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This paper aims to explore the accelerations and constraints libraries, archives, museums and heritage organisations (“collections-holding organisations”) face in their role as collection data providers for digital infrastructures. To date, digital infrastructures operate within the cultural heritage domain typically as data aggregation platforms, such as Europeana or Art UK.

Semi-structured interviews with 18 individuals in 8 UK collections-holding organisations and 2 international aggregators.

Discussions about digital infrastructure development often lay great emphasis on questions and problems that are technical and legal in nature. As important as technical and legal matters are, more latent, yet potent challenges exist too. Though less discussed in the literature, collections-holding organisations' capacity to participate in digital infrastructures is dependent on a complex interplay of funding allocation across the sector, divergent traditions of collection description and disciplinaries’ idiosyncrasies. Accordingly, we call for better social-cultural and trans-sectoral (collections-holding organisations, universities and technological providers) understandings of collection data infrastructure development.

The authors recommend developing more understanding of the social-cultural aspects (e.g. disciplinary conventions) and their impact on collection data dissemination. More studies on the impact and opportunities of unified collections for different audiences and collections-holding organisations themselves are required too.

Sustainable financial investment across the heritage sector is required to address the discrepancies between different organisation types in their capacity to deliver collection data. Smaller organisations play a vital role in diversifying the (digital) historical canon, but they often struggle to digitise collections and bring catalogues online in the first place. In addition, investment in existing infrastructures for collection data dissemination and unification is necessary, instead of creating new platforms, with various levels of uptake and longevity. Ongoing investments in collections curation and high-quality cataloguing are prerequisites for a sustainable heritage sector and collection data infrastructures. Investments in the sustainability of infrastructures are not a replacement for research and vice versa.

The authors recommend establishing networks where collections-holding organisations, technology providers and users can communicate their experiences and needs in an ongoing way and influence policy.

To date, the research focus on developing collection data infrastructures has tended to be on the drive to adopt specific technological solutions and copyright licensing practices. This paper offers a critical and holistic analysis of the dispersed experience of collections-holding organisations in their role as data providers for digital infrastructures. The paper contributes to the emerging understanding of the latent factors that make infrastructural endeavours in the heritage sector complex undertakings.

The purpose of this study is to offer a checklist that can be used for both creating and evaluating digital collections, which are also sometimes referred to as data sets as part of the collections as data movement, suitable for computational use.

The checklist was built by synthesising and analysing the results of relevant research literature, articles and studies and the issues and needs obtained in an observational study. The checklist was tested and applied both as a tool for assessing a selection of digital collections made available by galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) institutions as proof of concept and as a supporting tool for creating collections as data.

Over the past few years, there has been a growing interest in making available digital collections published by GLAM organisations for computational use. Based on previous work, the authors defined a methodology to build a checklist for the publication of Collections as data. The authors’ evaluation showed several examples of applications that can be useful to encourage other institutions to publish their digital collections for computational use.

While some work on making available digital collections suitable for computational use exists, giving particular attention to data quality, planning and experimentation, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, none of the work to date provides an easy-to-follow and robust checklist to publish collection data sets in GLAM institutions. This checklist intends to encourage small- and medium-sized institutions to adopt the collection as data principles in daily workflows following best practices and guidelines.

The purpose of this study is to outline the process, procedures and techniques used for digitization and digital preservation of theses and dissertations (TDs) collection at the Central Library of Quaid-I-Azam University, Pakistan.

Since the phenomenon under investigation is exploratory in nature, a case study qualitative paradigm was used to conduct this study.

The findings of the study offer a brief overview of the cost-effective solution that leveraged in-house expertise for the digital preservation of TDs. This led to the establishment of a knowledge repository hosting a substantial collection of approximately 25,857 electronic theses and dissertations, accessible online since August 2023. This project digitally preserved approximately 9,387 TDs on CDs/DVDs, and scanned about 15,000 print TDs, comprising around 1,399,244 pages. The cost incurred per page, including labor and rent of a photocopy machine, was just Rs 0.548 making it a cost-effective technique. The total cost incurred for this process was just 0.768m Pakistani rupees (equivalent to $2,509.55). The findings revealed key challenges, including administrative, financial, technical and copyright issues, that impede the effective execution of the project.

