Platform created by Keep Solutions for CIM Alto Minho aggregates 300,000 documents

The 300,000 documents from the public libraries of the ten municipalities of Alto Minho are now added to the search portal bibliotecas.altominho.pt. The project was developed by Keep Solutions (technological spin-off of the School of Engineering of the University of Minho) for the Alto Minho Intermunicipal Community and co-financed by Norte 2020.

The platform lists the collection of the municipal libraries of Arcos de Valdevez, Caminha, Cerveira, Melgaço, Monção, Paredes de Coura, Ponte da Barca, Ponte de Lima, Valença and Viana do Castelo. There are also several school and association libraries of those municipalities.

This digital tool is based on Retrievo software, which allows the gathering of contents from different sources and facilitates the user’s search in a central “search engine”, and then the search result appears in detail, in the original context and with various filters, such as date, author, recipient library or document type (braille, ebook, book, school manual, manuscript, graphic material, multimedia, journal, slide…). The portal is called “Rede Intermunicipal das Bibliotecas Públicas Municipais do Alto Minho” (RIBAM).

“This is a new link, especially for the 230,000 Alto-Minho citizens who share a rich cultural heritage and, now, an immense documentary heritage”, refer the promoters. The project wants to provide adequate information services to citizens, companies, associations and interest groups, thus contributing to qualify the offer of public libraries, modernize technological systems and consolidate ties with the community: “It is another dimension of the role of libraries, a networked and collaborative work, in favor of knowledge and the preservation of culture, just a click away ”.

The authors most referenced in the collection are Ana Maria Magalhães, Walt Disney and António Torrado, which reveals the prominence given to children’s literature. The general collection includes numerous works, from “Antologia de poetas do Alto Minho”, by Laureano Santos, “A garrana”, by Matilde Rosa Araújo (of Monçanense roots), “A casa grande de Romarigães”, by Aquilino Ribeiro and on Paredes de Coura, “O segredo da rainha velha”, by Fina d’Armada, “Pedro Homem de Mello escreveu, Amália Rodrigues cantou”, by Matias de Barros (includes the famous “Havemos de ir a Viana”), besides sketches by the sculptor José Rodrigues, co-founder of the Bienal de Cerveira, or videos by Modesto Miranda about Vaca das Cordas, the Lima river, folklore and pilgrimages as Sra. da Peneda.