Participants in the workshop.
DOHA: Qatar National Library (QNL), a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, in collaboration with the World Digital Library (WDL), hosted a workshop for current and prospective members of the WDL’s Arab Peninsula Regional group.
The workshop, which was conducted in Arabic and English, aimed at encouraging Arab Peninsula Regional Group members to improve overall standards of content contribution to the WDL, and was aimed at developing regional networks to allow feedback and facilitate exchange.
“Qatar National Library supports the WDL in its mission to promote international and intercultural understanding, expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the internet, and build capacity in partner institutions,” said Project Director of QNL, Dr Claudia Lux. “It provides resources free of charge to educators, scholars and the general public, and the conducting of regular trainings and workshops is critical to the building of technical capacity among members of the Arab Peninsula Regional Group. It will enhance the members’ ability to contribute digital content and to meet the quality standards established by the WDL.”
The WDL initiative was founded by the Library of Congress, with the support of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).
Director of WDL, Dr John Van Oudenaren, said: “We are pleased to be working with the Qatar National Library in this workshop and grateful for the library’s great support for hosting this regional meeting,” he said. “Capacity building is an important mission of WDL, enshrined in our charter and endorsed by Unesco. Helping to narrow the global digital divide in the creation of, and access to, high-quality digital content is a big part of what the WDL is about. The workshop for hands-on work is aimed at ‘training the trainers’ in creating digital content. This furthers the WDL’s capacity-building mission and will facilitate the flow of high-quality Arabic content from this region to the WDL in the future.”
The workshop, entitled ‘Train The Trainer – Hands On’, was attended by current and prospective WDL partner institutions from across the region.
The Peninsula
