Portuguese Asian Digital Archive Network
PADAN

This project proposes to identify the holdings of repositories, university libraries, municipal libraries and the libraries of other institutions, containing archival, hand-written and printed documents, as well as important relevant historical materials and publications, concerning Portugal’s contacts with Asia from XVI century to mid-1950’s.
The aim of this focused project is to provide a sound foundation for initiating a Portuguese network of archives, libraries and documentation centres to support research in this important field. This resource will be named the Portuguese Asian Digital Archive Network (PADAN). Initially the project will focus on holdings in Portugal, and construct a digital reference resource, placed on the server of the CCCM in Lisbon, that will be publicly available. After this first stage is completed, the project will enlarge its scope to include reference to holdings held in archives, libraries and documentation centres throughout Europe, China, Japan, Brazil and the USA, as well as born digital resources from all over the world.
The CCCM PADAN will enable academicians, students and members of the public to become aware of, and have improved access to, essential historical materials regarding Portugal’s long and continuous history of international interaction with East Asia. Access to archival and  historical materials will promote expanded and deeper study of the exchange of ideas that took place over the centuries, and the development of the multiculturality that grew from these first contacts. The existence of a digital reference resource can be expected to further promote international research on Portugal’s history, and lead to increased international cooperation.

This network will use a software capable of collecting and providing access to heterogeneous information assets from various different sources and provide a unique and privileged access point. After discovering information, the users will be redirected to the system that contains the original information in order to view it in context and in a complete way.
The selection of the resources to be shared will be responsibility of the provider institutions in collaboration with the project’s Scientific Board namely Professor Carmen Amado Mendes, CCCM President, Professor Isabel Murta Pina, CCCM Researcher and Professor Roger Greatrex, CCCM consultant.
Among our identified international collaborators thus far are Leuven University, Boston University, Shanghai University, and the University of Macau.