Device Usage Set for Growth in Gulf Education sector

The education sector in the GCC is expected to double its device utilization in the coming two years, according to a recent study commissioned by Intel to IDC. The region-wide study has revealed that the adoption of technology by educational institutions across the GCC has nearly become mandatory, as a result of a focus on delivering quality education. The trend is facilitating a drastic shift from teacher-centric teaching methods to learner-favored styles across the GCC.

The "Role of Technology in the Education Sector" survey showed the education sector accounted for 10.3 percent of all tablet shipments to the Middle East in the first half of 2014, up from 2.2 percent for all of 2013. IT infrastructure has also been ramped to support the increased usage of devices for teaching and learning purposes.

"We found that over 90 percent of the educational institutes interviewed utilize laptops, tablets and 2 in 1. The GCC's education sector is witnessing significant growth and a focus on delivering quality education has driven institutions to adopt technology at every level," said Frederico Carvalho, META Regional Business Director at Intel Corporation Technology. "Quality education is the foundation of a country's development and prosperity, and technology is key to unlock its potential and reach," he added.

Current Usage Behavior

• The utilization split between laptops and tablets in the region is currently 60-40, with 60 percent of students using laptops for content creation. 

• All the institutions interviewed discourage the use of smartphones in the classroom, and do not provide connectivity or support for such devices.

• The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) concept has also proved popular with institutions; over 60 percent of those interviewed have a BYOD policy for students using their own devices for learning purposes. The rest of the institutions provide support for student's devices but do not have a formal BYOD policy in place.

• Less than 30 percent of the institutions interviewed use interactive whiteboards for teaching. Many institutes reported having LCD or LED panels that are connected to the instructor's tablet or laptop to display teaching material. All of the institutes reported utilizing video projectors to promote audiovisual learning for certain course material.

Benefits and Challenges

• In terms of device utilization today, on average, 60 percent of the devices being used by students are laptops; these devices are favored for content creation, whereas tablets are seen as suitable for reading and accessing applications. 

• Tablets are now utilized more in kindergarten and primary schools however, where the students are provided with institute owned devices. As an evolution between laptops and tablets, institutions are considering 2-in-1 devices. 

• The foremost challenges faced by institutions are deployment, maintenance and IT skills. Institutes face high operating expenses and maintenance costs for their infrastructure, making it difficult to recognize ROI on their IT purchases. However, since the region is on its way to developing itself as an educational hub, most institutions do not compromise on technology standards.

Areas of focus and future investments

All of the institutes surveyed have an aim of increasing their device utilization within the next 12 to 24 months. Universities that do not have a formal BYOD policy aim to put one in place, considering the tremendous increase in students using their own devices. The security of devices, apps and institution networks is another focus area with an effort to provide maximum flexibility to students and teachers while remaining secure. 

"Beyond the adoption of mobile devices through government initiatives and private sector investments, we have also observed an acceleration in the adoption of Private Clouds", said Adriana Rangel, Systems & Infrastructure Solutions Director at IDC. "Cloud-based architectures facilitate better content management by providing institutions with the ability to manage users, applications and school policies remotely across the entire fleet of mobile devices, going further to increase collaboration between students, faculty and other school members." 

Over the last decade Intel Education has invested over $1 billion to improve teaching and learning environments in more than 70 countries across the globe. Intel's goal is to help educators, IT professionals, and government leaders inspire excellence in their students with fresh insights, unique programs, and holistic solutions.

SAGE to publish Healthcare Management Forum starting January 2015

SAGE and the Canadian College of Health Leaders announced that SAGE will begin publishing the College’s journal, Healthcare Management Forum (HMF), with the first edition in January 2015.

The journal publishes articles on leading practices related to health leadership and management, including recent research, new technology and professional practices from health leaders' perspectives.

The research published in HMF will benefit health leaders who work in a variety of environments, such as medical companies, health authorities, multi-level care facilities, hospitals, public and private health agencies, health charities, the Canadian military and all levels of the Canadian government.

