From Callimachus to the Wikipedia: an ancient method for the representation of knowledge in the WWW era

In our paper we present the recent development of our three-dimensional virtual library model (3DVLM) based on the knowledge organization principles of the ancient Library of Alexandria developed by Callimachus in the 3rd century BC. First, we selected English translations of certain biographies and literary works, including mythological content. Then we started to improve the content of the database with additional items of different verbal and/or multimedia text types (e.g. encyclopedia entries, selected web pages, illustrative images, tables etc.). Now we would like to emphasize the arrangement and relationships of selected items of the database related to Callimachus' life and works coming from Wikipedia and other, chiefly electronic sources. We focus on the relationships between the corresponding items of the database demonstrating the importance of effective knowledge representation of the library content which is essential for the possible applications of the model. We intend to achieve two special purposes making use of the 3DVLM. First, we would like to help and motivate our users to increase their knowledge about the literary works of the ancient Alexandrian period and to understand and interpret the texts `at once' providing them with the necessary background knowledge. Second, in the course of reading, understanding and memorizing the preprocessed materials delivered by the knowledge base of the 3DVLM, we hope that our users will be strongly motivated to develop their linguistic knowledge, and especially to learn English.