This case study is limited to one Pakistani public sector university library. This case study holds significance in terms of practical insights and implications for academic institutions and library administrators in other developing countries like Pakistan, which have similar economic, social and technical circumstances.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first-ever study conducted to elucidate the cost-effective strategy adopted for digitally preserved TDs without additional financial and human resources while creating a knowledge repository.

The ancient town of Lijiang is a representative place of ethnic minorities in China’s southwest border area jointly built by many ethnic groups. Its rich and diversified history, culture and architecture as well as its artistic and spiritual values need to be better retained and explored.

The protection and inheritance of Lijiang’s cultural heritage will be improved through the construction of digital memory resources. To guide Lijiang’s digital memory construction, this study explores strategies of digital memory construction by analyzing four case studies of well-known memory projects from China and America.

From the case studies analysis, factors of digital memory construction were identified and compared. Factors led to the discussion of strategies for constructing the digital memory of Lijiang within its design, construction and service phases.

The ancient town of Lijiang is a famous historical and cultural city in China, and it is also a representative place of ethnic minorities in the border area jointly built by many ethnic groups. The rich culture should be preserved and digitalized to offer better use for the whole nation.

This study presents a review based research framework that aims to influence memory institutions in their projects on digital storytelling from digitized ancient travel records. This study aims to influence research and policymaking related to design and delivery of services based on memory institutions’ collections of historical records.

The demonstrated research framework has been synthesized using inputs from a review of existing studies on the domain accompanied by a short survey created for collecting the opinion of selected experts. Studies demonstrating utilization of semantic web technologies and those that can influence policymaking related to digital storytelling were primarily reviewed.

The core tasks behind digital storytelling vary depending on the project goals. So, a two-part framework had to be proposed that covers the generic fundamental tasks with diverse applicability and digital storytelling related specific tasks separately. Also during the review, it was found that studies demonstrating the use of travel records for digital storytelling were less in number compared to studies using digital storytelling for tourism in general.

The demonstrated research framework can guide memory institutions in exposing their travel-related holdings to a wider audience using innovative semantic web technologies and open up avenues for future empirical research thereby adding to the novelty of the presented research. Also, reviews of articles on digital storytelling or digital humanities in general exist, but, review of digital storytelling initiatives focusing specifically on tourism and travel literature is scarce.

The purpose of this study is to develop and assess the effects of unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT 2) constructs – effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI) and hedonic motivation (HM) – on behavioural intention (BI), as well as the impact of innovation resistance theory (IRT) constructs – usage barrier (UB) and tradition barrier (TB) – on innovation resistance (IR) behavior in the context of digital zakat payment in Aceh. In addition, this study also examines how knowledge of fiqh zakat influences both BI and IR.

This was a quantitative study including 350 Acehnese persons who paid zakat online. This research used a Likert scale, and the sampling technique was purposive sampling applied for the Acehnese people. The research respondents were civil servants, private employees, BUMN employees (employees of State-Owned Enterprises), merchants, restaurant owners, professionals and other occupations who had paid professional zakat through a digital system mechanism. The data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

This research found that the constructs built through the theory of UTAUT 2 explained the position of the EE variable, which had a significant effect on BI. On the other hand, the variable of SI and HM did not significantly affect BI in digital zakat payment. This finding demonstrated that BI significantly influenced actual usage (AU). UB and TB had no impact on IR, according to the theoretical framework developed by IRT. Yet, the knowledge about the fiqh zakat (KFZ) significantly affected the AU. In terms of the moderation role, the KFZ variable moderated the relationship between BI and AU. However, the KFZ variable did not moderate the relationship between IR and AU.

This research had limitations and could still be investigated further by involving a larger sample. This study does not include all UTAUT 2 and IRT constructs, but only involves UTAUT 2 and IRT constructs based on the phenomenon of digital zakat paying behavior in the people of Aceh.

This research had a managerial contribution and an evaluation of the use of digital zakat collection services in Aceh and zakat management institutions in various countries. The existence of significant EE should be a reference for zakat institutions to produce continuous payment applications with a higher level of convenience in the future. In addition, the government should encourage more organised fiqh zakat education in society to plan a more optimal zakat collection. The reason for this is that KFZ has been shown to moderate zakat intentions towards actual digital zakat payment behaviour.

The results of this study were then accommodated by the government to design a digital zakat collection system so that it resulted in optimising the collected zakat funds. The greater the zakat funds collected, the greater the economic impact and social resilience of the community was in the midst of the post-covid and global crisis.

