Dar Almandumah held its 3rd Annual Forum in Dubai from November 5 to 7. The meeting was attended by nearly seventy deans, library directors, and representatives of Gulf and Arab library unions and consortia.
During the forum, Dar Almandumah presented its new products and developments in its databases, which the company had worked on throughout 2014, in fulfillment of the commitments it had made to its clients during the previous annual forum held in Dubai at the same time in 2013. Among the أبرز developments presented during this forum were:
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- Launching the Theses Database, which is set to become the primary reference for all Arab universities in the field of academic theses.
- Launching the new search platform, an integrated system comprising eight interconnected systems that together provide an advanced platform for search and retrieval.
- Re-entering texts and enabling full-text search, with the texts of all research published from 2009 onward re-entered, while work was ongoing to complete the remaining years back to 2005. All these full texts would be searchable through the new platform to be launched in 2015.
- Introducing a journal browsing system similar to ScienceDirect, offering users another way to access information beyond search and retrieval by browsing and reviewing journal issues.
- Launching the reporting system for Dar Almandumah database usage, enabling the account manager in each library to generate and review all reports related to database use by library beneficiaries, including the number of logins, file downloads, most frequently used search terms, and many other detailed statistics, graphs, and reports, all directly and without the need to refer to the system administration.
- The quantitative growth of database content, which had expanded significantly to reach approximately 600,000 research papers and studies available across the company’s six databases. The number of scholarly journals included had reached around 1,400 periodicals, in addition to nearly 1,750 conferences and seminars.
- Training programs, which reached nearly 26 courses delivered during 2014, including 16 in-person courses and 10 remote courses. Around 17 universities benefited from these programs.
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The forum received very positive feedback from all subscribing universities, and the attendance and discussions were rich with contributions from deans and representatives of the participating universities and library consortia.
