Kaisa Kulasalu
Estonian Folklore Archives
In early 2014, the Map Server of Estonian Land Board was added a new layer: the map application of memoryscapes of national parks, which provides information about the cultural heritage of Vilsandi and Matsalu national parks. This continues the online mapping of the cultural history of national parks, which started in 2006 at http://www.maastikud.ee. The new map application was prepared in cooperation with the Environmental Board, the work group of local history at the Estonian Folklore Archives, Estonian Literary Museum, and the Land Board.
The map application of local heritage makes use of texts, photographs, audio- and videorecordings from the collections of the Estonian Literary Museum and other memory institutions. A major part of what is displayed on the map is lore material collected during fieldwork from 2012 to 2013. A map application is an environment which allows combining different media, systematize information, and switch data layers on and off. Thus it may seem as the perfect means for presenting information and further research. The Land Board map, however, features only a small part of the available material, thus resulting primarily in a browsable, but by no means comprehensive, database for popular use. My paper provides an overview of the successes and problems connected with creating the map application, with a hope that discussing these issues will help future researchers in planning their digital projects more efficiently.