Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to overview the current state of affairs of the Indian heritage treasures, which are being identified, restored, preserved and promoted by various organizations at national and international levels with an emphasis on its documentation aspect. Lack of information about the heritage sites, structures and its significance, especially unprotected and unidentified, leads to its permanent loss. One of the prominent measures to safeguard from such irrevocable cultural deprivation is its documentation. Further, the study aims to examine the significant challenges associated with identifying unrevealed heritage assets of the country in the context of its preservation, documentation and promotion. As a suggestive measure, the study aims to propose the need for developing a comprehensive cultural heritage register assisted with technological aids focusing on community participation in taking stock of the heritage items they possess and enable them to effectively document.Design/methodology/approach: The present study extracts the cultural heritage data available with the UNESCO belongs to Indian heritage assets inscribed in its World Heritage portal. The collected data has been analyzed and interpreted to overview the country's recognition at the global level. The data collected from the official portal is further explored and customized to have a lucid account. The details about the organizations and institutions working on heritage conservation and preservation activities in India are also collected. A review of published literature on the related areas has also been performed to identify the issues and challenges associated with the documentation of heritage assets to support this study. The study also included the researcher’s experience in working with cultural heritage documentation.Findings: India holds a substantial quantity of cultural as well as natural heritage items. However, an exhaustive effort to document them at the national level is not being accomplished to its full potential. Many of the assets, inheritances or sites of cultural importance have not been fully identified, preserved or documented; hence, it is unrecalled forever once lost. Some organizations and individuals working on cultural heritage lack clarity in its function and do not follow any common standards in its documentation. For any conservation activity, documentation is prime, and the local community's support is also essential. Means of international collaboration for managing and promoting the heritage are required to be encouraged. Findings of the study demand the need for utilizing digital technologies to assist the documentation process. It emphasizes the requirement of having a web-based single window online gateway where an individual or community can dispense the knowledge and resources they possess hence contributing to heritage conservation, preservation and sustainability.Research limitations/implications: The study limited to Indian scenario and the data on the heritage sites are collected from UNESCO's World Heritage portal. Only the documentation and promotional aspects of the cultural heritage are discussed. There are many lesser-known and unprotected cultural heritage in different parts of the country with artistic value. The unique characteristics that have not been recorded anywhere are to be documented systematically to reduce the frequency and severity of losses. The implication of the study highlights the present scenario of cultural heritage documentation in India and the need for a comprehensive heritage information gateway supported with a register facility to precisely document and retrieve.Practical implications: Aspects of culture which are inherited from the past to the present are to be preserved for future generations. Digital archives of cultural heritage and the use of digital tools to document them are effective mechanisms to protect and store the data on endangered heritage items. For any such conservation effort, documentation is its first step. Developing and facilitating access to an exclusive database of cultural heritage at risk boast its sustainability and can be enriched by the involvement of local communities. Public access to such a database would greatly support administrators, tourist departments, culture departments, development administration and conservation activists to gather the details of unprotected heritage items of the country, its present condition, risk of damage, etc. which further helps in its preservation, conservation, sustainability and promotion in a constructive manner.Originality/value: To the authors' best knowledge, no such single and comprehensive mechanism in the country allow the individuals to contribute to the inventory list holding information about the identified, unprotected and unidentified heritage assets which are having a risk of damage, threat, decay, vulnerable, neglect, lack of use or inappropriate maintenance and development. Developing such a system with technological and data infrastructure helps to pool all the cultural heritage resources under one umbrella. It imparts the value and significance of protecting and promoting heritage inheritances and a safe haven of them from the risk of its chronic loss. The system can also support all the activities related to heritage protection and bring the local community to timely support and initiate such heritage conservation activities.

Cultural heritage is an intrinsic segment of the life of the individual who is connected to it and is inherited from one generation to the other. Every heritage item embeds knowledge in historical, cultural, social, scientific, spiritual, and technological forms. Creating a digital database for discovery and expression of cultural heritage plays a significant role in enhancing its visibility and ensuring long-term sustainability. Many of the natural and cultural heritage items in India which are substantially rich in their content are not identified and documented, which consequently lose their social, cultural, historic, and economic utilities. The present study highlights the potential of developing a single-window comprehensive Cultural Heritage Information System (CHIS) to efficiently preserve, document, and manage the cultural heritage assets of the country. This also examines the prerequisites, issues, and challenges which can hinder its sustainable development. It is perceived from the study that there is no such integrated single-window national-level digital platform that prevails in the country to perform the cultural heritage documentation. The study points up the need of constructive efforts, both at individual and institutional levels in India, to ameliorate the situation to safeguard and promote the cultural heritage of the country. The information system developed can act as a unique source of reference and an extensive guide for researchers from different disciplines, tourists as well conservation activists.

