UC and the Sharjah Book Authority move to the "Noble Floor" of Digital Joanina
The Digital Joanina project will enter a new phase in March, with the digitisation of a significant number of works and the implementation of large-scale working processes.
One year after signing the cooperation agreement between the University of Coimbra (UC) and the Sharjah Book Authority, the two parties met again to sign the final protocol of the Digital Joanina project, which has been in its pilot stage since February 2024, during which 141 works have been digitised as a "proof of concept", explains Delfim Leão, UC Vice-Rector for Culture and Open Science. The UC team - which included the Rectory, the UC General Library, and UC Framework - worked with the Sharjah Book Authority "to design the architecture and interface of the platform that will house the books, as well as its IT and technology solutions".
The signing of this protocol "confirms the determination of both parties to see Digital Joanina through to its completion". The project will now move on to the second phase, the so-called 'Noble Floor', with the large-scale digitisation of the 30,000 works on the main floor [Noble Floor] of the Joanina Library, a task that will be carried out over the next six years and will result in the cataloguing of more than 20 million images. This will be "one of the largest and most innovative digitisation efforts for a historical collection, perhaps even at an international level".
"Our idea is to open the Joanina Library to the world," said UC Rector Amílcar Falcão. "We have the Joanina Library, a treasure that contains another treasure. If the entire collection can be accessed from anywhere in the world, the whole world will be able to appreciate this timeless wealth— which is one of the reasons we were listed as a World Heritage Site," he added.
Amílcar Falcão believes that the work carried out so far "is a huge step forward, both for research and for the general public."
The President of the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), Ahmed Bin Rakkad Al Ameri, believes it is "very important to be able to see and access a digital copy of the amazing manuscripts that the Library and the University of Coimbra hold". The Digital Joanina allows "the reading of these manuscripts to become available to the whole world," says Ahmed Bin Rakkad Al Ameri. "Today, this is a form of knowledge sharing among humanity".
The 141 books already digitised are part of the Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi Library, a collection of publications on the Middle East.
