Digital Library of Kashmiri Willow Wicker Items: A Small Step towards Preservation of Culture

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Lone, Mohammad Ishaq^a | Wani, Zahid Ashraf^b

Affiliations: [a] Assistant Librarian, Allama Iqbal Library, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, J&K–190006, India. Email: [email protected]; [email protected] | [b] Assistant Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, J&K–190006, India. Email: [email protected]

Abstract: The handicrafts of Kashmir are famous throughout the world. Kashmiri willow wicker items are losing market due to the negligence from the stakeholders of the state. This craft needs to be revamped in order to preserve our cultural heritage. The present study is a small effort in this regard and attempts to show how the culture can be preserved in this modern age with the help of electronic media. A detailed survey was conducted to find out the products made by willow wicker. All the product-related information to these products was accumulated in the form of a digital library. In this study, Greenstone Digital Library (GSDL) software was used to gather the documents containing information related to each item of willow wicker for easy retrieval using various access points.

Keywords: Greenstone Digital Library (GSDL) software, Kashmiri art, Culture-electronic media, Digital library

DOI: 10.3233/WDL-120120

Journal: World Digital Libraries - An international journal, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 95-106, 2014