The idea of the development of a virtual museum occurred in order to make facts of history, culture, geography, social processes of Latgale and their correlations more available to society.
Since RHEI foundation it has developed into a major research centre in the region. The academic study program “Philology” is the only program in Latvia and in the world that implements the study module “Latgalistics”. Study and research experience has enabled to accumulate an impressive range of information material, which has partly been used in the “Lingvoterritorial Dictionary of Latgale” (2012). At the same time the edition of 2000 copies did not provide the access of scientific research to a wider audience. They were donated to libraries, schools, museums, non-governmental organizations, Latgale municipalities, and foreign partners.
The virtual gallery “Concepts of Latgale” includes 300 cultural signs and concepts that are significant to Latgale. They are grouped in alphabetical order providing the name of the described object in five languages: Latgalian , Latvian , Lithuanian, Byelorussian and English. The description of the word is given in Latvian. Description gives an insight into the polysemy of concepts and cultural signs, but to understand it fully, one can: 1) search for “Lingvoterritorial dictionary of Latgale”, 2) study extra information about each object, gaining access to the full size database, 3) visiting virtual galleries created by partners, find correlations in Latgale concept perception, 4) play the game “Go there, do not know where, bring it, do not know what”.
A full size database, which has been classified in accordance with the virtual objects of the museum’s stock collection, includes more than ……. written evidence, pictures and interviews on the item being described. It can be used for research purposes, but before its use it is necessary to contact virtual museum creators: ilga.suplinska@ru.lv.
