Symposia & Conferences
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://repository.kln.ac.lk/handle/123456789/10211
Browse
3 results
Search Results
Item Colombo Museum Library Palm Leaf Manuscripts Collection: A Glance from Intangible Cultural Heritage and Library and Information Management Perspectives.(Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Senarathna, K.I.D.; Heshini, K.G.J.; Weerasooriya, W.R.W.M.C.S.K.; Senani, R.A.Palm leaf manuscripts are very rare and treasure library material, which contain vivid knowledge, art and culture in the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) particularly in Sri Lanka. This paper focuses the Colombo Museum library Palm Leaf Manuscripts Collection (PLMC). The principal purpose of the study is to examine the Palm leaf manuscript collection in Intangible Cultural Heritage and Library and Information Management Perspectives. The other objectives are to explore how the collection is organized, to examine how they preserve, conserve their collection and to identify the way they provide user services using this important collection. Method of the study is an explorative survey of the Palm leaf collection and the data collected through site visit, discussion followed by the observation both participatory and non-participatory. It was realized that very significant and diversified imbedded knowledge contained in the PLMC. The knowledge variations are particularly the religion and the art, craft, tradition, culture, science, medicine, agriculture, myths and mythologies. The collection is related to indigenous knowledge too. The collection is arranged separately and when analyzing in ICH perspective it can conclude that, there are entities that were found to be related ICH domain. When peruse the collection in Library and Information Science perspective, it was revealed that preservation and conservation is a prime requirement and therefore digitization has to be done with a help of an organization like National Science Foundation. Some entities are available in printed book forms too. User serves provided on request basis and they are able to use at the Museum library premises. The vision of the library “ As an illustrious nation, the preservation of the cultural and natural heritage Inherited from the past, and its presentation in a more fruitful fashion for future Generations in a manner that successfully addresses the challenges of globalization” and therefore the policy makers, planners and the top management including the Ministry concerned should realize the importance of this collection and take immediate steps for policy decisions for preservation and conservation of the collection. The time has come to stress and pay much attention to the area of ICH and how libraries could be used in managing these important collections for the use of future generations.Item Challenges of Information Management in Organizing Global Scale Events Using Technology in Government Establishments in Sri Lanka(Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Gamage, M.N.In the age of technology where information is constantly being produced, captured and analysed in many different methods for different needs that were never even imaginable would be possible to obtain. For the first time in entire human history, the growth and capturing of information had grown exponentially over the last decade. According to Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, the information that is being created in every two days is as much as the information that was produced since the dawn of civilization up until 2003. However, even when the world is at the technology revolution with the unimaginable amount of information, some organizations in the world are still very much disconnected with technology and uses legacy, traditional approaches for many projects. In large scale global events it is vital to use proper mechanisms to manage and update information as using the right information at the right time will make different tasks much cost effective and efficient. This study is based on one of the international events organized by a government organization in Sri Lanka and intend to discuss the effectiveness and efficiency of the processes had the proper mechanisms were used along with information management. It was also seen during the study that many challenges were posed when attempting to introduce technology for information management as many government employees used to work in legacy methods and reluctant to adapt technology even it eases the amount of work. Another important finding is that government employees were very rule abide and always think of working within the boundaries cross referring to the books and think if technology is being introduced the ways of tracking the work is not possible or is not legal. Therefore, before making every decision, it had become a habit of referring to the next level of authority till the highest level for approval even for a small task that is within the rule for employees to complete. Taking responsibility and accountability of work being done is greatly lacking in government systems. Hence using information and technology for special events such as the study analysed in this paper is greatly absent as employees don’t believe in electronic records even they are well valid in legal frame of audits. However, several sub bodies were seen making attempt to use technology for information management, but without the due support from its peers the effort is nothing but futile. Even when having top notch project scheduling resources like BaseCamp, it was hardly seen been used in this project. The information that was discussed and presented at meetings were widely ignored or people were only making notes of what is been assigned to them rather than looking into the project as combined effort, making it difficult to share information even through a tool such as BaseCamp. The objective of this paper is to discuss the challenges faced in organizing an international conference when there was lot of reluctant using technology and systems for information management.Item A Contextual Framework to Guide the Introduction and Use of e-learning(Research Centre for Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Suraweera, S.A.D.H.N.; Liew, C.L.; Cranefield, J.In Sri Lanka, under the government’s vision of higher education, Information Management (IM) education is seen as important for fostering the development of a high quality market-oriented and knowledge-based society. However, a number of barriers currently restrict access to IM education by Sri Lankan information workers: the provision of education is limited to face-to-face teaching at three institutions in the Colombo (capital city) area, and the country’s physical infrastructure makes it difficult for full-time workers to attend classes without missing substantial work time. This results in IM employer reluctance to support education. Hence there is a growing need to provide equity of access to IM education. In response to World Bank reports, the Quality Assurance and Accreditation Council (QAAC) of Sri Lanka aims to foster transformative change in IM education with the goal of increasing equality of access to IM education through the use of e-learning. This research was guided by two questions: (i) what are the contextual factors and (ii) how do these factors affect the introduction and use of e-learning in tertiary-level IM education in Sri Lanka? An interpretive case study research was conducted. Thirty semistructured interviews were conducted with information management education providers, existing e-learning providers and relevant stakeholders, and three focus group discussions were conducted with information workers and academics. Relevant documents were also analysed: (i) official government documents (ii) official documents from private sources and other internal records; and (iii) relevant internet resources. Fullan’s educational change theory and Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov’s cultural dimensions provided a basis for a conceptual model to guide the process of data collection and analysis in this study to gain an understanding of factors affecting the introduction and use of e-learning. A key outcome of this study is the development of a contextual framework to guide the introduction and use of e-learning in IM education in developing country context like Sri Lanka. Factors that are perceived to have an impact on the introduction and use of elearning were found at different levels. Macro-level factors included social and cultural factors, governmental factors, and technological factors. Meso-level factors included resistance to pedagogical change, lack of human and other resources, lack of collaboration/partnership among stakeholders and collective perception of e-learning acceptance. The findings of this study have implications for IM educators and practice in the forms of development of policies, implementation of e-learning, and prioritization and allocation of resources.