Abstracts
Abstract
This article investigates the conceptual and practical evolution of digital libraries designed to provide access to community repositories centred on agency, collaboration, and cultural stewardship. Grounded in the guiding principles of community-engaged research, the article identifies seven key elements essential to the design and governance of such repositories: shared ownership, knowledge reciprocity, collaborative design, community utility, relational accountability, epistemic plurality, and iterative evaluation. These elements interrogate dominant academic norms by affirming community agency over how knowledge is curated, contextualized, and disseminated. The article argues that community repositories must be co-developed through respectful and reciprocal partnerships between scholars, librarians, and communities to support cultural stewardship and epistemic equality. Shifting the focus from access to agency provides opportunity to challenge the dominant academic norms and conventional bibliographic practices by centring community voices and the legitimacy of community-sourced materials. This approach not only invites a reconfiguration of library and academic praxis to better reflect the principles of community-engaged research but also enhances visibility for marginalized knowledge traditions. Through the salutary example of the ginans, a corpus of devotional hymns central to the Ismaili Muslim community, this article shows how digital repositories can be used to transform knowledge production, support inclusive research partnerships, and recast digital libraries as active infrastructure for community‑engaged scholarship.
Keywords:
- Digital libraries,
- community repositories,
- bibliographic sources,
- community-engaged research,
- ginans
Résumé
Cet article examine l’évolution conceptuelle et pratique des bibliothèques numériques conçues pour donner accès à des dépôts communautaires axés sur l’agentivité, la collaboration et la gestion culturelle. S’appuyant sur des principes directeurs de la recherche participative, cet article identifie sept éléments clés essentiels à la conception et à la gouvernance de ces dépôts: la propriété partagée, la réciprocité des connaissances, la conception collaborative, l’utilité pour la communauté, la responsabilité relationnelle, la pluralité épistémique et l'évaluation itérative. Ces éléments questionnent les normes universitaires dominantes en affirmant l’agentivité communautaire sur la façon dont la connaissance est sélectionnée, conceptualisée et diffusée. Cet article soutient que les dépôts communautaires doivent être développés conjointement dans le cadre de partenariats respectueux et réciproques entre chercheurs, bibliothécaires et communautés afin de favoriser la gestion culturelle et l’égalité épistémique. En déplaçant l’accent mis sur l’accès vers celui de l’agentivité, il est possible de remettre en question les normes universitaires dominantes et les pratiques bibliographiques conventionnelles en mettant au premier plan les voix des communautés et la légitimité des ressources issues de celles-ci. Cette approche invite non seulement à repenser les pratiques des bibliothèques et du monde universitaire afin de mieux refléter les principes de la recherche en lien avec la communauté, mais elle renforce également la visibilité des traditions de savoir marginalisées. En s’appuyant sur l’exemple édifiant des ginans, un corpus d’hymnes dévotionnels qui occupent une place centrale au sein de la communauté musulmane ismaélienne, cet article montre comment les dépôts numériques peuvent être mis à profit pour transformer la production de connaissances, favoriser des partenariats de recherche inclusifs et faire des bibliothèques numériques une infrastructure active au service d’une recherche engagée auprès de la communauté.
Mots-clés :
- Bibliothèques numériques,
- dépôts communautaires,
- sources bibliographiques,
- recherche en lien avec la communauté,
- ginans
Appendices
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