Shawati' Issue 64

64 å/°

Shawati’ 64

We worked very closely with the Sorbonne University to establish three world-class-level academic programmes in archival science and records management. Sorbonne now offers a bachelor ’ s degree, a master ’ s degree, and a professional certificate in this field, and it is the first university in the UAE and the region to offer programmes at this level of specialisation. Moreover, a PHD programme in the same area is in preparation. We are happy to have hired many of the graduates of these programmes at the UAE National Library and Archives. We saw the great energy that they came with and brought to the organisation. In September 2023, we celebrated the first batch graduating from the master ’ s degree, which is first of its kind in the Middle East. We are also proud of the contributions we make to assisting other, less advanced, archives in the region built upon our experiences and long history. We shared our experiences with those newer archives and, we hoped to have guided them in the right direction. One of our major achievements that we showcased during this event was the establishment of the Center for Preservation & Restoration [in 2018] as a high-level standardised centre with a huge storage capacity, equipped with the latest restoration and digitisation laboratories and technologies. We invited the congress attendees to visit the site. The idea of having this building was to have a location where we could operate our technical processes, such as digitisation, restoration, and physical preservation. The facility’s storage capacity is 45,000 square meters, and we may require an additional building to store records. But again, because of the move to a digital environment, we might need huge data centres in the future instead of physical storage. Could you tell us more about the Archives Department within the UAE National Library and Archives, and your role as director of this department? The Archives Department consists of five sections: the Presidential Archives, the Government Archives, the Historical Archives, the Electronic Archives and the Conservation and Restoration Sections.

Hamad Al Mutairi, during his chairmanship of one of the scientific sessions at the ICA Congress Abu Dhabi 2023. © UAE National Library and Archives

Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan during the closing ceremony of the ICA Congress Abu Dhabi 2023, seated with HE Abdulla Majed Al Ali and HE Dr Abdulla Al Raisi. © UAE National Library and Archives

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One new element we introduced was the Hackathon. Teams from universities and schools were able to compete for monetary prizes by developing innovative approaches to archiving. We feel it is very important to involve the younger generation. With today’s technology, software and thinking unencumbered by traditional methods, we were proud to see the teams come up with novel approaches to archiving that provided us and attendees with different viewpoints. As the oldest and largest archival repository in the Arabian Gulf region, the UAE National Library and Archives certainly had a lot to contribute at the congress. What were some of the experiences that you shared with the international archival community? That is an excellent question because being the oldest and largest archival repository in the Arabian Gulf region, there are many experiences, successes, and challenges that the UAE National Library and Archives would like to share with the world. We were proud to share many of these experiences with our partners, most notably, the academic programmes that we established hand-in-hand with the Sorbonne University, Abu Dhabi. About five years ago, we conducted a study to understand the requirements for archivists throughout government organisations in the UAE. We realised that while we have people working in this field, they lacked the skills to deal with historical records. Through this study, we concluded that at least 5,000 archivists were needed across the UAE’s government organisations, because we now have more than 300 local and federal government entities. Based on the results of the study, we decided to investigate potential partnerships with universities to make sure we had the right programmes that could help the industry.

Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan with HE Abdulla Majed Al Ali viewing the new Piql machine, which is a non-hackable, immutable, and pemanent data storgage technology that will replace microfilms. © UAE National Library and Archives

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Meg Phillips, Co-chair of the Scientific Program of the International Council Congress, during her speech at the closing ceremony. © UAE National Library and Archives

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