A Biblioteca Digital de Literatura Maranhense, O Portal Maranhão, ambiente virtual de leitura e estudo de textos literários, que dispõe de informações sobre a vida e a obra de escritores maranhenses, além de permitir o acesso direto às obras e aos documentos que já estão em domínio público, resulta de um projeto nascido no NuPILL (Núcleo de Pesquisa em Informática, Literatura e Linguística) em colaboração com o LAPESD (Laboratório de Pesquisa em Sistemas Distribuídos): a (Biblioteca Digital de Literatura de Países Lusófonos, que é, via de regra, fonte primária e gratuita de documentos literários em versão integral, bem como o maior banco de dados de história literária de literaturas brasileira e portuguesa que temos conhecimento.
The activities related to the Digital Library of Maranhense Literature began in 2015 with the approval of the Caxiense Academy of Letters Collection project: preservation, digitization and dissemination, financed by FAPEMA (Foundation for Support in Research and Scientific and Technological Development of Maranhão), in the context of the ADOC call, in which, in a systematic way, the researches developed in the collection of the Academia Caxiense de Letras (ACL) began. In 2016, two other PIBIC/UEMA/FAPEMA projects were approved, at the time, to work with the digitization, revision and treatment of works by the writer Coelho Neto present in the collection. Also in 2016, another project was approved to work in the ACL collection, this time with the PIBITI/UEMA call, the only one in the area of Letters with approval. In addition, to account for the large amount of data obtained with the aforementioned projects and to continue the actions of preservation and dissemination of the ACL collection, a project was submitted to the UNIVERSAL FAPEMA No. 40/2015 call, which was also approved in 2016, the Maranhão Portal Project: First Phase, whose objective was to create a space with historical and literary information about the production of writers from Maranhão. Since then, the project has been maintained with the help of other public calls, mostly financed by FAPEMA.
In addition, to account for the large amount of data obtained with the aforementioned projects and to continue the actions of preservation and dissemination of the ACL collection, a project was submitted to the UNIVERSAL FAPEMA Nº 40/2015 call, which was also approved in 2016, the Maranhão Portal Project: First Phase, whose objective was to create a space with historical and literary information about the production of writers from Maranhão. Since then, the project has been maintained with the help of other public calls, mostly financed by FAPEMA.
Thus, arising from the initiatives of LAMID - Research Center in Art, Literature and Media - in partnership with UEMA - State University of Maranhão - with FAPEMA, with the Caxiense Academy of Letters, NuPILL and LAPESD, the Digital Library of Literatura Maranhense aims to disseminate the literary production of Maranhão, with free access for readers and researchers from different places and institutions. The Portal Maranhão, by providing literary works in a digital environment, fills an existing gap with regard to access to works and data from writers from Maranhão who, in view of the difficulty of access and the precarious state of preservation, are not available for students and academics who are interested in Maranhão literature or who have it as an object of study and research.
Finally, we clarify that Portal Maranhão is a digital site that, like the Digital Literature Library of Lusophone Countries, is constantly updating and correcting data and has the collaboration of users, who can send questions and suggestions to nupill.ufsc@gmail.com.