Paper Short Abstract:

This paper explores the challenges and opportunities in digitizing the manuscript legacy of 20th-century folklore collector Árpád Együd (1921–1983). Együd, a 20th-century folklore collector, documented folk music, dance, ballads, fairy tales, legends, and village life histories, primarily in Somogy County (Hungary). His legacy, housed in the Kaposvár museum, includes handwritten manuscripts, photographs, films, and audio recordings. The study concentrates on Együd’s typewritten manuscript archive, demonstrating the digitization workflow and concept: OCR, metadata standardization, and semantic enrichment. Special attention is given to encoding textual variations in folklore using TEI XML. The research identifies which phases of the digitization process can be automated and how this enhances efficiency. By developing a systematic digital methodology, this study offers solutions for creating accessible, annotated, and data-enriched editions of folklore texts.

Paper Abstract:

This paper explores the challenges and opportunities in digitizing the manuscript legacy of 20th-century folklore collector Árpád Együd (1921–1983). Együd conducted extensive folklore collections from the late 1950s, primarily in Somogy County but also in neighboring regions, Perőcsény (Pest County), and Transylvania. His work spans folk music, dance, ballads, fairy tales, legends, and village life histories, resulting in an extensive archive of manuscripts, audio recordings, photographs, and films housed in the museum of Kaposvár.

While previous archival efforts have digitized parts of his collection across four platforms, this study concentrates on his typewritten manuscript archive. The digitization process is demonstrated step-by-step, beginning with scanning, applying Optical Character Recognition (OCR), metadata standardization, and semantic enrichment using identifiers such as VIAF, WikiData, Hungarian National Name Database (Nemzeti Névtér). Special attention is given to encoding textual variations in folklore using TEI XML.

The study highlights the phases of digitization that can be automated and discusses the methods used to optimize efficiency. Through this approach, the paper offers solutions for creating annotated, data-enriched digital editions of folklore texts, ensuring accessibility and long-term preservation.