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Digital Library Initiatives in Higher Education in Malaysia &

Singapore

Shaheen Majid

A Notable Start

Singapore was one of the pioneer countries to start work on digital librariesUniversities started teaching courses on digital libraries in late 1990’sActively involved in organizing ICADL conference and other related conferencesSeveral digital library initiatives were also undertaken in Malaysia

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Scope of My Presentation

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Some DL initiatives undertaken by institutions of Higher Education in Malaysia

& Singapore

Mostly management-related aspects of digital libraries

will be discussed

Data Collection

A ‘question sheet’ was sent to selected public universities in Malaysia and SingaporeAreas covered:

Scope and size of DL collectionDigital content management policyAccess management and copyrightProblems encountered and lessons learnt

Interviews with a few individuals responsible for developing digital libraries

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Participant Universities - Singapore

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1. National University of Singapore (NUS)

2. Nanyang Technological University (NTU)

3. Singapore Management

University (SMU)

Participant Universities - Malaysia

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1. University Malaya (UM)

2. University Technology Malaysia (UTM)

3. University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)

4. University Putra Malaysia (UPM)

Year of Launching DL

NTU - Sep. 2008SMU - Dec. 2008NUS - Apr. 2010

UKM - 2003/2007 UTM - 2007UM - 2008UPM - 2008

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Singapore Malaysia

Digital Collection Size

NTU - 39,800SMU - 11,000NUS - 4,551

UKM - 30,550 UTM - 7,690UPM - 6,190UM - 2,250

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Singapore Malaysia

DL Software Used

NTU - DSpaceNUS - DSpaceSMU - Symposia/

Innovative

UKM - EPrintsUTM - EPrints UPM - EPrintsUM - Eprints/

Dspace (theses)

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Singapore Malaysia

DSpace and EPrints are open source software

Software Customization

NTUEmbargo featureDynamic generation of citation information for downloaded full text documentsSubmission workflow & collection templatesBatch import tool for metadata, and Subject taxonomy

NUSUser interfaceBatch uploading of electronic theses

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DSpace

Software Customization

UPM– User Interface– Metadata

UKM UTMUM

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EPrints

Scope of Digital Collection

NTU (39,800)– Theses; exam papers; project reports, working

papers; staff conference papers and journal articles

– Format: Text (pdf & word); audio (mp3); videos (wmv & avi); image (jpeg)

SMU (11,000)– Theses; journal articles; working papers;

teaching videos

NUS (4,551)– Theses, staff and students’ publications

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Singapore

Scope of Digital Collection

UKM (30,550) - Theses; exam papers; journal articles; UKM news clippings; seminar papers; minutes of meetings; Malaysian Law Index; Southeast Asia collection

UTM (7,690) - Theses; journal articles; conf. papers; research reports; UTM staff books; top management profiles; UTM news clippings ; photos

UPM (6,190) - Theses; journal articles; conference papers; inaugural lectures; UPM news clippings

UM (2,250) - Theses; journal article; conference papers; pre-prints; research reports; proceedings

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Malaysia

Development & Maintenance Responsibility

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Institution Library* Collaborator Outsourced

NTU . ICT + Info. Studies Division

Software Enhancement

NUS . ICT Design & Development

SMU . ICT -UPM . - Document Scanning

UTM . ICT -UKM . ICT -UM . Comp Sci. Dept -

* IT/ICT Department of the Library

DL Document Management Policy

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Institution Policy Status

NTU Under development

NUS Under development

SMU Under development

UPM Under development

UTM Only inclusion/exclusion

UKM Under development

UM Inclusion/exclusion, archiving

Documents to be included/ excluded

Retention period of documents in the active collection

Documents to be archived, how long? by whom?

Responsibility for uploading, maintenance, deletion, etc.

Use of Taxonomy for Document Categorization

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Institution Taxonomy

NTU In-house

SMU Hybrid (internal + external)

NUS No

UM In-houseUTM LC Subject HeadingsUPM NoUKM No

Staff Training

NTU

SMUNUS

UPMUTMUKM

UM

On-the-job training; self-learning; participation in DSpace community Recruiting trained staff; self learning Customization vendor training

On-the-job trainingVendor training; on-the-job; self-learningVendor training; on-the-job trainingOn-the-job training

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Institution Training Method

Digital Library Access Policy

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Institution Restricted Users

Internal Users External Users

NTU - All items Selected items (e.g Thesis abstracts)

NUS . All items Selected

SMU . Items allowed by copyright owners

Selected items

UPM - All items Metadata only

UTM - All items Selected items

UKM - Library membersonly

External library members only

UM - All items -

Compliance with Copyright

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Institution Check against SherpaRomeo

Clearance from the Copyright Owner

After the Embargo Period

NTU . Journal publishers Theses - undecided

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NUS . Students for theses Staff for reports -

SMU . Staff to check with the publisher -

UPM . Journal publishers -UTM . Students for theses

Staff for reports -

UKM . Students for theses Staff for reports -

UM . Univ. publications -

Problems Encountered

1. Limited DL software capabilitiesNTU, SMU, UTM, UM, NUS

2. Unavailability of adequately trained staff NTU, UKM, UM

3. High maintenance cost (customization, system migration)

UKM, UTM

4. Limited staff training opportunitiesUTM

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Problems Encountered

5. Lack of motivation among stakeholders to submit their publicationsNUS

6. University bureaucracy and rigid policesUTM

7. Coordination problems with other collaborators (ICT Dept.)UTM

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Promotion and Use Monitoring

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Institution

Promotion Use Statistics

Usability study/

evaluation

NTU Website, part of lib. orientation

No No

NUS Website, library orientation

No. of visitors No

SMU Website, library orientation

No No

UPM Library orientation

No. of visitors/

downloads

No

UTM Website, library orientation

No. of visitors/

downloads

Part of library satisfaction

survey

UKM Part of IL skills No. of visitors/

downloads

No

UM Part of library orientation

No No

Lessons Learnt

Establish a team of well-trained staff before starting the project– NTU, NUS, UPM, UKM

Seek prior commitment of the top management (budget, staff, other resource)– NTU, NUS, UTM, UM

Understand users’ needs + conduct user study– NTU, SMU, UKM

Before populating the DL, develop policies and procedures– NTU, SMU, UKM

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Lessons Learnt

Properly assess DL packages + vendors– NTU, UKM

Some open source packages are better than proprietary systems– UKM

Make DL part of the university wide system to facilitate submissions – NTU

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Conclusion

Although all universities have established their DL, their collection size is quite smallThere is a need to promotes & encourage faculty and researchers to submit their scholarly worksProper needs analysis and usability studies should be conductedDL policies and procedures need to be developed early Universities in the region need to collaborate (software enhancement, staff training, resource sharing, etc.)

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Digital Library Initiatives in Higher Education in Malaysia &

Singapore

Shaheen Majid