Desa Informasi - Local Content Global Reach - Community ...

Beyond the Digital Collections
The empowerment of local communities is achieved through various efforts in advocating
the awareness, development, and use of Local eContent collections. The development
process of Local eContent collections has had positive impacts on the campus
communities. The knowledge that their works might be immortalized in Desa Informasi,
which will be accessible globally, has provided students and faculty members with
motivation to produce better works. They also become more aware of copyright and
plagiarism issues in the production of the works.
The digital library system developed for Desa Informasi has also been very beneficial to
various academic departments and non-academic units, which had struggled to find some
kind of documentation systems for their locally-produced works or resources. Desa
Informasi has provided a perfect solution for their needs. This is especially true since the
digital library system provides better user interface, and much more powerful search and
browse functionalities. This is very true in comparison to the simple CD Rom
documentation system planned already by some academic departments and non-academic
units. Desa Informasi has upgraded their initial plan from a simple documentation system
into a full-fledged digital information/resource management system. The system has
enabled the resources documented to be re-used as learning resources more effectively.
The promotional efforts of Desa Informasi have increased the visibility of some academic
departments and non-academic units in the society. The efforts have been in the forms of
online and offline (physical) exhibitions inside and outside of library or campus, the
creation of a thematic
website for each collection,
and other community
outreach programs and
activities related to the
collections. Desa
Informasi has even been
used as one of the selling
points of the university and
has always been included
in the marketing efforts of
the university. It seems
that increased visibility is
always a by-product of
Institutional Repository
projects as suggested by
Offline Exhibition of Desa Informasi
Johnson (Johnson, 2002).
Offline exhibitions have been conducted inside and outside of the library, featuring
various works and resources produced by the campus communities. For example, the
Faculty of Art and Design has featured numerous works of art in several library
exhibitions. The availability of the library space to be used as exhibition space has been
6