This research provided an essential value in the aspect of collecting zakat funds, especially in the study of the behaviour of paying zakat digitally. The theory of planned behaviour predominated in earlier studies that investigated zakat-paying behaviour. Yet, this research was even more focused as it used the constructs of UTAUT 2 and IRT theory and applied the involvement of a moderator variable like fiqh zakat knowledge that was barely discussed.

The article investigates the institutional setup of e-lending in public libraries in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Our point of departure is that e-lending has necessitated new library collaborations between local, regional and national levels, and therefore, institutional e-lending setups have emerged. The study seeks to provide better understanding of how the institutional setups are structured, how governance logics have shaped them and what tensions and dynamics become visible in the key actors’ problematisations of these setups.

The study is situated in the neo-institutional tradition and applies the institutional logics perspective. The research questions are answered by taking a qualitative approach, grounded in an extensive interview study with representatives of libraries, publishers and policy actors in three Scandinavian countries. To provide in-depth insight into e-lending setups, the scope of empirical material is then limited to accounts the central library and policy actors involved in establishing e-lending.

The analysis shows that the e-lending setups are both similar (especially when it comes to financing), and different across Scandinavia, especially when it comes to centralisation and involvement of librarians in this task. The differences are attributed to the influence of different governance logics (question of administrative autonomy, collaboration in the field and existing legal and political frames), and to what extent the digital and market logics are incorporated or rejected in the field.

The study provides new insights into the question of how Scandinavian public libraries face the consequences of the digitalisation of book distribution and consumption by investigating how they organise their e-lending services. This has not been explored before, notably in a comparative perspective.

While Digitalisation is gaining momentum among practitioners and the scientific world, there is still a struggle to embark on the digitalisation journey successfully. The struggles are more significant for SMEs compared to large companies. Such transformation could face internal resistance, which evokes the need to put it into a socio-technical perspective such as lean. This paper investigates how SMEs could implement digital tools and technologies in their operations.

We relied on a multiple case study design in three SME manufacturing companies in Italy. Based on the experience of those companies, the struggles in the implementation and the lessons learned, we formulate an implementation model of digital tools driven by lean thinking.

Companies tend to implement first digital tools that help with real-time data collection and stress that introducing digital tools becomes challenging without reducing waste in production. The model stresses top management commitment, middle-line involvement and operator training to resist change. All these factors coincide with socio-technical lean bundles developed by seminal works. In addition, the study highlights that financial incentives are not necessarily the common barrier to digital tools implementation in SMEs but rather the cultural aspect.

Our paper enriches the extant body of knowledge by deriving knowledge around digitalisation implementation through lessons learned and corrective actions. It allows managers to benchmark and compare the current state of the implementation process with that of other companies and the one proposed to make corrective actions when necessary.

This research aims to develop a conceptual framework that explores the influence of open-source software (OSS) on the sustainability of library services within the context of academic libraries in Bangladesh.

The study uses a comprehensive research methodology that includes literature review and analysis to construct a robust conceptual framework. This study investigates the various dimensions of OSS adoption and its impact on library service sustainability.

The research findings reveal the critical factors and mechanisms through which OSS can positively affect the sustainability of library services. This study identifies key drivers and challenges associated with the adoption of open-source solutions in the context of Bangladesh academic libraries.

The framework developed in this research offers practical insights for academic libraries in Bangladesh seeking to adopt OSS solutions. This study guides how to leverage these technologies to enhance the sustainability of library services in a cost-effective and efficient manner.

This study contributes to the academic literature by presenting a novel conceptual framework tailored to the unique context of Bangladesh academic libraries. This study adds value by addressing the specific challenges and opportunities related to OSS adoption and its implications for library service sustainability in this region.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the archives management practices and needs of corporations that do not employ professional archivists and propose strategies for helping corporations manage and preserve their archives.

An online survey was distributed to non-profit and for-profit corporations located in the XX area, USA.

The majority of surveyed corporations did not have archivists on staff and were not satisfied with their archives management practices. Many of them have unaddressed archives management needs and preferred no-cost or low-cost approaches to address those needs. Most surveyed corporations had digital archives but lacked knowledge about digital archiving. Free archiving resources and services provided by libraries/archives were dramatically less well known than commercial archiving resources and services.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is one of the very few empirical studies on corporate archives not under professional control. Findings from this study inspired thoughts on how archival education programs, professional associations, cultural heritage organizations and other relevant parties could help corporations better manage and preserve their archives.