Purpose: Indigenous cultural heritage represents the unique features of a community or ethnic group’s historical legacy, which has evolved over centuries. This heritage is crucial for future generations to understand the past, the foundation on which they stand, and their path forward, as it highlights the importance of their ancestors’ achievements and the lessons from their life. Without proper preservation of written records, oral histories and accounts passed down through various forms of formal and informal documentation, this heritage could eventually be lost. This paper aims to explore the importance of protecting the complex cultural identity of indigenous communities and the measures necessary to ensure its long-term preservation. Design/methodology/approach: There are several approaches that can enhance inclusivity in heritage values, making them visible and accessible to both current and future generations worldwide. While perspectives and strategies may vary, they all highlight the importance of reconnecting with indigenous cultures and integrating historical identities, ensuring their preservation for uninterrupted continuity in the future. Findings: Preserving indigenous heritage is crucial for a variety of reasons. A more integrated and comprehensive approach is needed to distinguish between “Indigenous Heritage Value” and “Outstanding Universal Value” and to elevate indigenous cultural heritage on a global scale. The findings underscore the importance of implementing programs that recognize heritage value and treat indigenous heritage as a living memory. Leveraging technology can enhance accessibility to indigenous cultural heritage, ensuring equal access and promoting new forms of representation that can increase its visibility worldwide. Originality/value: The promotional strategies outlined in the paper can inspire indigenous and local communities, as well as organizations involved in safeguarding indigenous cultural heritage, to reconsider and broaden their roles as leaders in promoting and ensuring sustainable development.

The paper aims to analyze the quality characteristics of Open Access Journals (OAJs) in Library and Information Science (LIS) published in India. The study assesses three OA journals, namely. International Journal of Information Dissemination and Technology (IJIDT), International Journal of Library and Information Studies (IJLIS), and International Research: Journal of Library and Information Science (IRJLIS). The analysis is performed in two parts. The first part is qualitative. The researchers measured parameters like basic information pertaining to the selected journals, publication trends, composition of the editorial board, and quality measures such as peer review and indexing. The second part of the analysis deals with citing journal sources, where the researchers evaluates the quality of citations received by the selected journals. The finding of the study reveals that all three OAJs established themselves as preferred sources to publish LIS research articles. The analysis of citing sources reveals that 73% of the citing journals are OAJs only. The results also show that only 50% of journals are from the core LIS subject, and the majority of the citing journals are from India. The study also revealed that there are many citing OA journals in the domain of LIS, which is not indexed in leading indexing and abstracting databases.

Purpose: The heritage of the country needs to be conserved, documented and protected to enable further cultural and technological progress, for we stand on the shoulders of those who have preceded us. The purpose of this study is to examine the national-level safeguarding efforts in India aimed at preserving its cultural heritage (CH) assets digitally. It also highlights the need for a national aggregator platform that can gather metadata from various data providers to provide a unified discovery experience. Additionally, it proposed a model framework for developing a national digital heritage portal, including its workflow, to improve understanding of the CH preservation landscape. Design/methodology/approach: The study collects data on CH documentation and national efforts to develop CH portals. It includes data on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization-listed heritage sites in India, gathered from reliable sources and analyzed. The paper discusses digital preservation opportunities and challenges for CH, reviewing relevant literature. A comparative analysis of major national CH aggregator models from selected countries is conducted to highlight the importance of developing the proposed Indian national digital heritage portal. This qualitative, document-based and comparative approach is suitable because the study uses secondary data and aims to identify best practices for developing a national-level digital heritage system. Findings: Cultural heritage is now heading towards a digital future, and innovative documentation methods are becoming increasingly important. The transition to digitally sourced preservation efforts further expands the scope of its wider accessibility. The study found that numerous efforts have been initiated in India at various levels to digitize and disseminate its CH content. Furthermore, they employ various forms, interpretations and standards while preserving, documenting and providing access to their contents, thereby lacking uniformity in developing CH information systems. The lack of a national platform for aggregating metadata of digital heritage resources keeps them isolated and less discoverable. Research limitations/implications: Developing an Indigenous CH national discovery portal helps connect the history and heritage of the country. It can serve as a single point of access to a wide range of CH materials, in both tangible and intangible forms. Apart from digital objects, it can also include other related resources of CH, such as scientific publications and news related to CH. CH institutions, including Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAMs), memory institutions and research organizations, can participate in this initiative. This collaboration would enable the integration of their diverse digital collections in one centralized location, allowing the general public to learn more about their history, culture and heritage. Practical implications: Comprehensive documentation of the heritage of a country is essential for its promotion and achieving socio-economic sustainability. Cultural organizations, heritage communities and GLAMs are increasingly embracing digital technologies to document, share and promote the value of the cultural inheritance they possess. Developing and providing access to digital CH enhances its visibility and use. Nevertheless, a scalable and sustainable metadata aggregation system is essential for harvesting metadata from various and distributed digital repositories to enhance access and ensure data interoperability. Originality/value: The author found that no similar studies have been conducted to examine the need for developing a national portal to aggregate Indian CH, providing a single-entry point to trusted sources of shared knowledge. Digital collections managed by various organizations follow their own data formats and semantic structures and are not connected with each other, which creates challenges for resource discovery.