Bagan Mural project : building a robust digital library on Wordpress

Abstract

With the advent of powerful computing devices, ubiquitous connectivity and affordable gadgets, a large amount of research data is produced every day. In the Bagan Mural project, a history professor had taken many photographs of the mural paintings in the temples of Bagan in the course of her field trips. These photographs are simply stored in her computer folders and are therefore not easily searchable or shareable. Ideally, these photographs should be made available online and come with descriptions to provide users with a perspective on the meaning behind the murals. Over one year, NTU librarians collaborated with the professor to design and implement a low cost solution to archive, organise, and search the photographs. Equally important, it will enable and promote access to this repository of photographs which may otherwise remain under-utilised. Leveraging on the internally hosted WordPress platform, the team encouraged user participation by integrating a number of social media tools. Now, the content is more easily shared and retrieved and user contribution is supported, leading to increased use of the site materials. The project suggests that: 1) WordPress is a suitable platform for storing digital content. This would lower the barriers for librarians who are keen to offer digital content management services but are deterred by the complexity of elaborate content management systems. 2) There should be adequate communication between the librarians and the faculty member involved so that a storage platform fully customized to his needs can be created. 3) In providing an alternative to traditional content management systems, it is important that the social media tools do not distract users from the main content but add value to the user experience.