Springer Healthcare launches reprintsWarehouse.com for pharmaceutical professionals

Springer Healthcare has announced the launch of reprintsWarehouse.com – a responsive platform that enables pharmaceutical professionals to rapidly identify content that supports their product or device marketing activities, from a database of over 50,000 clinically relevant medical journals, books, continuing medical education materials and anatomical charts.

Users of reprintsWarehouse.com can easily navigate a search capability, which is differentiated from other search engines, to explore a database of thousands of pieces of content, specially selected and tagged by scientific experts. By searching a variety of terms such as drug name, manufacturer, author, publication date and/or keyword, users quickly locate relevant, peer-reviewed content.

Springer Healthcare holds the reprint rights encompassing more clinically relevant titles than any other company in the world. This wealth of content enables reprintsWarehouse.com users to quickly receive quotes on request or obtain permissions from the publisher through our dedicated reprints services team to ensure they receive the fastest copyright compliant service available.

Abu Dhabi Time Lapse video

A group of time-lapse sequences filmed between December 2013 and February 2014 show off parts of Abu Dhabi.


Twenty-eight locations star in the four-minute video, which was shot and edited by Beno Saradzic, who made his first Abu Dhabi time-lapse film in 2011.


The time-lapse film was commissioned by the Abu Dhabi General Secretariat of the Executive Council.

ABU DHABI THE CAPITAL (TIME LAPSE) from Beno Saradzic on Vimeo.

OUP to launch updated print, digital Oxford Arabic Dictionary

The Oxford University Press is celebrating the print and digital publication of the Oxford Arabic Dictionary, which is produced by an international team of expert translators and advisors using Oxford’s renowned language research programme.

The Oxford Arabic Dictionary is the first of its kind to be based throughout on real modern evidence of both English and Arabic usage, WAM reported. The unique Arabic corpus, developed specially for this project, provides evidence of the latest vocabulary used in computing, business, the media, and the arts, making the resource the most up-to-date bilingual Arabic and English dictionary available. The dictionary focuses on the standardized variant of Arabic used in writing and formal speech, commonly known as Modern Standard Arabic.

The dictionary can be viewed here http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199580330.do

The State of Worldwide Library eBook Lending

 The flow of electronic resources is largely dominated from the West for the West but the concept of e-lending is slowly catching on worldwide as libraries move to mostly digital resources.

Here’s taking a look at a study done by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions looking at other regions.

Africa

The International Publishers Association estimates that 90% of overall publishing revenue in Africa is derived from education markets. It is not a surprise that the availability of eBooks from African libraries is limited largely to university collections with an emphasis on streamed scholarly publishing content originating outside the continent. The 2013 South African Book Fair had as its focus “The future of eBooks: the impact of the digital eBook phenomenon” and the comments from publishing executives solely dealt with the education market and the potential for acceptance of digital textbooks.

Asia

eBook data reported from Asian countries indicates wide variations in library availability and use.

Apabi Chinese eBooks are published in Mainland China and its content emphasises more scholarly rather than leisure reading content.

Hong Kong public libraries report 186,497 eBook titles in their collections, 72,500 which are Apabi eBooks. The balance is made up of streamed bundle services including ebrary Academic Complete and EBSCOhost. The relatively low use of eBook collections (annual use of 1.1 per title) is attributed by library staff to the lack of leisure reading titles available and the confusing access requirements for the different databases.

A large majority of Japanese public libraries do not provide eBooks at this time.

Korean public libraries report over 3 million eBook titles available and annual expenditure of 3.6 million US dollars (2012).

Singapore reports 3,062,002 eBook titles, circulation of 8,247,966 and annual expenditure of $1,268,857 US (all

2012).

Taiwan public libraries report eBook title holdings of 255,278 (2012) and annual circulation of 562,482 (2013).

Australia/New Zealand

Public libraries in Australia and New Zealand report sustained and continuing growth in eBook provision and use:

·         State of Victoria public libraries report 298,809 eBook downloads in 2011/12 and 497,045 downloads in 2012/13 (+66%)

·         Users of the State Library of Western Australia downloaded 9,130 eBooks in January 2013 and 21,564 eBooks in January 2014 (+136%). The January 2014 loans constituted 1.4 loans per title available.

