Best practice in a digital library of Arabic manuscripts

For ages past, inscribed culture heritage materials have been preserved, organised, and disseminated by libraries, museums, and archive centres. Arabic manuscripts, as one of the most fragile and valuable examples of mankind's heritage, are kept in different parts of the world. With the increasing demand for these manuscripts by users, many Arabic manuscript holders have tended to use technology in order to preserve this fragile information resource and provide a better service for users. Digital libraries open new frontiers for Arabic manuscript providers and end-users. In the last five years, a number of digital libraries providing access to some Arabic manuscripts have been launched in several parts of the world. There are also ongoing projects to establish a digital library of Arabic manuscripts (e.g. in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). A number of studies have called for the involvement of users in building and maintaining digital libraries to provide a better service. This study aims to explore and specify Arabic manuscript users' (providers and end-users) requirements to provide best practice for digital libraries of Arabic manuscripts. In order to elicit Arabic manuscripts users' requirements, the study has employed both desk research and a mixed methods approach. This study has selected the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) as the research environment. The findings of this study show willingness by number of Arabic manuscript providers to establish a digital library of Arabic manuscripts. In addition, the majority of surveyed end-users have previous experience of using internet resources (e.g. digital libraries) for locating and accessing Arabic manuscripts. End-users have specific requirements based on their informationseeking behaviour which are in contrast with those of providers, such as obtaining a hard copy of a manuscript.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral-pg

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Strathclyde

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Alshuhri, Sulieman Salem

DOI

10.48730/v97r-7f42

Identifier

T13483

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:strathclyde:t148fh21h