Two world firsts count for the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation, in respective nominations, in the International Competition Digital Humanities Awards, for its digital applications, Travelersmap and TravelTrails.

The interactive map of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation, TravelersMap
and the digital app TravelTrails, a project in collaboration with the Gennadius library, won the preference of the audience and judges and won the first place in the international competition Digital Humanities Awards 2022.

In particular, the interactive Travelersmap map (travellersmap.gr) was named the “Best DH Data Visualization”, while TravelTrails: Expeditions and Explorations in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1500–1830 (traveltrails.gr), won first place in the category “Best Project for Highlighting Sources (Best DH Dataset)”.

Having already won first place in the same competition with the ToposText application in 2017, the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation is leading the field of digital sciences by creating innovative digital products and tools that meet the needs of researchers, the educational community, and the general public.

In this year’s competition, the digital products of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation competed with applications from various countries, from China to Peru, and from world-class institutions such as the British Library and Harvard University, and emerged first by a wide margin.

Aiming to promote the role of digital humanities, the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation, through its rich collections treasured in its Historical Library, is pioneering and will continue to design digital applications that contribute to the preservation and dissemination of our cultural heritage, and also highlight, on a global level, the role that libraries must play in the 21st century.

A few words about award-winning projects:
TravellersMap is a modern travel map that aims to highlight the “Greek world” and familiarize the public with rare archival material. It was created as a result of the successful series “Online Tours in Asia Minor” and “Online Tours in the Aegean”.

TravelTrails is an online database that indexes, categorizes, and analyzes the records of travelers in the Eastern Mediterranean from the early 16th century until 1830. It is based on the collections of the Gennadius Library and the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation, and helps users navigate the diverse and rich historical information of travel literature.