced level in the use of GIS technology in Czech ethnology. It has been created since 2014 at Masaryk University. Gistralik is an on-line accessible geographic information portal aimed at traditional folk culture. It intersects maps with information from folk culture which are defined by places (Moravia) and by time (years 1750-1900). So Gistralik is not an ethnological atlas transferred into its electronical form with static spatial visualisation of documented phenomena. It represents a sophisticated GIS in the form of a spatially displayed database comprising data about documented expressions of tangible and intangible folk culture and the rate of their hitherto procession. So it works not only with the information as such but also with the reference to its origin and it offers the user to exploit the source as to his individual needs. The core idea of Gistralik consists in the concentration of knowledge from diverse source documents (metadata) and with a different rate of accessibility into one user-friendly information "point".