CURATION AND MANAGEMENT OF CULTURAL HERITAGE THROUGH LIBRARIES

Libraries, museums and archives hold valuable collections in a variety of media, presenting a vast body of knowledge rooted in the history of human civilisation. These form the repository of the wisdom of great works by thinkers of past and the present. The holdings of these institutions are priceless heritage of the mankind as they preserve documents, ideas, and the oral and written records. To value the cultural heritage and to care for it as a treasure bequeathed to us by our ancestors is the major responsibility of libraries. The past records constitute a natural resource and are indispensable to the present generation as well as to the generations to come. Libraries preserve the documentary heritage resources for which they are primarily responsible. Any loss of such materials is simply irreplaceable. Therefore, preserving this intellectual, cultural heritage becomes not only the academic commitment but also the moral responsibility of the librarians/information scientists, who are in charge of these repositories. The high quality of the papers and the discussion represent the thinking and experience of experts in their particular fields. The contributed papers also relate to the methodology used in libraries in Asia to provide access to manuscripts and cultural heritage. The volume discusses best practices in Knowledge preservation and how to collaborate and preserve the culture. The book also deals with manuscript and archives issues in the digital era. The approach of this book is concise, comprehensively, covering all major aspects of preservation and conservation through libraries. The readership of the book is not just limited to library and information science professionals, but also for those involved in conservation, preservation, restoration or other related disciplines. The book will be useful for librarians, archivists and conservators. We thank the Sunan Kalijaga University, Special Libraries Association- Asian Chapter for their trust and their constant support, all the contributors for their submissions, the members of the Local and International Committee for their reviewing effort for making this publication possible

Designing an information infrastructure to support research degree programmes : identifying information and technology needs

PhD ThesisExtensive previous research has shown that web-based technologies have the potential to improve and enhance the quality of learning both on campus and at a distance. However, most of these studies have focused on the application of web-based technologies to support either undergraduates or taught postgraduate programmes, particularly, the use of Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) system to complement module-based courses. Evidence from previous research on the use of VLE to support research students in the context of specific modules showed mixed results. Analysis of the VLE literature suggests that the system arranges courses based on academic calendar. Thus, students will not be able to access the system after the semester end. With postgraduate research, the processes of research are often incomplete even when students have graduated and they often seek to further the work through publication in journals. Therefore, using VLE alone would not possibly support the need of research student, particularly the support that they need throughout the stages of the research life cycle. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to investigate how a web portal could be designed to support the research students throughout the research life cycle. A conceptualised web portal design has been constructed through an extensive review of the web-based technologies, learning theories and research degrees literature. The conceptualised web portal design illustrates that the design is underpinned by adult learning theories and the theory of stages in socialisation development, which in turn inform the framework of this research study. This model was then validated and updated through four action research cycles. A web portal system was developed, using the prototyping method to demonstrate the application of the web portal design informed by the adult learning theories and theory of stages in socialisation development. The research findings suggest that action research and prototyping methodology is capable of designing a web portal that is able to support the needs of research students in the context of a life cycle approach. Furthermore, the study reveals that personalisation and customisation features have proved to be useful in providing relevant information to research students at each stage of the research students’ study. It was found that research students value dynamic content such as Really Simple Syndication (RSS) features for providing condensed, updated content relevant to their interests.Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysi

Research community knowledge portals

Abstract: This paper discusses principles and kinds of research community knowledge portals. It also presents a case study – experiences of a research group in establishing a knowledge portal, the kinds of practical efforts needed in such a project, the major hurdles and pitfalls on the way, and the lessons learned. Although the case study discusses a research community knowledge portal in a specific research field – artificial intelligence – the experiences it describes are relevant for developing portals to other knowledge areas as well