July 28, 2011

IDEA Information Systems was granted the tender for computerization of the data bases of the Illegal Immigration Memorial Site in Atlit

The Atlit ''Illegal'' Immigrant Detention Camp is a national site that tells the story of the struggle of Jews fleeing Europe (Ma’apilim) from NAZI persecution and death, trying to reach British controlled Palestine, only to be put in a detention camp established by the British at the end of the 1930s.
The Atlit camp is now a museum of the history of ''Ha'apala'', containing a conclusive documentary archive, and is used as an educational center for research, preservation and commemoration. The documentary archive contains the names of all the ''illegal immigrants'', and their saviors including private details as well as information of the events which took place at the time together with photographs and historical documentation of the ships, the detention camps and more.
Atlit was declared a National Heritage Site in1987.

The main objective of the museum was to create a computerized archive that would enable the documentation and commemoration of all the material about the 120,000 immigrants who had entered Israel between the years 1934 and the establishment of The State of Israel, and allow an easy access for the public for tracing desired information as well as the input of additional information.

Using the IDEA@Arc system, which is built for both physical and digital archives, will enable future registry and exposure of the archive's collections to the public on the internet for documentation, education and research purposes.
The project that has been started in July will include the conversion of tens of thousands of entries from an existing system (ACSSES) and the exposure of the materials on the internet.
Within this project a compound map connecting the various information items has been created which will enable intuitive search of information for the visitors in the institute catalogue, on the internet. The information map will cause complimenting information about the requested subjects to immerge and thus enable the end users to enhance their knowledge in the subject by navigating within the system, and moving onto relevant subjects and information items.
In addition, the system allows inheriting data from entries of various collections between the different levels of the archive structure, which enables fast cataloguing and efficiency in the archive's work as well as the presentation of the hierarchal structure of the archive.
The documentation of data by the IDEA@Arc system will enable tracing it in any possible search from various information angles. It will also help the guiding teams to create and adapt guiding programs for the various groups who visit the site that can be of different populations, speaking different languages.
As part of the project, the system has been installed in the advanced hosting site of IDEA and so the archive can benefit from the hosting services (ASP) which include professional services of the IT department of IDEA such as maintenance of the databases, creating and saving backups, restoring of data when needed, upgrades and information security.

Mr. Lior Govrin, the General Manager of IDEA congratulated The Atlit Illegal Camp for the choice of IDEA@Arc system for the computerization of its archive. He went on to say that he believed this project would form the first milestone in the national project of computerizing the cultural heritage, and by using IDEA's technology and experience in this area, the archive will become of the leading institutions in the area of documentation and the accessibility to the cultural and historical heritage collections.

Mr. Jacov Shaked the company sales manager said ''We are proud to be part of projects of such large scale and complexity both technologically and financially as the Atlit Illegal Camp archive, and we are sure that the IDEA@Arc system will meet with the needs of the archive information management and its managers. But most of all we are proud to be able to help in the conservation and the inheriting of a period in history which is of the major milestones in the building of the state''.

The Atilt Illegal Camp is joining a long line of leading archives that chose to computerize their information data by IDEA's solutions such as Yad Vashem, Beit Lohamei Haghetaot (The Ghetto Fighters' House), The Jabotinsky Institute, The Yad Ya'ari archive, The Theater archive of Beit Ariella, The Betzalel archive, Yad Tabenkin archive, Midreshet Ben Gurion archives, The Jerusalem Archive, Massuah Institute and more

About IDEA Information Systems

IDEA is a leading international software provider for the preservation, management and exposure of heritage assets. Based on its integrated state-of-the-art ALM (Archives, Libraries, Museums) multilingual information management platform, IDEA provides an end-to-end solution, covering all aspects of heritage assets management: from document capture to enhanced classification, administration and publishing for libraries, archives, historical museums and research centers. IDEA@Lib is a flexible integrated library system for managing all types of library collections and their typical workflows for empowering and delivering personalized service over the Web to library users. IDEA@Lib manages library collections of any size, locally or networked, for easy sharing and exposure of their resources. IDEA is active in Israel, Europe and the United States.

About The “Illegal” Immigrant Camp at Atlit:

The Atlit detention camp was constructed by the British Mandate in Eretz Israel, at the end of the 1930s, as a military camp on the Mediterranean coast. It was converted by them between the years 1939-1948 to a detention camp for “illegal” immigrants who were caught after a struggle while arriving by any and every route, sometimes even those who held entry certificates. On the night of October 9, 1945, the prisoners were freed in a daring action by the Palmach fighters.
The Council for Israel Heritage Sites has been allocated approximately 20 out of the original 25 acres, which served as the Detention Camp. The site was officially proclaimed a National Monument in 1987 by the Government of Israel. The Atlit Detention Camp museum aims to teach the history of this very special immigration to Eretz Israel.
The site has a number of restored corrugated barracks, which the British used for processing, servicing and housing of the immigrants. These restored barracks serve to tell the story as the backdrop for a “Sight and Sound” show, interactive computer games, for housing and displaying the Ha'apala computerized information of the archives including names of the immigrants, the 'Ha'apala' activists and the volunteers, a conclusive information about the Ha'apala period under the British mandate, and viewing the movie telling the heroic Palmach action in October 1945.