For the third consecutive year, the Bulgarian Encyclopedia Scientific Information Centre took part in a conference of the European Encyclopedia Network (EEN), which was held in Rome, Italy. The event began with an introduction by the Director General Massimo Bray, who took us through the 100-year history of the Italian Encyclopedia (Treccani). We had the opportunity to hear reports dedicated to the work of various departments of the encyclopedia and their development in modern digital times. On the occasion of Treccani’s anniversary, we visited Palazzo Mattei, which today houses the headquarters of the Treccani Institute.
This year’s meeting focused on the role of encyclopedias in modern society. Methods for dealing with fake news were discussed, and the topical issue of artificial intelligence’s (AI) “hallucinations” was also raised. On the other hand, possibilities were proposed for using AI in presenting encyclopedia articles in the digital space (such as generating images to illustrate mythical creatures and legendary figures, detecting tautology, finding foreign language sources, etc.).
In the session for presenting current projects of individual encyclopedias participating in the European Encyclopedic Network, Bulgarian Encyclopedia Scientific Information Centre presented the implementation activities within the “The Bulgarian Online Encyclopedia. Connected and Accessible Encyclopedic Knowledge” project. The project is being developed in partnership with the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences within the Next Generation EU Рrogramme under the EU Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, Procedure BG-RRP-2.017 for Funding of Research Projects in the Field of Green and Digital Technologies, Contract No. RRР – 45 of 06.12.2024 /BG-RRP-2.017-0023-C01/. The presentation of the project’s interim results aroused interest and was admired by the professional audience.
