Qatar
Digital Library - World can now access more than 1.5 million digitised pages,
for free
DOHA: H E
Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Vice-Chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation,
has said that everyone in the world can now access more than 1.5 million
digitised pages, for free, through Qatar Digital Library, bringing the Arab and
Islamic cultural and intellectual legacy to the forefront of people’s studies
and understanding.
“In the four
years since the Qatar Digital Library was launched through a partnership
between Qatar Foundation and the British Library, we have already seen how this
important resource, managed by Qatar National Library, has added value to the
world’s historians and researchers, as a unified platform for collections of
material that aid scholars of Qatar and the Gulf, medieval Arab science and
medicine, and other spheres of study,” H E Sheikha Hind said yesterday, while
addressing a reception to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the Qatar Digital
Library at British Library, London.
“My mother, H
H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, envisaged this partnership
as a way of allowing people to look at history through fresh eyes. The Qatar
Digital Library is an embodiment of that vision.”
The Qatar
Digital Library this week celebrated the fourth anniversary of its launch. The bilingual website, which
comprises content in both Arabic and English and provides free public access to
an important range of historical collections held by the British Library, has
now been visited by more than 1.2 million users, generating more than ten
million pages views.
The website
is the result of a partnership between QF, Qatar National Library, and the
British Library to digitise historical collections relating to Gulf history and
Arabic scientific manuscripts. Metadata and descriptions of the digitised items
are in both Arabic and English, and the Qatar Digital Library transforms access
to these collections — previously only accessible via the British Library’s
reading rooms — for academics, researchers, students and the wider global
community.
Initially
agreed in 2012, the partnership was extended earlier this year so that a
further 900,000 images will be added to the 1.5 million already available
online. To celebrate the anniversary, H E Sheikha Hind, Chair of the Board of Trustees
of Qatar National Library, and Dame Carol Black, Chair of the British Library
Board, attended a reception last night at the British Library in London.
In advance of
the reception, H E Sheikha Hind toured the digitisation studio on the sixth
floor of the British Library, where Gulf-related material — including music,
maps, ships’ logs, reports, letters, private papers and historic publications —
is digitised, fully catalogued and uploaded onto the Qatar Digital Library.
In her
speech, H E Sheikha Hind said that Qatar Digital Library is a vital resource
for historians and history students writing about the Gulf — such as the
University of Oxford doctoral student whose research into 19th Century British
perceptions of Islam has been advanced by Qatar Digital Library documents.
“And we are
just getting started. The third phase of our partnership with the British
Library, which begins next year, will add almost one million further pages to
the Qatar Digital Library, while material from partners in Turkey, France, the
Netherlands, India, and the United Kingdom will also significantly expand its
collection,” she added.
Source
| https://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/25/10/2018/Over-1.5-million-pages-available-on-Qatar-Digital-Library
Regards
Mr. Pralhad Jadhav
Master of Library &
Information Science (NET Qualified)
Research Scholar (IGNOU)
Senior Manager @ Knowledge
Repository
Khaitan & Co
Twitter Handle | @Pralhad161978
Mobile @ 9665911593
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