  Philology studies are often associated with traditional methods of teaching
and learning. This study explores the possibility of e-learning adoption
amongst Malay manuscripts learning community. The Soft System Methodology (SSM)
is used to guide the investigation. SSM emphasises on understanding the problem
situations faced by Malay manuscript learning community and expresses the
situations in rich pictures. The manuscript learning community comprises
lecturers, students and researchers in the field of philology. Data were
gathered from interviews, focus group discussions and observations. Academy of
Malay Studies, University of Malaya is the case study setting, focusing on
lecturers who teach and students who enrol in a philology course as well as
doctoral students researching on manuscript studies. The findings highlight
problems faced by the various stakeholders and propose solutions in the form of
a conceptual model for a collaborative electronic platform to improve teaching
and learning as well as utilizing digitized manuscript surrogates held in a
digital library of Malay manuscripts.
