IT tools for the research and linguistic advice on Italian – SIRCLI

The computer centre of the Accademia della Crusca was created in 2004. Since the 1960s the Accademia has used IT tools as a working base for the preparation of the historical dictionary. Starting from 1999, the computer activity has shifted to the valorisation of the library and archive heritage of the Accademia, but there has also been a growing interest towards tools applied to linguistics and lexicography, especially with the implementation of the project Lessicografia della Crusca in Rete, the digitalization of the five editions of the Vocabolario. The computer centre has been conceived and created in order to support and arrange all these activities in such a way that the experience and knowledge acquired in the Accademia can merge into planning and implementation of IT tools to be shared with other institutions and research centres.
Computer experts and linguists, who in these years have helped to plan, create and implement the many databases searchable on the Accademia website, collaborate within the centre. The main aim for the near future is to combine available tools, in order to develop a central database of materials and of the multimedia devices about to be completed.
A vital strategic aspect of the centre is the training of young graduates, both in the fields of linguistics and computer sciences, to create professional figures capable of tackling problems connected with the application of IT procedures to the study of Italian language and to linguistics.
The Accademia della Crusca owns a LAN network (LAN) with structured cabling, and sixty RJ45 gates, that works with power cables 10/100, and run by three switches. Inside it there are five servers, joined in rack data centres and protected by uninterruptible power supply (UPS), thirty workstations , four networked printers, a central backup unit.