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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Librarians discuss benefits of big data

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MUSCAT: The 24th Annual Conference and Exhibition of the Special Libraries Association Arabian Gulf Chapter 2018 commenced at Grand Millennium Hotel Muscat on Tuesday under the patronage of Dr Abdullah bin Nasser al Harrasi, Chairman of the Public Authority for Radio and Television.


The three-day conference, focusing on the theme ‘Big Data and its investment prospects: the way towards knowledge integration’ is organised by the Special Libraries Association Arabian Gulf Chapter (SLA-AGC), in association with the Department of Information Studies of the College of Arts and Social Sciences at Sultan Qaboos University. The conference features 50 working papers and 100 speakers from Oman and other countries.


Speaking at the opening ceremony of the conference, Nasser Mohammed Ali, President of SLA-AGC, said that it is necessary to sustain the development of library and information professionals to meet the current and future needs of the information age. “The Special Libraries Association-Arabian Gulf Chapter had realised the importance of developing the skills and aptitudes of the librarians and information specialists in order to provide high quality services to researchers and readers. The SLA-AGC emphasised professionalism in the library work in terms of elevating the required qualifications and organising specialised workshops


and the annual conference to bring the profession of a librarian to a higher level. I hope that this conference would reflect a wide spectrum to knowledge with diverse dimensions and disciplines,” he said.


Dr Mohammed bin Ali al Balushi, Dean of the College of Arts and Social Sciences at SQU, reviewed the role of Sultan Qaboos University in providing sources and information services to researchers and students and providing them with various means of technology.


The main library at SQU serves all researchers in the Sultanate and is linked to regional and international databases and scientific resources. Over the past


30 years, the university has sought to train specialists in the field of information studies through the Department of Information Studies at the College of Arts and Social Sciences, he mentioned.


In his address, Dr Nabhan bin Harith al Harrasi, Elected President, SLA Arabian Gulf Chapter and Chair of the Organising Committee of the Conference, said that the rapid growth of information and communication technologies and the huge amount of data that is generated every single minute make managing it more difficult and more complicated than ever before.


At the national scale, the benefit of these data is determined by the degree of success in dealing with it and making it relevant to the needs of the people and the strategic plans of the country. Currently, we are witnessing an unprecedented revolution in data production; therefore, providing proper infrastructure and advanced electronic systems that guarantee good management of information has become very crucial in order to get the most out of these data, he observed.


Dr Nabhan further said that the conference would explore the possibility of making use of manipulating big data in the economy and for sustainable development. It will also discuss a number of interrelated issues such as strategic planning, decision making and the future of the information industry. “As has been the case in the previous conferences, this conference will place particular focus on understanding the identity of information studies in light of the vast and massive production of information. Experiences and practices in dealing with big data, especially in the Gulf countries will be given special attention in order to evaluate them,” he added.


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