Abstract
In this paper, we discuss factors that influence the digitisation of cultural heritage resources and outline differences in the challenges faced by memory institutions in developed and developing countries.
Increasingly, memory institutions (galleries, libraries, archives and museum) are taking advantage of digital technologies, including social Web technologies to digitise, share and preserve heritage resources to create national repositories with the hope of eliminating gaps in future memory. They also seek opportunities to engage with and involve owners of cultural heritage resources and key stakeholders in the digitisation of their heritage collections. Nevertheless, memory institutions have faced various challenges in doing so.
In developed countries, memory institutions are mainly challenged by how to navigate the enormity of the collections that need to be digitised and preserved. In developing countries, different forms of negative attitudes towards digitisation hinder progress in digital preservation management. Owners of cultural heritage resources fear permanent loss of their heritage, key stakeholders lack interest in heritage digitisation, and information professionals have conflicting ideas on how to go about the digitisation process. Our analysis reveals attitudinal issues can have a significant impact on digital preservation. Even though attitudinal issues have been mentioned in previous studies, they are often treated more at an implicit level. We argue that in the context of cultural heritage digitising and preserving involving source communities and various stakeholders, the attitudinal dimension ought to be a key consideration and as such, should be made explicit in discussion of these.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Liew, C.L.: Digital cultural heritage 2.0: a meta-design consideration. In: 8th International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science, Information Research, vol. 18, no. 3, Copenhagen, Denmark. 19–22 August 2013 (2013). http://www.informationr.net/ir/18-3/colis/paperS03.html
Boamah, E., Liew, C.L.: Involving source communities in the digitisation and preservation of indigenous knowledge. In: 18th International Conference on Asia-Pacific Digital Libraries, ICADL 2016, Proceedings, Tsukuba, Japan, 7–9 December 2016, pp. 21–36 (2016)
Krtalić, M., Hasenay, D.: Exploring a framework for comprehensive and successful preservation management in libraries. J. Doc. 68(3), 353–377 (2012). doi:10.1108/00220411211225584
Cleveland, G.: Digital libraries: definitions, issues and challenges (1998). https://www.ifla.org/archive/udt/op/udtop8/udtop8.htm
Greenstein, D.: Digital libraries and their challenges. Libr. Trends 49(2), 290–303 (2000)
Kuny, T., Cleveland, G.: The digital library: myths and challenges. IFLA J. 24(2), 107 (1998). doi:10.1177/034003529802400205
Mishra, R.K.: Digital libraries: definitions, issues, and challenges. Innov. J. Educ. 4(3), 1–3 (2016)
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa: Planning a new museum-how god is your idea? Setting up a new museum (2007). https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/sites/default/files/32-planning-a-museum.pdf
Rosati, E.: Copyright issues facing early stages of digitization projects. Mobile collection projects (2013). http://www.digitalhumanities.cam.ac.uk/Copyrightissuesfacingearlystagesofdigitizationprojects.pdf
Simon, N.: Museum 2.0: what are the most important problems in our field (2011). http://museumtwo.blogspot.co.nz/2011/10/what-are-most-important-problems-in-our.html
Holcomb, J.L.: Preserving digital archives, preserving cultural memory. J. Assoc. Hist. Comput. 3, 3 (2000). http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3310410.0003.320
Picot, A.: Digital archives: Here’s the problem – how would YOU address it? Report back from the Recordkeeping Roundtable Workshop at #ARANZASA in Christchurch, NZ. (2014). https://rkroundtable.org/2014/10/14/digital-archives-heres-the-problem-how-would-you-address-it/
Wright, J.: Challenges of appraising records in the digital age. In: The Bigger Picture: Exploring Archives and Smithsonian History (2012). https://siarchives.si.edu/blog/challenges-appraising-records-digital-age
Kaiser, J.F.: Richard Hamming: “You and Your Research”. Transcript of the Bell Communication Research Colloquium Seminar (1986). http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html
Mallan, K.: Is digitisation sufficient for collective remembering? Access to and use of cultural heritage collections. Can. J. Inf. Libr. Sci. 30(3/4), 201–220 (2006)
Huvila, I.: Archives, libraries and museums in the contemporary society: perspectives of the professional. In: iConference 2014 (2014). doi:10.9776/14032
Cathro, W.: Collaboration across the collecting sectors (2010). https://www.nla.gov.au/content/collaboration-across-the-collecting-sectors
Cimasi, R.J., Zigrang, T.A.: The four pillars of healthcare: part IV technological advancements in the healthcare industry. In: The Value Examiner, January/February 2017, pp. 17–24 (2017). AN: 121978019
