The organization and access to digitized malay manuscripts: Creating a digital library using greenstone

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study examines the current practice in accessing and organizing Malay manuscripts collection in selected Malaysian repositories and how to alleviate identified problems by developing a prototype digital library for Malay manuscripts. The soft systems approach or commonly referred to as the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is used to investigate the problem situation and apply system thinking techniques so that a suitable solution can be suggested and the following objectives can be realized: (a) To study the current practices in managing Malay manuscripts collections and issues related to Malay manuscripts as reported by manuscript librarians; (b) To determine the features and metadata for describing the digitized manuscripts to be incorporated in the proposed digital library of Malay manuscripts; (c) To implement a prototype digital library of Malay manuscripts using suitable open source digital library software, which could support the user requirements that have been identified; (d) To verify the usability of the prototype digital library of Malay manuscripts. This study adopts multiple data collection techniques that incorporate (a) survey questionnaire involving manuscript librarians in charge of Malay manuscripts collections; (b) review of digital library initiatives; and (c) user testing and evaluation of the digital library prototype. As a proposed solution to the problems faced in the current practice of managing Malay manuscripts, Greenstone, an open source digital library software and a metadata set based on Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) have been used for the implementation of a prototype digital library of Malay manuscript known as MyManuskrip. MyManuskrip provides a collaborative environment empowering a number of collections from independent repositories. Collection builders are able to better describe their Malay manuscripts through the use of TEI-based metadata, control the appearance of their own collection and categorize their manuscripts collections according to their preference, but still maintaining their ownership through the use of watermarking, while users are able to browse manuscript titles in categories, search single or across collections, view the complete manuscripts images and jump to other related materials through the provided hyperlink. Users' responses indicate that MyManuskrip is perceived as useful and usable. MyManuskrip is now available at http://mymanuskrip.fsktm.um.edu.my/