Thezaurus and web projects 1998-2012

1998

Thezaurus.com

The website Thezaurus was initiated in 1998 and launched on the Web on 1 January 1999 as http://www.thezaurus.com. It was developed as a platform for the major projects and activities of the "Institute for Slovenian Studies of Victoria". The name Thezaurus, meaning treasury or library has been selected for the classical allusion and presence on the web.

It was designed by the web developer Bojan Ažman/Chiron Morpheus as a web node - a web destination point for conceptually selected and organized sources, links and contents, selected for the purpose and needs of Slovenian studies and a broader presentation of Slovenia, the people, language and culture.

Thezaurus projects aim to present elements of Slovenian culture, to facilitate and promote dialogue, and to connect individuals, and communities around the world.
Thezaurus.com is a dynamic, expanding web node of continuing projects and archives. It has grown into a major Slovenian language and culture website, with visitors from 56 countries. It achieves over 400,000 hits monthly, with the greatest number of visitors from USA, Australia, Slovenia, Canada and Europe.

The web node now contains a growing body of over 1,000 pages of cultural and language archives and comprises a range of continuing educational projects: Sloveniana Webzine, Literator, Galeria Sloveniana, Webclassroom, Language resources, Forums, ISSV Archives. 

Slovenian Language resources

The section language resources contains information about Slovenian language, CSF and VCE teaching methodology (Curriculum and Standards Framework) of the Victorian state school system from 1990’s.The curriculum resources include: a tabular presentation of Slovenian grammar, tables of text types and language functions, description of the CSF teaching and assessment model, sample topic outlines and charts. It contains the VCE Study Design for Slovenian as matriculation subject, consisting of study requirements, prescribed themes, topics and sub-topics, thematically presented resource lists for study topics and study resources. It also contains an extensive list of selected educational and linguistic links.

The language section includes two extensive updated bibliographies of Slovenian study resources: a general and a VCE thematic bibliography on the three prescribed themes – The Individual, The Community and the Changing World.
Link http://www.thezaurus.com/language

Webclassroom

The webclassroom represents an integrated approach to teaching language and culture with the use of authentic materials on the Web. It consists of a series of topics about Slovenia, the people and the country. Each of the topics comprise of: an outline, selected links about the topic, a comprehension exercise and suggest learning activities and focus for research and study. The topics have been selected for interest, stimulation and variety for the learner and also as a resource for the teacher. The great advantage is that many of the websites are bilingual in English and Slovenian. The topics were part of the school curriculum in the Victorian School of Languages, Melbourne, according to the Curriculum Standards Framework (CSF) methodology set by the Victorian Education Department. New topics are added to the series periodically in clusters in four themes: Arts and Culture, Country, Leisure and Recreation, and Society.
Link http://www.thezaurus.com/webclassroom

Sloveniana webzine

The webzine was envisaged as an ongoing series of researched articles that highlight aspects of Slovenia, its people and culture, intended for the English speaking public.
It was published on the web at the beginning of 1999. The articles feature: early to modern Slovenian history, ethnographic heritage, architecture, cities, historical monuments and manuscripts. The articles are illustrated by images that complement the texts. Since 1999 the collection has grown to 50 articles, ranging across the cultural landscape of Slovenia.
In 2007 the Webzine was extended and defined in categories of the main areas of Slovenian cultural traditions: Cultural Treasures, Ethnographic Heritage, Natural Treasures, Notable Slovenes, Slovenian History, Slovenian Literature and the Arts, Myths, Legends and Tales.
Link http://www.thezaurus.com/webzine

Galeria Sloveniana

Galeria Sloveniana, is the online gallery of Slovenian/Australian artists. Its aim is to display and document the creativity of Slovenian community in Australia. The main mission of the gallery is its function as a display window of the Slovenian community in Australia and would like to take it outside the Slovenian community, to encompass the broader Australian public. An important facet of Galeria Sloveniana as an Internet gallery, is to present the seemingly distant locality of Melbourne scene on the world web for viewing by Slovenes around the world. In this way it fulfills the mission of the gallery. It provides the opportunity and the means to achieve the greatest possible response in Australia as well as in the world.
A series of other photo albums have evolved of images of Slovenia, and Australia, to a total of 122 photo albums.
Link http://www.thezaurus.com/gallery

Thezaurus forums

Forums provide the opportunity to: communicate, express views, comments and exchange information. The forums feature: news items about Slovenian language and culture, Slovenian language questions and references, community events in Australia, articles on facets of contemporary Slovenian culture, details of Slovenian community groups, and selected online Slovenian language and cultural resources.
Link  http://www.thezaurus.com/newforums

