The UAE has succeeded in digitizing knowledge and cultural content through national digital libraries, which contributed to providing cultural services and providing the largest amount of electronic knowledge content, and making the book accessible to all, around the clock and from reliable sources.
The state had anticipated early on the future of knowledge to move towards the digital world, through a sophisticated digital infrastructure, which allows to provide distinct and diversified content covering various areas of culture, thus contributing to the transfer and exchange of knowledge worldwide.
In light of the exceptional circumstances that the world is going through, and the conditions of home quarantine for more than a third of the population of the globe, the digital book is at the forefront of the attention of all groups of society.
In this context, the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority provides a wide range of digital books and dialogues, with the most prominent actors in the local cultural scene, through electronic platforms and channels, while Art Dubai exhibition, the glittering artistic demonstration and the most momentous cultural event in the region, announced the postponement of its copy This year, he moved his program full of events and dialogues to the digital space, including the "Global Art Forum", which became available through live broadcasts, in addition to the program of performance presentations that became available to all via the Internet, which became accessible to the general public. This includes digital platforms and channels, ensuring that a new segment of the audience who has never had an opportunity to learn about such cultural content will be drawn.
The Serkal Avenue, with its physical content, also moved to the electronic world in an innovative way, thus art lovers and creators became on a date with a unique experience, which gives them all, alike, a unique opportunity to follow the activities of the galleries, where they will be able to tour between the exhibitions and interact With her from their homes with new innovative methods, the "Opening from Home" event witnessed the presence of 3000 people in a unique digital experience.
Digital sources of knowledge provide various groups of society with an opportunity for readers, from all parts of the world, to take advantage of their free time, in light of the precautionary measures that countries take as a result of the emerging Corona virus (Covid-19), and to confirm that cultural and knowledge mobility continues, and can be multiplied in Under the options provided by modern technology.
Digital libraries also contribute to raising the level of societal and knowledge awareness, by establishing the concept of knowledge giving as a general social framework, in which all groups of society are involved, in addition to facilitating and creating channels for exchange and knowledge sharing between members of society, consolidating the spirit of cultural and knowledge volunteering and supporting individuals and institutions with supportive tools, To promote and encourage reading and knowledge development. In the context of the distinguished cultural efforts led by the Emirates, the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development launched the Emirates National Portal for Digital Libraries the Smart Library Project to link all public libraries in the country with each other, so that the reader can access the book he is looking for in the near geographical area.
The initiative of the Emirates Smart Library project to establish reading is usually a popular, youthful community in the Emirates community, through a national knowledge institutional framework, to include everyone's reading culture by providing the knowledge infrastructure and making it available for reading and creativity.
The «Emirates Union Library» launched, at the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, a package of services that provides an opportunity for all researchers and those who wish to access information remotely, through the electronic portal of the library.
The portal contains more than five million diverse digital sources.
These knowledge services contribute to students and researchers receiving their knowledge and sciences and feeding their studies with reference data. The Sharjah Digital Public Library has also employed technological ingredients to serve the burgeoning cultural reality in the Emirates, by providing all the contents of knowledge and cultural institutions.
10 different languages
The Department of "Sharjah Public Libraries", affiliated with the Sharjah Book Authority, has announced that it has opened its electronic library free of charge for all individuals and age groups, in different parts of the world, for a period of three months, starting from April to June 2020, providing six million books and electronic knowledge source, with more than 10 Different languages, to be readers in front of 21 thousand scientific content, and more than 30 thousand video libraries, in various fields and disciplines, along with 160 thousand e-books, and five million global theses.
The Emirates anticipated early on the future of knowledge and moving towards the digital world.