Digitisation as a preservation strategy of national heritage — A case of the Owela Museum

This research seeks to explain how a custodian of national heritage; the Owela Museum based in Windhoek, Namibia, can use digitisation as a form of preserving the country's national heritage. It has become important in recent years for museums to digitise their collections in a manner that is acceptable and easily accessible for its users. The objective of the research includes; to explore how digitisation is able to assist with preservation of heritage in Namibia and explore the challenges and benefits that the Owela Museum and developing countries face in digitising their collections. This paper used a qualitative method approach and employed the case study method to indirectly observe how digitisation can aid with preservation at the Owela Museum. The data was gathered through structured interviews with experts in the field of heritage preservation at the Museum. The findings give an in-depth knowledge of the specific aspects of digitisation and whether it can aid with digitisation efforts of museums in the Namibian environment. The findings indicate that digitisation is one way to aid with preservation, however in the Namibian context technology can be a limiting factor and thus if museums want to engage in digitisation costly investments need to be done to ensure that it can be done locally and not engage for services outside the country.