Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Date of this Version
Fall 7-10-2024
Document Type
Article
Citation
Islam MA & Rahamn MH (2024) The Roles of Library in Digital Language Documentation of the Ethnic Minorities of Bangladesh. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)
Abstract
From the dawn of human civilization, language has been considered a significant medium for conveying ideas, information, viewpoints, and feelings between one person and another or among a group of people. In Bangladesh, Bengali has been used as the medium of education and communication by the majority of the populace where the languages of ethnic minorities face different challenges, and a good number of languages are on the verge of extinction due to the lack of proper conservation policies and other issues. This paper focused on the roles of libraries in language documentation for ethnic minorities by applying the scientific method of digital data concerning endangered languages that are stored, processed, and represented in convenient forms for future generations. The researchers followed a qualitative approach to demonstrate the library’s role as a documentation center to preserve indigenous languages along with the culture, history, heritage, background, ideals, customs, and lifestyles of the ethnic minorities of Bangladesh. Besides, the researchers analyzed different research articles, books, news reports, newspaper columns, and other secondary sources to highlight the comprehensive picture of the minority groups and their languages. This research revealed the library’s capacity to spearhead digital language documentation initiatives and demonstrate the areas of improvement to find more concrete means for the documentation procedures. As language documentation is an expensive task, library experts must concentrate on managing necessary digital equipment along with skilled human resources for the effective preservation and dissemination of the Indigenous languages of the minority populations.