·         Users of Brisbane City Libraries downloaded 4,212 eBooks in 2008 and 116,272 eBooks in 2012.

·         New Zealand public libraries report 2012/13 holdings of 111,336 (growth of 1,762% in two years), downloads of 354,066 (growth of 1,968% in two years) and expenditure of $1,038,543 NZ

[$900,868 US/€654,011] (growth of 363% in two years).

Canada

Five large urban public libraries in Canada with mature digital collections serving a combined population of

8,402,000 reported the following combined digital use statistics:

·         Downloadable eBook circulation in 2013 was 2,871,514 downloads or 0.34 per capita.

·         This is a 1,313.3% increase over 2010 downloads and a 60.9% increase over 2012 downloads.

·          139,023 downloadable eBook titles were in their collections (an increase of 526% over 2010) and 244,951 eBook “volumes”12 or 1.8 “volumes” per title.

·         In 2013 the average annual downloads per volume was 12.

·         The libraries provide access to 37,369 downloadable audio titles.

In Quebec, 71 public libraries belong to BIBLIOPRESTO.CA.13 Library users downloaded 661,598 eBooks in

2012/13 and it is projected that downloads will double in the next 12 months. Individual library data is indicative of strong growth in eBook availability and use:

·         Montreal Public Library downloads grew from 9,559 in 2012 to 31,708 in 2013 (+232%)

·         Quebec City Public Library downloads grew from 27,417 in 2012 to 69,951 in 2013 (+155%).

Europe

As is the case with the publishing sector, libraries in the European Union have been slower to adopt eBooks, especially in non-English speaking countries. eBook availability in EU libraries varies significantly from country to country depending upon factors such as the funding available for library purchasing, indigenous publishing practice, library governance structure and preferred licensing regimes. EU national initiatives are discussed by country in the next section of the paper.

View the complete study here

Google textbooks now in Canada

 Where previous companies have been treading hesitantly, Google has marched right in to expand its mostly US based digital textbook service to Canada.

Available via the Play store for Android, iOS and Desktops, Google has added all the regular features of TOC, search option, book marking, notes and dictionary as well as the Wikipedia search option and yes, Google too.

The search engine giant was already providing this within the USA and Canada is the first country they expanded too. Will more countries follow? We’ll have to wait and see.

Wish you a blessed Ramadan Kareem

Free Online Courses in the Middle East a first

Paramount California University (PCU) recently became the first online university in the region to introduce the largest, state of the art e-library that offers free courses for individuals across the Middle East. 

Rapid advancements in the information technology sector have revolutionized the concept of learning across the world and as a result, traditional libraries have come across new challenges and competitors. On the contrary, a digital or e-library offers individuals ease and ready accessibility where they can logon to a computer or a tablet from anywhere and access thousands of informative articles and courses at the click of a button. Digital libraries have already begun attracting a lot of attention from users in the Middle East.

Through the Paramount California University e-library, learners in the Middle East can now get access to various free courses, e-journals and other informative materials. Mainly targeted at students and working adults, PCU has aimed to provide these individuals with a convenient and one of a kind learning experience. The e-library is already becoming a popular informational hub for students, and working adults in Middle East.

The PCU e-library currently offers courses on more than 10,000 topics related to over 100 fields of study. Students can search for in depth information on various subjects including business management, engineering, computer science, education, law and legal studies, psychology and arts. 

The digital library has a user friendly interface which makes it convenient for new and casual users to access the relevant information. Working adults can search for courses related to their respective profession. The courses can be searched through subject matter which makes it easier for users to finding related information. The e- library is set to revolutionize the way information is accessed by students, working adults and faculties.

“We believe in transforming the society at large by developing future leaders through education and enhance their leadership skills. We also aim to eliminate the gap between academic and professional world. Students will be able to actively participate and contribute in enhancing the economy through real world knowledge and applications” stated Dr. David Rivkin, the University President.

He further added “The digital library will also have a positive impact on the teaching methodology and it will also facilitate students in acquiring new information. For students who are looking to carry out research they can easily access the digital library and they can get access to relevant content and courses instantly.” 

Students pursuing higher education in Middle East can take advantage of the e-library launched by Paramount California University and achieve their academic and professional goals. Moreover, it is a gateway for working adults to take their careers to the next level.

