Living Libraries: How Community-Based Documentation Is Reshaping Digital Heritage in Bangladesh
Keywords:
Community-based documentation, digital heritage preservation, Bangladesh, digital library transformation, participatory archiving, cultural memory, South Asia, PRISMA, systematic literature reviewAbstract
Background: Heritage is not limited to buildings and books, it is also found in people, stories, & their memories. A rich tapestry of folk traditions, indigenous knowledge, languages & centuries of syncretic religious & artistic practices inflates Bangladesh’s glorious & vast cultural diversity. Much of this invaluable heritage is embedded not in formal archives but in the living memories of its people. As technology becomes more widely accessible throughout the nation, communities are starting to document culture, chipping away at institutional dominance. Libraries, being trusted knowledge institutions, are consequently integrating community content into their digital transformation activities.
Objectives: The paper aims to achieve four specific objectives. First, mapping of community-oriented heritage documentation practices & their findings around the globe, with an emphasis on those that are transferrable to the Bangladesh and South Asian context. Second, investigating integration of community-generated heritage content into digital libraries & information systems. Third, looking into barriers of structure, technical and social nature that limit the sustainability of community-oriented documentation initiatives, specifically in a developing country context like Bangladesh. Finally, examining the research literature in Bangladeshi LIS field to identify gaps & sets the path for future.
Methods: Using PRISMA guidelines, peer-reviewed documents were searched from the year 2010 to 2024 in Scopus, Web of Science, LISTA, and BanglaJOL. The studies were finally selected upon application of the pre-defined inclusion & exclusion criteria with a specific focus on community participation, digital libraries, & heritage documentation. The last synthesis included a total of 91 studies.
Results: The review reveals three main findings. Firstly, it acknowledges the fact that communities are becoming creators of digital heritage collections rather than just mere beneficiaries. Secondly, it observes that libraries which develop participatory digital frameworks tend to achieve better long-term preservation. Thirdly, limited digital literacy together with a lack of prescribed metadata standards and funding threaten the sustainability of community initiatives. These problems are severe in developing countries including Bangladesh. The review realized only six Bangladesh-specific studies in its 91 reviews.
Conclusion: The core of Library Digital Heritage Goals must be to define the documentation that is created within communities. According to this review, the libraries of Bangladesh have to be a “living library” if they want to preserve the unreplaceable cultural heritage of Bangladesh in the digital age. Bangladesh is underrepresented in the global literature, underscoring a critical lack in research. Rather, it signifies a great opportunity for the future LIS scholarship.
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