Links for language and culture studies

Online resources and learning materials are developed with content on Slovenian Web. Quality web sites have been selected and categorized as part of the body of cultural resources that are directly accessible. The sites contain valuable authentic language material for study activities. They provide information about: contemporary Slovenia, society, language, culture, education, and other fields of interest. Links are updated regularly and new interesting links are highlighted.
Link http://www.thezaurus.com/links

2001

Slovenian Literator 

Slovenian Literator has been conceived as a web anthology of contemporary Slovenian literature. Its basis is the anthology of Slovenian poetry and prose translated into English, compiled by the poet, academic Dr. Aleš Debeljak, The Imagination of Terra Incognita: Slovenian Writing 1945 - 1995. 
The innovative and dynamic concept has been created by the web developer Chiron Morpheus as a model for an organic and thematic presentation of Slovenian literary art.
ISSV, Zavod Neuropolis and members of the Slovenian Writers’ Association have worked in partnership on this project, which has generated interest when presented in Melbourne (on the occasion of "From the Heart of Europe" Reading Tour in August 2001) and at a media conference in Ljubljana (at the Slovenian Writers’ Centre) in September 2001.
Link http://www.thezaurus.com/?/issv/slovenian_literator/ 

2006

Archive of Slovenian Emigrant Handicrafts

The online archive of Slovenian handicrafts lays the foundation for further research, collection activity and archiving of Slovenian handicrafts in Australia and elsewhere. The exhibition is based on the collection of handicraft exhibits produced by Australian Slovenes of Victoria, and is a collaborative effort by Daša Koprivec, Senior Curator at the Slovene Ethnographic Museum of Ljubljana and Aleksandra Ceferin, President of the Institute for Slovenian Studies of Victoria Inc. The project was sponsored in 2006 by the Office for Slovenes Abroad (Urad za Slovence po svetu) and the Ministry for Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.

The website http://www.rocnadela.org designed and developed by Zavod Neuropolis, is the first online exhibition of Slovenian handicrafts by the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum, and ground-breaking by world standards. It is also the first project of its kind, and the first joint project between Australia and Slovenia, launched 1 March 2008 at the Eleventh Slovenian Festival at the Jadran Association in Digger's Rest.

2009

Archives of Institute for Slovenian Studies of Victoria - 1976 to 2009

The archives of the Institute consist of over 2,000 documents. The archivist is Aleksandra Ceferin who has collated and maintained documents of the activities connected with the teaching of Slovenian language in the state school system of Victoria from 1976. 
They have been categorized according to the institutions that were involved in the teaching of Slovenian language as a secondary subject in the State of Victoria from the years 1976 to 2005. The indexes and details of the archival material of the activities of ISSV for the period from 1976 to 2009 can be viewed on the Web.

Myths and Legends

A series of the first English translation of thirty-five Slovenian folk tales from the collection Bajke in pripovedke slovenskega ljudstva by Jakob Kelemina, published in 1930, by Aleksandra L. Ceferin. The texts are presented in both Slovenian and English.  

Translation of the article by Dr. Zmago Šmitek, in Videnja pokrajine. Naravni in namišljeni prostori v slovenskem ljudskem izročilu (Didakta, Radovljica, 2007):
Perceptions of landscape, real and imagined spaces in Slovenian folk tradition  

Link

2010

J W Valvasor


The website http://www.valvasor.org launched 27 September 2010 at the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne, serves to provide insight into Slovenian seventeenth century history and information in the English language about the life and work of the seventeenth century nobleman and polymath Johann Weichard Freiherr von Valvasor (1641-1694). Resources developed with the website are accessible on the web; 
Multimedia Presentation
http://www.scribd.com/doc/37771119/J-W-Valvasor-Presentation-State-Library-of-Victoria
Digital Library Collection
http://www.scribd.com/valvasoriana

2011


Online Cartography of Slovenian Migrant Communities

The website http://www.sloveniana.com sets out to map the presence of Slovenian communities around the world. Categories are structured for entries in the fields of: arts and culture. community, education, history, and media. 

2012

Slovenian Pantheon
A new series of articles on seventeen Slovenian deities was published in Webzine Sloveniana http://www.thezaurus.com/webzine/category/Slovenian%20Pantheon. Texts are the translation into English from the original in the Slovenian language, the monograph, Zlati cvet : Bajeslovje Slovencev... by Jožko Šavli, published by Studio RO-Humar, Bilje, Renče, 2010.   


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