As one of the largest digital course materials provider, PCU has a rapidly growing digital library of core graduation, post graduation and doctorate courses that are available absolutely free of cost to students across the Middle East.

The PCU e-library website can be accessed at http://courses.pcu.edu

source: http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com/newsroom/news_view.phtml?news_id=4345 

Dibaj at SLA' AGC 2014

We'll be at the SLA AGC in Doha this year.
Will you?

We're excited to participate for a second year in a row in the biggest exhibition and conference for Academic and Specialist Librarians in the Middle East!

Last year at SLA we launched Dibaj, an aggregator portal for academic eBooks and Journals and received an immensely positive response.

This year we are back with New Content from More Publishers with New Resources for your academic needs and are thrilled to share this with you.

Visit our stand to also get a peak of the following among st others:

Interactive courses from Global Finance School

New 2014 titles from Joint Commission International

We look forward to having a chat with you. To set up appointments email tei@dibaj.org

Also follow us on:

     

Springer digitizes Book Archives and adds Altmetric to Springer Link

Springer has entered the New Year with two major projects accomplished. It completed its four year long project of digitizing every book published from 1840 to 2004 covering 110,000 titles.

Springer has also added a new feature to its SpringerLink (link.springer.com) by including altmetric information to every article available on the platform.  The data collected from this feature will track and analyze online activity around access of the articles to measure impact of research.

Sources:

http://www.subscription-agents.org/springer-book-archives-completed

http://www.subscription-agents.org/springer-now-sharing-data-altmetric-springerlink

Why You Need To Type Faster in 2014

Typing is one of the most important and invaluable skills that anyone can learn. It should be taught young, but in many cases it isn't, and many people are happy with the slow but steady hunt and peck typing skills that they have relied on all these years. There are a number of reasons that you should learn to type faster than average in 2014. 

1. The world is immersed in technology. There are many jobs that are not even possible without having at least some computer knowledge and skills. Even a basic cashiering position can require some basic typing skills to be able to manage the cash register. Learning to type faster than the average words per minute speed can increase your chances of landing a better job. 

2. It can make both work and school easier. Long gone are the days of the handwritten essays and assignments. Even as young as elementary school, students are being required to type and print out their assignments, and this will progress through college and beyond. 

3. Anyone can sit in front of a computer and knock out a few words per minute as a hunt and peck typist. It takes weeks of practice to learn to become a functional touch typist, but it is easily the most invaluable skill that you can learn.

4. The average words per minute speed is 41.1. Most employers are going to want touch typists that can type accurately at least 60 words per minute. The faster you type, the better you look to potential employers.

Learning to touch type doesn't happen immediately. It does take days or weeks of constant practice, and even more than that to increase your speed above the average. Time spent practicing to improve touch typing skills is never time wasted, however. It is easily the best and most important skill that anyone can learn.

Infographic source: http://www.ratatype.com/learn/average-typing-speed/

Enriched eBooks - The next big thing in education?

With tablets booming in the consumer market over the last couple of years, a lot of the companies are marketing the device as multi-touch, media enriched and so on. A device that gives revolutionary reading experience sounds all very attractive but are publishers rising up to the opportunity?

A number of eBook creation platform are providing the chance to add more media to your simple text layout. And although the technology isn’t perfected, we as consumers are already accepting this as the norm and applying it to use in our knowledge consumption.

Whether it’s a magazine with additional links and embedded videos or a school textbook with animated characters, we are expecting it all from a purchased eBook. Then why hasn’t this taken off yet?

According to DBW media rich eBooks aren’t compelling enough yet to get the readers…well reading.

On the other hand, more articles are talking about kids between 6 and 17 taking to interactive content on tablets like fish to water.  

It is evident that kids and academic institutes stand to benefit the most from use of these new innovative ways of learning, keeping their target engaged. However, from a quick look around the internet it is obvious that the support material transforming an ebook into a media enriched book is lacking leaving a gaping market to be as yet fulfilled.

DHA trains medical professionals from private schools

Dubai Health Authority has organized a series of mandatory training courses to ensure health education standards are maintained in schools and colleges in Dubai.