Walker, I., Vlok, A.J., Kamat, A.: A double-edged sword: the effect of technological advancements in the management of neurotrauma patients. Br. J. Neurosurg. 31(1), 89–93 (2017). doi:10.1080/02688697.2016.1220504
Burris, C.: Technical services and digital literacy. Technicalities 37(1), 13–16 (2017). AN 120933179
Kumar, N.: Transforming libraries through information and communication technology. Int. J. Inf. Dissemination Technol. 6(3), 174–178 (2016). AN 119763982
Barker, S.K.: New opportunities for research libraries in digital information and knowledge management: challenges for the mid-sized research library. J. Libr. Adm. 46(1), 65–74 (2007). doi:10.1300/J111v46n01_05
Peacock, A.: Auckland a melting pot - ranked world’s fourth most cosmopolitan city (2016). http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/75964986/Auckland-a-melting-pot-ranked-worlds-fourth-most-cosmopolitan-city
Ladiges, C., Bruenig, M.: Australian museums must innovate or risk becoming ‘digital dinosaurs’ (2014). http://www.csiro.au/en/News/News-releases/2014/Australian-museums-risk-becoming-digital-dinosaurs
Sansom, M.: Go digital or die, Australia’s cultural institutions told (2014). http://www.governmentnews.com.au/2014/09/digitalise-die-australias-cultural-institutions-told/
Carnaby, P.: Libraries as a common denominator: a view from New Zealand of the citizen, country and global perspective. Electron. Libr. Inf. Syst. 43(3), 251–263 (2009)
National Library of New Zealand: Digitisation Strategy 2014–2017 (2014). https://natlib.govt.nz/about-us/strategy-and-policy/digitisation-strategy-2014-2017
Moran, J.: Born digital in New Zealand report of survey results (2017). https://natlib.govt.nz/files/reports/research-borndigital2017-report.pdf
Crookston, M., Oliver, G., Tikao, A., Diamond, P., Liew, C.L., Douglas, S.L.: Kōrero Kitea: Ngā hua o te whakamamatitanga: the impact of digitised te reo archival collections (2016). https://interparestrust.org/assets/public/dissemination/Korerokiteareport_final.pdf
Boamah, E., Tackie, S.N.B.: The state of heritage resources management in Ghana. In: 4th International conference on African Digital Libraries and Archives. (ICADLA). University of Ghana, 29 May 2015 (2015). http://hdl.handle.net/10539/18396
Asamoah, C., Akusah, H., Mensah, M.: Funding memory institution in Ghana: the case of Public Records and Archives Administration Department (PRAAD) (2015). http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10539/18395/Asamoah_Akussah_Mensah_Final.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Sigauke, D.T., Nengomasha, C.T.: Challenges and prospect facing the digitisation of historical records for their preservation within the national archives of Zimbabwe. In: 2nd International Conference on African Digital Libraries and Archives (ICADLA) at The University of Johennesburg, South Africa (2014). http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/11533
Samir, A., Sharkas, A., Adly, N., Nagi, M.: Digital preservation: handling large collections case study: digitizing Egyptian press archive at Centre for Economic, Judicial, and Social Study and Documentation (CEDEJ). In: 4th International conference on African Digital Libraries and Archives (2014). http://hdl.handle.net/10539/18635
Boamah, E.: Towards effective management and preservation of digital cultural heritage resources: an exploration of contextual factors in Ghana (2014). http://hdl.handle.net/10063/3270
Zuraidah, A.M.: The state of digitisation initiatives by cultural institutions in Malaysia; an exploratory survey. Libr. Rev. 56(1), 45–60 (2007)
Waller, M., Sharpe, R.: Mind the gap; Assessing digital preservation needs in the UK (2006). http://www.dpconline.org/search.html?q=1975+NASA+data+problem
Le Roux, A.: Indigenous knowledge in a virtual context: sustainable digital preservation, a literature review. In: 4th International Conference on African Digital Libraries and Archives (ICADLA), University of Ghana, 29 May 2015 (2015). http://hdl.handle.net/10539/18402
Imo, N.T., Igbo, H.U.: Institutional policy and management of institutional repositories in Nigerian universities. In: 4th International Conference on African Digital Libraries and Archives (ICADLA), University of Ghana, 29 May 2015 (2015). http://hdl.handle.net/10539/18399
McGreal, R.: Stealing the goose: copyright and learning. In: Caswell, J., Haschak, P.G., Sherman, D. (eds.) New Challenges Facing Academic Librarian Today: Electronic Journals, Archival Digitisation, Documents Delivery, Etc. Lewiston, New York (2005)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Boamah, E., Liew, C.L. (2017). Conceptualising the Digitisation and Preservation of Indigenous Knowledge: The Importance of Attitudes. In: Choemprayong, S., Crestani, F., Cunningham, S. (eds) Digital Libraries: Data, Information, and Knowledge for Digital Lives. ICADL 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10647. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70232-2_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70232-2_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70231-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70232-2
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)