Research Information:FOCUS ON THE MIDDLE EAST
role of the libraries and librarians. Information professionals are no more the solely experts rather they became moderators and teachers. Databases and discovery tools are becoming intuitive and the main difficulties that students are facing is with filtering and selecting the proper source. Librarians need to embrace this change rather than resisting it; they should tailor the information literacy classes to answer the research needs of the course/ research project.
Myrna Tabet
available online. They face some problems with finding proper sources that are scholarly and recent.
However, one of the great advantages of users in Qatar University is that they have access to a broad range of e-resources through subscriptions and document delivery services.
There is a school of thought that the librarian’s role has shifted from ‘librarian as expert’ to the ‘librarian as teacher’ role.
Do you feel that this applies to you? I believe that this drastic shift in scholarly communication has led to major change in the
Is there a way publishers have supported you in the past, or could offer better support for information literacy needs for users in the Middle East? We, as librarians, provide a full range of research services to our community. We analyse the faculty publications and have found Taylor & Francis very helpful in this regard (mainly the links to Scopus, and metrics analysis including altmetrics). We have been subscribing to Taylor and Francis since 2010 and the usage has been encouraging and we are broadening the scope of our subscriptions to include Medical Collections in 2016.
Qatar University Library has launched its institutional repository (IR) and is looking into means of collaboration with prominent publishers such as Taylor & Francis. Partnership
SLA Gulf conference to address future challenges
T
he 22nd Annual Conference and Exhibition of the Special Libraries Association – Arabian Gulf Chapter, will be held in Kuwait from 19 to 21 April.
The event, which will be half at the city’s Regency Hotel, will be entitled ‘Future Challenges of Library and Information Profession’.
The conference program will discuss the comprehensive changes in society, the dramatic advances in technology and the increase of globalisation throughout the industry. There will be presentations in Arabic and English by speakers from Arab countries and elsewhere around the world. Papers will be presented in the form of plenary sessions, symposia and poster sessions, with papers being
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chosen by the event’s paper review committee. One confirmed discussion is entitled: Corporate Social Responsibility For Libraries. This discussion panel is aimed at shedding light on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It aims to introduce CSR to librarians in the region and let them aware about this new trend.
Experts will talk about concept, pillars and recent developments of CSR. From areas of application to standards and guidelines that frame the work of social responsibility in aspects of environment, society, workplace, employees and stakeholders. Kamel AlAbduljaleel, of the Kuwait National Library, who has been elected President for SLA–AGC Conference 2016, said: ‘We hope that this conference will be
might include linking the metadata of QU scholarly output published in Taylor & Francis into its IR.
Are there any other issues in libraries, other than information literacy, which you feel are particularly relevant or important to academic institutions within the Middle East?
Information literacy is crucial in academic libraries. Research tools are evolving rapidly and librarians should be abreast about the latest trends (in citing, tagging, metrics, altmetrics and other).
Institutional repositories and library digitisation projects are hot topics now in the Middle East. The digital collections of a university’s scholarly output have the potential to increase scholarly communication and visibility of the institution and the region as a whole. Information specialists in the Middle East have to work much harder to remain abreast of current professional trends. They need to familiarise themselves with digital libraries, new research tools and techniques. Attending international conferences, reading professional literature and enrolling on online courses remain vital to achieving this goal.
Carolyn Kirby is regional marketing executive at Taylor & Francis
Kuwait City
highly productive and innovative in addressing current and future changes in libraries. ‘It will bring together librarians, researchers and educators from throughout the world who are actively changing information content and access through the development of Internet and web-based educational platforms.’ In addition to the main conference, preconference workshops will be held on Sunday and Monday, 17 and 18 April, at the Kuwait National Library. For more information visit:
www.slaagc2016.org
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2016 Research Information 27
Nasser Buhamad/
Shutterstock.com
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