DIGITIZATION OF ENDANGERED MALAY MATERIALS
In 2018, the SLMA collaborated with the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies (AILS) on a digitization project aimed at restoring, scanning and archiving on a digital platform, endangered historical material related to the Sri Lanka Malays. The project was entirely funded by AISL.
The Star of Islam newspaper editions (1939-1940) and the Colombo Malay Cricket Club Jubilee Book (1924) were selected by AILS for restoration and digitization. Incidentally, the Editor of the Star of Islam newspapers was Sdr Maas Juragan Majid who was a Past Hony General Secretary of SLMA, having served in the General Council in the year 1932.
The restored original versions of the Star of Islam newspaper series and the CMCC Jubilee Book were published online in November 2019 with open access (freely available). These materials are available through the South Asian Open Archives on JSTOR and can be accessed on mobile devices as well.
- Star of Islam newspaper editions: https://www.jstor.org/…/south-…/saoa/star-of-islam-26318857/
- Colombo Malay Cricket Club Jubilee Book: https://bit.ly/2Y8HOtm
The South Asia Open Archives (SAOA) is a rich and growing collection of historical and contemporary primary and secondary sources in the arts, humanities and social sciences from and about South Asia. SAOA is created by a collaborative grassroots initiative of US research libraries and partners from South Asia. Administratively hosted by the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), and presented online for open access in partnership with JSTOR/Ithaka, SAOA digitally preserves and makes freely available all its content to the world on the web.
An article titled Reading the Star of Islam. The story of a Ceylonese press on the cusp of World War II was published on the Himal Southasian Magazine on 17 July 2019. Himal Southasian is South Asia’s first and only regional magazine of politics and culture. The article authored by an Associate Director of AILS is an analysis of the historic and cultural content in the Star of Islam newspapers. It also refers to the Digitization Project between the SLMA, AILS and the SAOA.
