Multicultural and Globalized Digital Libraries: Digitizing and Empowering the “Other”

Abstract

Our multicultural societies in a globalized context offer the opportunity to forge new frontiers in digital libraries. Focusing on the cultural diversity of the Asian region, this paper examines what should be digitized, who should be involved in the digitization efforts, and what access issues need to be considered. More specifically, documenting the experiences of the Asian diaspora and ethnic minorities will be discussed, engaging critical theories and multicultural scholarship. By problematizing the cultural production of digital libraries as an act of nostalgia, of inclusion and exclusion, and of racial, social and sexual differentiation, we can unpack the role that digital libraries play in the creation of communities in our imaginary and in the perception of space and place from those objects we select to digitize. The paper concludes with a call for decentering digital libraries and digitizing the “Other” as an act of empowerment and representation.