UK's Islamic Texts Available Online
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A team from the University of Exeter's Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies
(IAIS) and Academic Services is helping to drive the Government agenda to
make more of the UK's Islamic texts available online. Their report, User
Requirements for Digitised Resources in Islamic Studies, outlines the
results of an investigation into how Islamic Studies scholars use the web
and other electronic resources for research.
The project was funded by JISC, the Joint Information Systems Committee
following the Government's designation of Islamic studies as a strategically
important subject. Findings from the report will be passed to government
later in the year.
The study shows that around 10,000 Arabic and Persian texts are available
online, but are difficult to retrieve and access. The report recommends
creating a central portal on the internet, leading scholars and students to
a broad range of Islamic Studies texts. The study also suggests that more
Islamic websites archive material, which is often only available for a short
period of time. Researchers argue that this would help academics studying a
growing subject as well as benefiting the UK's Muslim community.
Islamic Studies was broadly defined and included Islamic History, Art, Law,
Philosophy, Science, Finance, Sociology and Modern Islamic Thought and
Politics. The researchers from IAIS identified what existing digitised
resources were available for Islamic Studies and analysed how they are being
used. Librarian in Middle East Studies at the University of Exeter, Paul
Auchterlonie led this part of the project. This involved looking at reading
lists from libraries and universities around the country and by examining
recently completed doctoral dissertations. Major reference works and
databases such as the Encyclopaedia of Islam and Index Islamicus already
available in digitised form were used as a basis for the research.
This also required the project to identify gaps in resources and establish
criteria to prioritise potential collections and materials for digitisation.
The research team then established which books were most heavily used, and
whether they should be on a priority list for digitisation; ultimately
making the books cheaper and more readily avaialble to students and scholars
through an online format. However, the results of the survey showed grave
difficulties in deciding which books would be appropriate for digitisation
as there were no common denominators used across the various Islamic Studies
programmes.
Paul Auchterlonie said, 'We also focused on discovering what UK researchers
and teachers of Islamic Studies would like to see digitised in their field;
whether in the form of e-books, Islamic manuscripts, audio-visual or more
major reference works.'
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