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Digitization of Written Parliamentary Questions from the Historical Archive (1974–1977) of the Hellenic Parliament

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Document Analysis and Recognition – ICDAR 2024 Workshops (ICDAR 2024)

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Abstract

This article outlines the digitization process and methodology applied to the archive of parliamentary questions from the 1st Parliamentary Term (1974–1977) in the Hellenic Parliament. A collaborative pilot project involving parliament, academia, and a research center facilitated the conversion of printed material to open data. The main tasks of the project include capturing digital images, a custom Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software solution employing machine learning, and rigorous validation for accuracy of a fragmented and of variable quality polytonic corpus in a variety of modern Greek language called Katharevousa. The article discusses the approach and challenges as well as the initial results of the digitization effort, emphasizing ongoing research steps. Overall, 1,674 images were digitally processed corresponding to 1,338 questions. Following algorithmic training, character recognition accuracy is over 98.5%. Successful implementation streamlines further similar digitalization operations in the vast parliamentary archives, while enabling in-depth studies on parliamentary control in the turbulent period of the immediate post-junta era in Greece. A preliminary comparative analysis with a corpus of newer parliamentary questions (2009–2019) provides insights and incentives for the further study of the characteristics and evolution of the Greek language.

O. Rozenberg—Independent researcher.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://users.iit.demokritos.gr/~bgat/DIA.htm.

  2. 2.

    https://www.hellenicparliament.gr/en/Vouli-ton-Ellinon/Kanonismos-tis-Voulis/.

  3. 3.

    https://www.hellenicparliament.gr/en/Vouli-ton-Ellinon/To-Politevma/Syntagma/.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Angeliki Karapanou, Head of the Department of Parliamentary Archives, Hellenic Parliament, for her expert support during the final stages of the study. The research concerning the recognition platform has been partially co-financed by the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Attica 2014–2020, under the call “RESEARCH AND INNOVATION PARTNERSHIPS IN THE REGION OF ATTICA”, project reBook (Digital platform for re-publishing Historical Greek Books, project code: ATTP4-0331172).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hellenic Parliament, Vas. Sofias Avenue 2-4, 10021, Athens, Greece

    Fotios Fitsilis, Charalambis Kyrkos & Eleni Kiousi

  2. National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos”, Patriarchou Grigoriou E’ and Neapoleos 27, 15341, Agia Paraskevi, Greece

    Basilis Gatos, Konstantinos Palaiologos & Panagiotis Kaddas

  3. Hellenic OCR Team, Aretis 5B, 15343, Agia Paraskevi, Greece

    Maria-Eleni Georgoulea, Yiannis Armenakis & Christina Tasouli

  4. Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Education City - Gate 8, Ar Rayyan, Qatar

    George Mikros

  5. Paris, France

    Olivier Rozenberg

Authors
  1. Fotios Fitsilis
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  2. Basilis Gatos
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  4. Panagiotis Kaddas
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  8. Christina Tasouli
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  9. George Mikros
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  10. Olivier Rozenberg
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  11. Eleni Kiousi
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Correspondence to Fotios Fitsilis .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Nantes Université, Nantes, France

    Harold Mouchère

  2. Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China

    Anna Zhu

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Fitsilis, F. et al. (2024). Digitization of Written Parliamentary Questions from the Historical Archive (1974–1977) of the Hellenic Parliament. In: Mouchère, H., Zhu, A. (eds) Document Analysis and Recognition – ICDAR 2024 Workshops. ICDAR 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14935. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-70645-5_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-70645-5_8

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