Information Representation and Knowledge Organization in Cultural Heritage Institutions in Arabian Gulf: A Comparative Case Study

This paper presents the exploratory study conducted with the goal of developing an understanding of the current state of information representation and knowledge organisation in cultural heritage collections in Arabian Gulf countries and perspectives for future developments. This comparative case study focused on three institutions (an archive, an academic library, and a museum), including early adopters and leaders in digital archiving in the region. The mixed-methods research combined semi-structured interviews with in-depth comparative content analysis of metadata records that represent items in institutions’ collections. Despite the limitations of the small-sample analysis, this exploratory case study makes a substantial contribution to research and practice. It is the first study to evaluate information representation and knowledge organisation practices in cultural heritage collections of Arabian Gulf countries. This study also can inform planning and implementation of the large-scale study of the state and perspectives of information representation and knowledge organisation across digital and physical collections of libraries, museums, and archives in the region. Suggestions for future research are included. Practical implications of the study include empirical support for the need for metadata training, developing and documenting metadata creation guidelines and crosswalks, collection and use of feedback from users and knowledge management professionals to improve information representation and knowledge organisation. Results also provide insights into interoperability potential of metadata for future regional, national and international aggregations of cultural heritage digital collections across the Arabian Gulf region.