The Health Regulation department met with 160 representatives from private schools to discuss school health policies and latest standards for school clinics. The mandatory courses for medical professionals in school clinics include first aid and emergency care as well as ‘Paediatric-up-to-date programme’.

Speaking to Gulf News, Amal Ali Al Mehrezi, Head of School Health at the Authority, said, “Children are the most receptive, yet vulnerable section of society. By ensuring their health, we are ensuring our future. In the programme, we are going to train medical staff on basic life support, first aid, and on how to handle health conditions like food or insect allergy reactions, asthma, diabetes, etc. The training will look into different kinds of care required in a school setting.”

To ensure only licensed professionals can provide health education in schools, DHA has ensured providers have to first get the correct requisitions from the Authority.

eFADA to group UAE's academic e-resources

UAE’s education sector is taking its new role as an emerging knowledge economy seriously.

A consortium of library directors has been formed in the UAE to head a project called eFada, with the aid of Ankabut, the UAE’s advanced national research and education network. The idea behind the formation of this group is to create a shared national knowledge base to support learning and research in the UAE.

As per Ankabut’s website, this goal will be achieved through several initiatives, which includes establishing a shared union catalog, engaging in cooperative collection development and developing a national digital institutional repository. The outcome will lead to savings in the cost of e-resources, expansion of resources available and sharing expertise to promote cost effective, customer driven services.

In an interview with Gulf News, eFada project manager Dr Ahmad Dabbagh said, “Students will no longer suffer from spending hours on researching. Through eFada, any member related to the academic and education field will be able to view several options including how many researchers have worked on a certain topic or how many research papers have been done by others within the UAE or outside.”

The project, started last year, has a long way to go with continued participation from 9 universities currently but Dr Dabbagh has called on more universities to come forward and be part of what is surely to be big step in aiding the country in its goal as a knowledge economy. 

Challenges libraries face in the cyberage

By Omotola Oyebanjo

From moderate beginnings, libraries in the Gulf and Middle East have grown steadily in their effort to meet the demands of readers and researchers in the region. For instance, in Dubai, a modest start of the Al Ras Public Library in 1963 has grown by 2012 to 8 public libraries across the city with about 462,000 books available and an electronic library in Umm Suqeim.

While the libraries in Gulf regions play catch up with the developed countries in terms of technology, they are all one in the challenges they face while meeting the needs of the 21^st century consumer.

1)      Transition to Digital Libraries: According to Dr M.R. Vaseghi, Vice Chancellor of Research & Technology for Islamic Azad University in his interview with springer.com, “The transition of physical libraries to digital libraries is the most important challenge facing universities in the Middle East; all our previous efforts have been focused on creating a physical library, purchasing printed resources and so on.”  This transition is critical in ensuring the continued effectiveness of libraries as the world seeks new and innovative ways to access and share information and resources.

2)      Gap between catching up to technology advancement and savvy users

Librarians are faced with the task of updating themselves to the latest available technology and e-resource platforms to best serve the millennial generation that has grown up with these advancements as part of their daily life. This generation knows how to access the information and wants it fast, but can the libraries match up?

3)      Access to New Resources & Books: The process of ordering new materials for many libraries is very time consuming. It also takes a long time for these books to get delivered causing libraries to function on limited and sometimes outdated resources. The need for dependable suppliers and sellers who will deliver the right quantity on time continues to be an important challenge.

4)      Absence of Collaborative Operations: Many libraries in the Gulf and Middle East work in silos without any collaborative effort. For instance, it is not unusual to find a single University having multiple libraries each servicing its own unique faculty with no collaborative efforts across libraries. This can lead to duplicate purchases or make searching of data difficult as resources may not be pooled across the University.

5)      Difficulty of Sourcing relevant Resources: With the explosion of EBooks and digital resources, libraries are faced with difficulty of sourcing and distributing relevant resources for their faculty and students. This therefore drives libraries to seek out the best sources and platforms from where the most outstanding EBooks can be bought and accessed in order to ensure they meet their consumer’s demands.

