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Maktabah Syamilah is now widely used by santri to locate references in classical texts, including in bahtsul masail forums, which demand precise textual citations (ibarah). This study aims to explain how santri use Maktabah Syamilah to search for and examine ibarah, how digital references are verified and what role the ustadz plays, and what learning pattern emerges from this practice within a digital literacy framework. This qualitative case study was conducted at Pondok Pesantren Fadlul Wahid Grobogan. Data were collected through observation of one bahtsul masail forum lasting about four hours, semi-structured interviews, and documentation involving four informants, namely one administrator of the bahtsul masail board, two student participants in the forum, and one supervising ustadz, and were analyzed using the interactive model of Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña. The findings show that santri use the keyword search feature to find ibarah quickly and then open the printed texts to read the passages before and after them. Digital references may not be used as a basis for decisions until they have been read in full, checked for context, and verified by the ustadz, a norm shared by forum participants. Some informants also reported feeling more confident in presenting arguments. These findings point to a hybrid learning pattern and to a form of digital literacy bounded by scholarly authority: santri possess the technical search skills, while judgments about the suitability of references are made collectively under the guidance of the ustadz. The study shows that the digitalization of references in pesantren can proceed without displacing scholarly authority as long as the forum maintains clear verification norms.
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‘Asari et al. (2026) studied this question.
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