Digital Islam
In response to the government’s agenda to make more of the UK’s Islamic texts available online, Jisc has funded the User Requirements for Digitised Resources in Islamic Studies report.Report: Requirements for Digitised Resources in Islamic Studies (PDF)
This study was carried out by the University of Exeter’s, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (IAIS) and Academic Services departments and shows that around 10,000 texts are available online but are difficult to retrieve.
The report makes a number of recommendations including:
- Create an authoritative online gateway to Islamic resources
- Digitise catalogues of Islamic manuscripts and theses
- Commission a feasibility study into the creation of a corpus of interactive online education materials
- Archive UK Islamic organisations websites to preserve their longevity
Paul Auchterlonie Librarian in Middle East Studies at the University of Exeter who led the project said, “We 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.”
This project is part of Jisc's digitisation programme.