Digitisation at the National Library of Malta : improving access in support of potential users, their needs and expectations

Abstract

Digitisation involves the conversion of objects from analogue into digital format. Due to awareness of its benefits, many memory institutions have embarked on such initiatives in order to improve access to their holdings. However, it was noted that there seems to be a degree of uncertainty as to whether these access-driven digitisation projects have been truly improving access to their collections. While access seems to be important for such projects, users’ needs tend to not be given enough emphasis. Notably, this could be linked to a tendency where knowledge about users usually consists of assumptions formed by information professionals. On the contrary, this study, which aimed to investigate the approach of the National Library of Malta’s digitisation project towards improving access in support of potential users’ needs and expectations, indicated different results. The questionnaire, which was distributed amongst National Library users, indicates the three main collections in high demand: the newspapers, AOM and Melitensia. In addition, the interview with project leader reveals that the library is indeed digitising such collections. Notably, the library informs itself through the use of indirect user involvement. Therefore, this implies that the National Library is indeed focusing on the users’ needs in order to improve access to its holdings. For this reason, such results provide a snapshot of a particular approach to access-driven digitisation in the local context. Furthermore, such research provides ideas of best practices for memory institutions which would like to embark on similar initiatives.