Digitization of Malaysian intellectual heritage : investigation on rare materials and Malay manuscripts

Abstract

The main purpose of this research is because there are no guidelines or standards for the public libraries in Malaysia to use in conducting the digitization projects. There are also no standards for measuring the quality and success of the digitization projects. This research will provide the Malaysian library community with a model of success factors for conducting digitization of intellectual heritage materials projects in the country. The approach of this research is through a case study method. Since in this research the focus is only on three state libraries in Malaysia with nine respondents, case study is suitable for gathering information in this qualitative research. Basically, the research concluded that good efforts have been done by the state libraries in conducting their digitization project. Since there are no guidelines and standards, the output and the understanding of digitization are different between them. There are libraries that taking this matter seriously with development of their own guidelines while others do not. Staff training, project management, funding and infrastructure are some of the elements that can contribute to the successful of digitization projects.