1 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 libraries Universities started teaching courses on digital libraries in late 1990’s Actively involved in organizing ICADL conference and other related conferences Several digital library initiatives were also undertaken in Malaysia 2

Scope of My Presentation 3 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 Singapore Areas covered: Scope and size of DL collection Digital content management policy Access management and copyright Problems encountered and lessons learnt Interviews with a few individuals responsible for developing digital libraries 4

Participant Universities - Singapore 5 1. National University of Singapore (NUS) 2. Nanyang Technological University (NTU) 3. Singapore Management University (SMU)

Participant Universities - Malaysia 6 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 SMU - Dec NUS - Apr UKM /2007 UTM UM UPM SingaporeMalaysia

Digital Collection Size NTU - 39,800 SMU - 11,000 NUS - 4,551 UKM - 30,550 UTM - 7,690 UPM - 6,190 UM - 2,250 8 SingaporeMalaysia

DL Software Used NTU - DSpace NUS - DSpace SMU - Symposia/ Innovative UKM - EPrints UTM - EPrints UPM - EPrints UM - Eprints/ Dspace (theses) 9 SingaporeMalaysia DSpace and EPrints are open source software

Software Customization NTU Embargo feature Dynamic generation of citation information for downloaded full text documents Submission workflow & collection templates Batch import tool for metadata, and Subject taxonomy NUS User interface Batch uploading of electronic theses 10 DSpace

Software Customization UPM –User Interface –Metadata UKM UTM UM 11 EPrints

Scope of Digital Collec tion 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 12 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 13 Malaysia

Development & Maintenance Responsibility 14 InstitutionLibrary*CollaboratorOutsourced 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 Singapore Malaysia

DL Document Management Policy 15 InstitutionPolicy 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. Singapore Malaysia

Use of Taxonomy for Document Categorization 16 InstitutionTaxonomy NTUIn-house SMUHybrid (internal + external) NUSNo UMIn-house UTMLC Subject Headings UPMNo UKMNo Singapore Malaysia

Staff Training NTU SMU NUS UPM UTM UKM UM On-the-job training; self-learning; participation in DSpace community Recruiting trained staff; self learning Customization vendor training On-the-job training Vendor training; on-the-job; self-learning Vendor training; on-the-job training On-the-job training 17 InstitutionTraining Method

Digital Library Access Policy 18 InstitutionRestricted Users Internal UsersExternal Users NTU - All items Selected items (e.g Thesis abstracts) NUS. All items Selected SMU. Items allowed by copyright owners Selected items UPM - All itemsMetadata only UTM - All itemsSelected items UKM - Library members only External library members only UM - All items - Singapore Malaysia

Compliance with Copyright 19 InstitutionCheck against SherpaRomeo Clearance from the Copyright Owner After the Embargo Period NTU.  Journal publishers  Theses - undecided. 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 - Singapore Malaysia

Problems Encountered 1.Limited DL software capabilities NTU, 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 opportunities UTM 20

Problems Encountered 5.Lack of motivation among stakeholders to submit their publications NUS 6.University bureaucracy and rigid polices UTM 7.Coordination problems with other collaborators (ICT Dept.) UTM 21

Promotion and Use Monitoring 22 InstitutionPromotionUse StatisticsUsability study/ evaluation NTU Website, part of lib. orientation No NUS Website, library orientation No. of visitors No SMU Website, library orientation 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 Singapore Malaysia

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 23

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 24

Conclusion Although all universities have established their DL, their collection size is quite small There is a need to promotes & encourage faculty and researchers to submit their scholarly works Proper needs analysis and usability studies should be conducted DL policies and procedures need to be developed early Universities in the region need to collaborate (software enhancement, staff training, resource sharing, etc.) 25

26 Digital Library Initiatives in Higher Education in Malaysia & Singapore Shaheen Majid