New Dimension of Digital Archives and Libraries Conservation of Ola leaf manuscripts using the Technology of Digital Copyrights.

Abstract

There is a long history for the tradition of Ola leafs writing in Sri Lanka. It was started in the early Anuradhapura era and continued up to present by subjecting to many recessions. Ola leafs had been destructed due to foreign invasions, natural disasters, decaying and insects’ damages, but still lots of Ola leaf manuscripts are available in temples, institutions and with some individuals. According to the literary sources, the history of Ola leaf manuscripts runs back to sixth century AD. This had been improved with the cultural development occurred after ‘mahindagamanaya’ The knowledge included in ‘thripitaka and “attakatha’ were organized by the way of lore (as oral knowledge) up to first century BC. The knowledge related to Buddhism as well as other subjects have been brought up to present using well organized oral methods by monks. Conservation of knowledge using oral methods had been moved to a new chapter with the conversion of ‘Thripitaka’ into written form. Other knowledgeable sources also started to convert into written form as ‘thripitaka and attakatha’. A declination of art of Ola leaf manuscripts writing could be seen at the middle part of the 20th century with development of printing technology, but not completely extinct. Many political, religious and intellectual matters had made impact on maintaining knowledge using written form. Ola leaf manuscripts had been used as the main media for converting oral knowledge into written form. Copies of Ola leaf manuscripts were kept in libraries of temples. There are many traditional methods which were used to conserve those Ola leaf manuscripts. Physical & content conservation are the two main parts of it. Protect books from natural disasters & insects’ damages are called physical conservation. Content conservation means protecting the knowledge included in Ola leaf manuscripts. The aim of this Study is to identify whither the Ola leaf manuscripts. Which are available in the temples around the country, are protected by the Use of digital technology. The Methodology Used in this research is collecting information from the institutes, temples and Owners, where the Ola leaf manuscripts are available, and Secondary literal resources. Many methods were used for content conservation. Methods such as scanning are used in modern era and the technology of digital copyrights can be introduced as a recent method of conservation. This study is conducted basically on computer data and the analysis is qualitative and quantitative based on indigoes Knowledge and Computer States Contemporary.