Shifting Landscapes: Remapping The Writing Traditions of Islamic Southeast Asia through Digitisation

Studies of the languages and literatures of the Malay world of Nusantara have long been shaped by the collections of manuscripts held in western institutions, which strongly reflect the interests of colonial officials who formed them. A very different picture of the writing traditions of maritime Southeast Asia emerges from a survey of manuscripts still held in local communities digitised through the Endangered Archives Programme and DREAMSEA. Primarily concerned with Islamic topics and often written in Arabic, the study of these newly-accessible collections has the potential to lead to a remapping of the intellectual landscape of the region

National archives" priorities: an international overview

This discussion of national archives’ present priorities affords an overview of the areas meriting their greatest attention. It is based on an analysis of 18 strategic plans and 41 vision statements found for the 159 national archives affiliated with the International Council on Archives’ regional branches that provide public access to these documents on their websites. Improvement in access to and conservation and digitisation of the respective collections are convergent items in such plans and statements. Other strategies including protection for the national heritage and collective memory are also identified in some developing countries where the national archive is the mainstay of cultural and intellectual life. Strengthening national archive authority as the governing institution that guides a country’s archival policy, another issue found in both plans and statements, infers the need to heighten archives’ social and institutional role in their respective countries. The article identifies what is deemed good practice in cultural institution transparency management by describing what these institutions do and how. The scant presence of strategic plans on national archives’ websites is regretted, however, for it deprives citizens of information on the action planned for the years to come and precludes any international extrapolation of the present findings.This work was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades [RTI2018-095187-B-I00

Islamic and Middle East Area Studies Librarianship

The three papers collected here are based on a seminar on Islamic Studies Librarianship held on 31 January 2019 at the Aga Khan Library (AKL), in conjunction with the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC). Curators, area studies directors, and collection librarians, who are currently involved in this field, gathered to discuss common challenges and to identify strategic areas for collaboration.https://ecommons.aku.edu/uk_ismc_series_ops/1002/thumbnail.jp

Academic heritage at LERU universities

Special book on academic heritage at LERU universities. It is a special, commemorative volume to mark LERU’s 20th anniversary existence in 2022

Datasets Management as a Special Collection

There are several dataset management challenges to be faced in the coming years. The incorporation of the datasets into special collections will be a challenge. As well as formats management, libraries with datasets will have to deal with issues such as right management, interoperability or the election adequacy to the end-user and findability. However, it must be recognized that incompatibilities could be solved through data auditing. The appropriate type of digital preservation strategy will have to be considered in order to maintain accessibility.This paper presents a review of the literature that discusses datasets in special collections

The Hadith Digitization in Millennial Era: A Study at Center for Hadith Studies, Indonesia

The millennial era has been initially marked by the development of information technology. This article mainly explores the opportunities and challenges of digitizing hadith in the millennial era. This study belongs to a descriptive qualitative method. In-depth interviews with the Programmers of the Center for the study of Hadith in Jakarta, observation and documentation were conducted to gather data. The result reveals that digitizing the books of hadith provides an opportunity for everyone to access the books of hadith by downloading the hadith digitization application freely. Therefore, people can access the hadith books in both PDF and digital formats. On the contrary, it may lead to academic anxiety or challenges. This is because the hadith books in both PDF and digital formats can be deliberately changed by irresponsible people so that the authenticity of the information and the accuracy of the data will be questionable. Further, this tendency could be misused by certain people, by changing its contents and then disseminating it for the certain purposes.  Regarding this, one of the ways to overcome this is by maintaining its authenticity, updating the content, and adding the copyright to the data source reference using the source check method

Oriental Research Institute & Manuscripts Library, Kerala: A Case Study

The Oriental Research Institute & Manuscripts Library, University of Kerala, houses the treasures of ancient knowledge in India. It has come in to existence out of royal interest. The kings of Travancore, as a rule, were valorous as well as lovers of art and literature. Srimulam Thirunal was mainly responsible for the spread of Oriental literature throughout the world. It was he who instituted the department for the publication of manuscripts which in due course grew into the present institution. It is located at Kariavattom, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Its origin goes back to the illustrious Maharaja of Travancore, Swati Tirunal (1829-1846). The institute carries out researches on Indian language manuscripts, major part of which are in Sanskrit. Oriental Research Institute & Manuscripts Library has over 65,000 works mostly of palm leaf manuscripts. Currently the Oriental Institute and Manuscript Library is headed by Dr. R. B. Sreekala, Professor and Head of the Department, Oriental Research Institute and Manuscripts Library, University of Kerala. The paper highlights the techniques used for the conservation and preservation of the rare manuscript collection in Oriental Research & Manuscript Library, Thiruvananthapuram. It further investigates the hardware and software available for digitizing the invaluable collection of manuscripts for the future generation

Strategies for Overcoming Challenges in Digital Preservation of Electronic Theses and Dissertations in Public University Libraries in South-East Nigeria

The study examined the strategies for overcoming challenges in digital preservation of electronic theses and dissertations in public university libraries in South-East Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The study population comprised 256 librarians, out of which only 68 digital or institutional repositories librarians were covered. A self-constructed questionnaire was used for data collection. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. It was discovered that the major challenges encountered in preserving e-theses and dissertations in those libraries are lack of adequate funding, adequate ICT facilities, skilled staff, poor power supply, absence of staff development programme and digital preservation policy. It was also found that the strategies for overcoming challenges in preserving e-theses and dissertations in the libraries are creation of a digital preservation policy, undergoing continuing education, engaging in staff development programmes, creation of an institutional repository, entering agreements, collaboration, outsourcing funds, community needs assessment, organizational assessment and seeking expert advice while outsourcing ICT is not a strategy for overcoming the challenges. Finally, the investigation found that creation of a digital preservation policy, engaging in staff development programmes, creation of an institutional repository, entering agreements, undergoing continuing education, collaboration, community needs assessment, organizational assessment and seeking expert advice are the effective strategies employed in overcoming challenges in preserving e-theses and dissertations in the libraries, whereas, outsourcing ICT /funds and lobbying management for support are not effective strategies for overcoming the challenges. It was recommended that government and university management should cultivate a positive attitude to supporting the cause of university libraries as sustainable digital preservation efforts cannot be achieved by the libraries alone