Oral History Collections at Research University Libraries in Malaysia

Oral history has usually meant as an account of historical event, person or place, a first person memory of the past, by an eyewitness. It is considered as living memories which have great importance in the history of mankind. It has also become a key resource for reconstructing, recreating and recording past and present knowledge of society. Academic libraries have served as repositories for books and manuscripts that help in revealing the stories of world’s civilization for centuries. These civilizations have secured their history by training particular individuals to remember, to record and to pass the updated tradition on to the next generation orally. Sadly, much of our pasts, in terms of oral history, have not been preserved in academic libraries. Even though Malaysia was among the first country in Southeast Asia which have started oral history program in 1960s, activities on oral history conducted or collected by academic libraries in Malaysia appear to be vague. Over the years, various factors in library management have affected oral history activities and program and has brought it to a standstill

Pathfinder Koleksi Kaum Peranakan Asia Tenggara: Inisiatif Pengantarabangsaan

Kertas kerja ini akan menerangkan tentang inisiatif pengantarabangsaan Koleksi Kaum Peranakan Asia Tenggara melalui pathfinder series yang dilaksanakan oleh Perpustakaan USM. Pathfinder series atau panduan subjek dibina untuk Koleksi Kaum Peranakan Asia Tenggara yang mengandungi maklumat bagi bahan-bahan yang berkaitan dengan kaum Peranakan di Asia Tenggara khususnya Kaum Cina Peranakan, Kaum Jawi Peranakan, Kaum India Peranakan (Kaum Chetti) dan Kaum Siam Peranakan (Kaum Melayu Sam-Sam). Sejak sekian lama, para pustakawan telah menggunakan panduan subjek sebagai salah satu medium bagi membantu pelanggan Perpustakaan mengenalpasti dan mendapatkan pelbagai bahan sumber maklumat yang diperlukan bagi membantu pembelajaran, pengajaran dan penyelidikan. Selaras dengan perkembangan teknologi, Perpustakaan USM sebagai Sekretariat AUNILO (Libraries of ASEAN University Network) telah mengambil inisiatif untuk mewujudkan pathfinder atau panduan subjek atas talian bagi Koleksi Kaum Peranakan Asia Tenggara yang boleh dicapai secara maya

Khazanah Warisan Tempatan di Perpustakaan Hamzah Sendut, Universiti Sains Malaysia: Koleksi Kaum Peranakan Asia Tenggara

This paper will describe the process of collection development of Southeast Asia Peranakans in Malaysiana and Archives Division, Hamzah Sendut Library, Universiti Sains Malaysia. As a central repository of knowledge and information, the Library plays an important role in ensuring the preservation of materials which have traditional and local knowledge values. Collection development is a main activity in a library, therefore, the purpose and significance are also described in this paper. The collection development on South East Asia Peranakan involves the collection, storage, preservation and dissemination of information relating to the Peranakan people in Southeast Asia, particularly Chinese Peranakan, Jawi Peranakan, Peranakan Indians (The Chetti) and The Siam Peranakan (Malay Sam Sam). Initiatives that have been taken to realize the collection development of the Southeast Asia Peranakan will be described and explained in detail. In addition, the challenges and obstacles faced during the development process of this collection will also be clarified. This collection will give a specific disclosure of the existence of the Peranakan people, help track and preserve traditional heritage treasures so as not to be diminished by the passage of time. This collection can also be used as a reference to assist the teaching, learning and research of future generations. This effort could also be benchmarked for the development of special collectio

Penukilan ilmu baharu melalui sejarah lisan

Oral history is an important method used to record events that a person has gone through. Historical records of an event can be completed through oral history since part of the information still resides in a person’s memory.Interview is one method that is used in oral history to collect information from an individual. The oral history interview scope covers all levels within a society in order to gain a new perspective on historical events.In 1982, Universiti Sains Malaysia formed the Committee on Oral History in order to gather information about the Japanese occupation in the northern areas of peninsular Malaysia.The committee members had historians as well a librarian for the University’s library. The librarian is responsible for the recordings and the transcriptions.The historical compilations that are kept in the Library can generate new knowledge. Therefore there should be a structured promotion plan. Technological developments can aid in the dissemination of the collection to a wider audience.This paper will explain the importance of oral history, background of the collection held in the USM Library and efforts undertaken to promote this information source as an important material for research on history in the near future

Open Access Publication of Universiti Sains Malaysia: a Bibliometric Analysis

Open Access (OA) is the new publishing model that allows unrestricted access and reuse of research outputs. OA accelerates discovery in the sense that researchers can freely read and build on new findings based on other research. While public seems to welcome more involvement in OA among academics, many researchers are still discussing about the challenges that they face to publish with OA journals including the issue of article processing charge (APC) and the quality of OA journals. This paper examines several aspects relate to OA publication such as publication productivity, citation impact, subject coverage, and publishing cost of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) based on SCOPUS data from 2013 to 2015. The findings show that School of Medical Sciences, Physics and Pharmacy dominated the OA publications. Thus, it also indicates that science-based researchers are highly inclined towards publishing in OA as compared to non-science researchers. Top three OA journals in the list are Plos One (Multidisciplinary), Acta Chrystallographica Section E (Chemistry) and Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engineering (Engineering, Geology). Most of the authors tend to publish in Quartile 3 journals (43%), followed by Q2 (28%), Q1 (16%) and Q4 (13%). However, with regard to citation impact per paper (average), every paper in Q1 journal received 6.25 citations, followed by Q2 (2.8 citations), Q3 (1.33 citations) and Q4 (0.87 citation). The APC range of OA publication found to be from RM0 to RM15, 000 per paper. The study provides useful insights about OA publication among USM researchers which can guide other researchers who wish to engage with OA in the future. Further study can be done by interviewing authors, to further explore on the OA research funding, strategy in choosing OA journals to publish in and also the motivation in publishing with OA