Browsing by Author "Weerasinghe, M.K"

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Awareness of the Understanding on the utility of the Palm Leaf Manuscripts: a comparative study
(Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2021) Somananda, B,; Weerasinghe, M.K
The recent advances in the information and communication technology world, have transformed the role of local and foreign education sectors. When considering the local education system, it is clear that the indigenous qualities we have inherited from our ancestors should be preserved in an era of decay. Indigenous knowledge is far more spoken of and holds higher value than just knowledge itself. Across the world, special attention is focused not just on knowledge, but on indigenous knowledge. Therefore, it must be acknowledged that the words and the ideas of the indigene are of great importance. Indigenous knowledge, rather than traditional knowledge, is a cultural heritage of every human society. Thus, indigenous knowledge is specific to a particular geographical area. That indicates that, the knowledge possessed by the people living within a certain geographical area or region is their traditional knowledge or indigenous knowledge. Sri Lanka: a country which has an ancient history in writing traditions preserves its uniqueness through palm leaf manuscripts. It can be considered that palm leaf manuscripts have vastly contributed in the process of presenting the local historical knowledge from generation to generation. The Palm Leaf Manuscripts contain a wealth of knowledge related to various subject areas. The research asked whether Sri Lankan university students were aware of Palm Leaf Manuscripts. It examined the students' understanding on why Palm Leaf Manuscripts are a locally valued heritage that should be preserved. A sample of undergraduates from the Department of Library and Information Science, History and Archeology from the University of Kelaniya was obtained for this purpose. The main data collection instrument used was the questionnaire method, and primary data was collected through distributing the questionnaire to the undergraduates of each department using the random sampling method. Secondary data was collected through the printed sources which were considered relevant to the research. Data analysis showed that they had a general understanding of Palm Leaf Manuscripts.
Factors influencing outreach services for empowering underprivileged people by university libraries in sri lanka: librarian’s perception
(Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2021) Thusithakumari, W.N; Weerasinghe, M.K
Outreach has become a crucial element of library services in academic libraries. The paper deliberates various mechanisms of outreach programmess of university libraries in Sri Lanka. The study mainly focuses in categorizing the role of remaining outreach (OR) services in University libraries identify the objectives and outcomes of the OR services which imbued of influence created over the communities through university library OR services and culminate the potential obstacles in implementing OR services in Sri Lankan academic libraries and explore the remedial measures for those problems. The study highlights that in this changing landscape university librarians elaborate to provide specific directions and conduct the OR programmes as an ad hoc programme of the library. The Sri Lankan university librarians are competent to provide specific directions for making this endeavor worthwhile and sustainable in the long run through OR services and contribute to empower the disadvantaged people and national development. Time limitation (53%), human resources (60%), technology (80%) and communication, coordination and collaboration(80%) are the factors that manipulated the realization of OR services of university libraries. Based on the four influencing aspects found in this study, the finding suggests that, librarians can pursue these opportunities through broad-based direction support across the diverse services.