DIGITISATION OF MANUSCRIPTS IN MOROCCO:

A HISTORICAL RESEARCH ISSUE

Boujdad Mkadem Abdelhamid, and Paul NieuwenhuysenDepartment of Communication Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel =

VUB, Belgiumaboujdad@vub.ac.be, Paul.Nieuwenhuysen@vub.ac.be

Bobcatsss Symposium Porto / Portugal

28/30 January 2009

SummarySummary

CONTEXT AND ISSUECASE STUDYMETHODRESULTS & DISCUSSIONCONCLUSIONS FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Context and issue Context and issue

• From paper to electronic media• Physical vs virtual? From physical media to another physical

mediaPaper/hard drives or cdsPaper until now has proven a better

longevity: many digital documents now are impossible to read.

Context and issueContext and issue

New issues are to be addressed :◦How long does this material would last on the

Internet? ◦Is it good quality? ◦Can people locate it? ◦Can/will people use it?◦why, what and how to preserve?

Context and issueContext and issue

Moroccan old manuscripts digitisation issue:

◦Many collections of valuable manuscripts exist

◦Intervention is an emergency

Context and issueContext and issue

Intervention is needed because:

Bad storage conditionsLack of financial resources for good

physical archiving

Context and issueContext and issue

Digitisation is difficult…

Lack of funding

Lack of interest from potential stakeholders

Expensive technology

Context and issueContext and issue

Good infrastructure for publication of cultural heritage to happen

Easily accessible by educational

communities and general public

Good awareness of what is to be done

Context and issueContext and issue

We have:From one sideCollections to be saved

From anotherusers needs and intentions to know(Good understanding of end-users)

Case studyCase study

• The survey:Sample : 31 students and researchers

(including some teachers)

Were previously shown a model of a digital library under Greenstone.

MethodMethod

• Tools:Questionnaire design and application;Online questionnaire using phpsurveyor

(open source).

ResultsResults

Most of the students:

◦Need access to the manuscripts◦Still prefer accessing the collections directly by

requesting access to the physical locations from the owners

ResultsResults

Students benefit from rich commentaries and points of view from the owners of the manuscripts.

Accessing educational resources on the net is not a common attitude to students in moroccan universities

ConclusionsConclusions

Preliminary user needs evaluation and study is important before any digitisation begins

The study may serve as a basis for future project (s)

Other important facetsOther important facets

Business models for the potential digital library◦ Institutional subscription, Personal subscription◦ Pay-per-view, Google Ads◦ Open Access◦ Mixed model

Future directionsFuture directions

International collaboration is needed Aluka/ JSTOR

Involvement at national and international levels (ministry of culture, Unesco)

Thank You for listeningThank You for listeningBobcatsss Symposium

Porto / Portugal28/30 January 2009