About the Bibliotheca Macaonensis

The Bibliotheca Macaonensis is a long-term digital humanities research project intended to comprehensively investigate the history of Catholic missions in East and Southeast Asia. This project adopts a multidisciplinary perspective, underpinned by a robust infrastructure for historical research that leverages computerized data analysis facilitated by Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Machine Learning technologies.

Vision

To be an essential research database and community for the study of the history of the Diocese of Macau and Catholic Missions in East and Southeast Asia.

Objective

The goal of this project is to implement a comprehensive History Research Information System (HRSI) supported by Artificial Intelligence, Big-Data and Machine Learning solutions to foster and support the data collection and analysis of a massive amount of multi-language historical documents that are scattered around the world.

The extensive volume, global dissemination, and linguistic diversity of historical documents pertinent to the Diocese of Macau and the Catholic missions in Asia have historically posed significant challenges for researchers, complicating efforts to achieve a holistic understanding of these primary sources.

To address these challenges, the project implements extensive methodologies for the cataloging, classification, indexing, transcription, and abstracting of historical documents. These efforts are supported by cutting-edge technical infrastructure tailored for historical research and are guided by the latest advancements in theoretical frameworks, ontological considerations, and hermeneutical approaches within the realm of Digital Humanities.

Advisory Board

Under development.

Institutional Partners

The Bibliotheca Macaonensis project is developed by the University of Saint Joseph and LASI - Intelligent Systems Associate Laboratory from the University of Minho.

Registration as Project Volunteer

Being a project volunteer will:

  1. Have access to the core database through the Zotero research management system which facilitates referencing and citation, creating bibliographies, etc.
  2. Access to all documents of the "Bibliotheca Macaonensis" project.
  3. Complimentary access to our USJ Library collections and selected electronic resources.
  4. Additional research support.
  5. Member of a worldwide community of researchers about Catholic Missions in Asia that will continuously develop and implement multiple diverse cultural and research projects. As a volunteer will be at forefront of these projects.
  6. Privileged access to the project's automated text recognition system, transcription and translation system.

Submit your volunteer registration request to bdm@usj.edu.mo including your CV and a short text explaining why you want to become a volunteer and how many hours per month you will be willing to offer to this project.

After registration, we will perform a short interview and ask you to sign a volunteer agreement. You will be asked to comply with the regulations, code of conduct and ethics and to follow the volunteer agreement.