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 21st 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outdated resources.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
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