On the plus side, with new and innovative resources directed at the education sector, libraries are left with a larger pool of options to add to their virtual bookshelves. Integrating e-textbooks, rented journals and learning videos for school children into the library’s website seamlessly is catching on fast.

It is evident the future of libraries lie in its digital assets where users can have remote access and not in big rooms lined with unending shelves stocked with bound books.


The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to Dibaj

Have a comment or opinion you’d like to share with us? Write to us and we could include it here and in our next newsletter as well!

Summer Offer: Free yoga eBook

This summer we’re giving away one of our eBooks free. We have included a free discount code for you to use at checkout and download the book on any device to read when you like!

Use the discount code USRW6BDC61F5 at checkout and start reading this book for free!

Go to our store to use the code now

Summary of Yoga is a Mantra

A philosophical thought propounded in ‘Yoga is a Mantra’ based on experience and the metaphysical knowledge discovers the matrix of human Existence, Consciousness and its Conditioning. Methodology used for its deconditioning makes this philosophical thought dissimilis not only to achieve awareness for a healthy life but also makes us compassionate towards each other and above all makes us intellegere in our hearts the presence of the Lord/Dominus the creator of all the existence.

The ascetic technique of Kashmiri yoga is a process of transformation of the human body into a cosmic body in which the energy chakras and the veins play a considerable role.

Digital Asset Management and Distribution: Best Practices

A book publishing expo this September will address best practices in digital asset management and distribution.

Publishers seeking new ways to monetize their rich banks of content are often challenged during the execution process by outdated or non-existent archiving systems. Different versions of files including metadata, art and covers, and other valuable content assets all sit on separate computers, in emails, or on servers rather than a central, organized repository. The upcoming Digital Book World Marketing + Publishing Services Expo on September 26 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City will offer strategies and solutions for the critical – and distinctly different Digital Asset Management and Digital Asset Distribution functions. Programs and sponsors will clearly define these practices and guide publishers towards solutions that will help them harness the assets they have and facilitate communication and production workflow. 

Confusion easily arises when publishers use a Digital Asset Distribution system for the Digital Asset Management function, probably tempted to do so because their company doesn’t have a working archive or system – a DAM – in place to manage all of their various digital assets. As a result, publishers send finished final files to their Digital Asset Distribution system and that becomes, by default, the only central place where the files live. That can work as long as nobody needs access to the discrete items that comprise the final product. It invites nothing but frustration for someone looking to repurpose content.

 A robust Digital Asset Management system, on the other hand, is used throughout the editorial and production process and enables publishers to tag and store their content and other digital assets for easy identification and retrieval and for flexible reuse down the line.

Learn more at marketing.digitalbookworld.com

Click here for more information on the conference  

New features on Dibaj

We are constantly trying to improve your experience with us. Our goal is to provide an easy way for you to access e-books and read them offline or online without any hassle.

Take a look below at the new features we've added:

-       -   Online reader will support ePUB 3 as well now

In addition to PDF, you can also read your eBooks in ePub 3 format where they have been provided.

-      -    Advanced filter options on Bookshelf

Users will be able to browse their bookshelf with additional options such as book formats and user defined tags.

-     -     Option to tag titles on Bookshelf

Users will be able to categorize their ebooks on their bookshelf under tags created by them.

Example: Tags like exams or guides.  After this the user can filter their bookshelf to browse according to created tags.

Currently users can purchase a book gaining perpetual access and the option to read online or download it on your laptop, tablet or mobile device to read anywhere.

Use the in reader function of putting down notes or sharing a chapter with your classmate or colleague!

Stay updated on our latest features and additions. Sign up to our weekly Newsletter!

NEW: Tagipedia, online Arabic encyclopaedia to launch

A search online for his own information led Jordanian businessman Talal Abu Gazaleh to launch a $10 million online Arabic encyclopaedia.

Misinformation of his birth place online led Abu Gazaleh to take on the project to document and make available correct historic and geographic facts amongst other information.

To be launched this year end, Tagipedia allows users to scan QR codes and read the information behind them. Users can even create their own QR codes.

Ghazaleh said, "I see it as a means of building an Arab knowledge society, which is my mission in life....to contribute to the economic and social development of the Arab world."