Understanding Archival Awareness, Access and Learning among Information Science Students in Malaysia

The study used an interpretivist qualitative approach. Ten final-year Information Science students from the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) at the Puncak Perdana Campus were deliberately chosen to take part in a series of online semi-structured interviews. The data were analysed by means of Braun and Clarke’s six-phase thematic analysis, with the aid of ATLAS.ti. Deductive coding was guided by the Archival Intelligence Model, while inductive coding was applied in order to identify the experiences and insights that emerged from the data. Academic courses were the main source of students’ awareness of archival materials, although NAM’s website, online catalogue and digital collections also contributed to their knowledge. Participants considered archival materials highly relevant to areas such as records management, preservation, metadata and information retrieval. However, their engagement with these materials was limited by transportation and time constraints, financial barriers, incomplete digitisation, unfamiliar terminology and difficulties navigating the online catalogue. Despite these challenges, students reported that using archival materials strengthened their conceptual understanding, critical evaluation skills, research abilities and capacity for evidence-based learning. This study offers context-specific insights into archival learning among Information Science students in Malaysia. It shows that awareness of archives does not necessarily lead to meaningful use. The findings introduce an access-to-learning pathway in which academic exposure, effective discovery systems, guided practice and direct engagement with primary sources collectively support the development of archival intelligence. Equitable archival learning requires more than simply making materials available. Students need clear descriptive metadata, user-friendly discovery tools, structured archival literacy support and opportunities to work with original or digitised records.

Archival Intelligence, Archival Literacy, Information Science Education, National Archives Of Malaysia, Primary-Source Learning

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