The Thematic Library – Railway Memory brings together studies and documents on the history of the railways in São Paulo and its preservation. It currently has almost 20 thousand items (books, articles, cartographic and iconographic documents) on railway history, railway companies or railway assets in Brazil. It was developed in Zotero – free software used for management and sharing of electronic references. This references library is the initiative of the team of the Memory Railway Project, headquartered in the Laboratório de Patrimônio Cultural/UNESP. The creation and maintenance of this Electronic Library is based on the scientific data management policies currently required by Brazilian research institutions, as well as on the principle of free access to scientific information (Open Access). To facilitate the research the library provides a tutorial for the bibliographical references.
The Thematic Library is divided into two sets. The Ferroteca folder contains extensive bibliography produced on railway history and railway heritage in Brazil, in different areas of knowledge, such as history, economic history, architecture, urbanism and tourism. We privilege the academic production in books, articles, theses or dissertations in the last 40 years. We also make available the scientific production of the Railway Memory team, in our own folder. In the Archives folder it is possible to find historical documents about the São Paulo’s railways (reports, books, documentation, maps, technical drawings and photo albums) that are archived in public collections (national or foreign). The researchers from the Railway Memory project included digital copies of some historical value-documentaries used in the group’s research (such as annual reports of railway companies, books, maps or plans).
Users will find information on published content, and references can be search by the publications title, the authors name, the source book or journal, the archive or library in which it is archived, and possibly URL for digital copying. The Library is going to be updated regularly, and the bibliography and historical documentation will be added as the team’s own research advances. This information is expected not only to demonstrate the advantages of systematic knowledge accumulation through collaborative research, but also to support other academic research on the history of transportation in São Paulo and studies on heritage management.
If you wish to inform about collection not catalogued here or doubts about the available content, please contact us.
