The Joanina Library houses a unique collection of several thousand printed books from the Early Modern era. Extending from the beginnings of typography to the end of the 18th century, this collection bears witness to the production, circulation, and organization of knowledge in that period. Considered one of the most significant baroque libraries in the world, the Joanina Library is also one of the historic buildings that is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the University of Coimbra.
When completed, the Joanina Digital Library will include approximately 30,000 works stored on the main floor of the library. This project is the result of a partnership between the University of Coimbra and Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), with the sponsorship of H.H. Sheikh Doctor Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi.
In addition to building a structured repository, the project provides access to all digitized content as facsimile images and text. Joanina Digital adopts principles of open science and interoperability, follows best practices for digitization of historical collections, develops policies and procedures to manage content and services at scale.
Outcomes and Impact
Joanina Digital's collections will be available free of charge to all users. Not only will the 500,000 annual visitors to the Joanina Library be able to discover its collections, but also all those who have not had the opportunity to visit it will be able to explore it in this way. In one particular aspect, the Middle East Digital Collection, “Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi Collection,” will provide structured access to a set of historical materials related to the history of the Portuguese presence in the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula.
The Joanina Digital Collection will also allow students and researchers to access a very significant representation of scientific production from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, in Europe. Furthermore, it will constitute a new resource, both for the systematic study of the production and circulation of books in that period (many of them in their first editions), and for the study of the history of libraries as information systems.
This project is expected to develop a model for the digitization of collections of old books from historical libraries, following two main objectives:
a) Public dissemination of collections: specialists in various disciplines will be invited to curate digital exhibitions based on selected works from the Joanina Digital collection, thus mediating the content of this historical library to diverse, contemporary, global audiences, in the electronic public space;
b) Promotion of scientific research: the infrastructure, data model, and tools developed forJoanina Digital will contribute to supporting future research projects dedicated to global cultural history, the history of knowledge production and organization, and the history of the book.
Finally, it is expected that the integration of the Joanina Digital's collections into Europeana will contribute to increasing its global impact.
Development
In order to secure the technical robustness and scientific quality of the project, the implementation was planned in two stages, the first corresponding to the “Pilot Project” (months 1 to 12). In this stage, the best solutions related to data acquisition, platform architecture, and interface design were tested. In this way, the technical standards, the human resources involved, workflow and quality control for the entire project could be properly calibrated.
The second stage, designated “Noble Floor” (months 13 to 72), focuses on the complete digitization and cataloging of the Noble Floor collection (approx. 30,000 items), according to the procedures resulting from the pilot project. The Joanina Digital collections will be integrated into a new platform for old books from the University of Coimbra, UC Digitalis, which will also include the current Almamater collections. The interfaces will be multilingual (Portuguese, English, and Arabic).
The project began in 2024 and is expected to be completed in 2030. As they are validated, new sets of documents will be progressively published.