Institutionella utmaningar i kulturell digitalisering: En fallstudie av CERDOTOLAs Dokumentationscenter i Kamerun

Abstract: This study approaches CERDOTOLA from a librarian perspective while looking at the introduction of digital libraries and possible issues that could arise during the development of a cultural digital repository. In spite of existing cooperation agreements between CERDOTOLA and various local, regional, and international organizations involved in cultural documentation, the present inter-institutional collaborations rarely reflect a level of involvement that brings direct input from stakeholders. This problem is set within normative institutionalism and reveals the difficulties in leveraging the technologies of digital libraries in order to effectively contribute to the development digital collections. This research is a qualitative case study that analyzes and discusses 10 individual interviews, 2 group interviews, 1 focus group discussion, and multiple site observations with critical discourse analysis. The analysis is based on Siegfried Jäger and Florentine Maier’s interpretation of Foucault’s critical discourse analysis and dispositive. A major finding of the study is that there is a lack of trust in and among institutions that impairs any collaboration is spite of the fact that digital libraries are valued and progressively accepted by the local LIS community. An organization such as the CERDOTOLA that tends to capitalize on alliances and inter-institutional collaborative agreements may need to re-conceptualize its view of stakeholders and reconcile the stakeholders’ understanding of digital libraries and digital libraries’ contents with its internal objectives. The conclusion of the study is that a redefinition of stakeholders’ roles and the direct involvement of the groups who own cultural materials could ease the documentation and digitalization process. Since the study mainly focuses on the opinion of LIS professionals and the example of one specific ethnic group, further research is recommended with additional groups using the same methodology.