Qatar National Library (QNL), in partnership with the Middle East and North Africa Innovative Users Group (Mena-IUG), organised the eighth annual Mena Innovative Users Group Conference recently.
Mena information and library professionals gathered to attend the two-day software technical conference at Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) to learn about emerging library technologies and trends, explore a wide range of library products, explore innovative cataloguing techniques and the modality of presenting Arabic works and develop the internationalisation of library software.
The conference also had two days of software training workshops. The opening remarks were made by James MacDonald, Mena-IUG Steering Committee Chair, followed by a welcome speech by Frieda Wiebe, library director of GU-Q and Rex Steiner, associate director for technical services at QNL.
The keynote speaker of the conference was Paul Coyne, technical systems director of Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals, whose presentation included glimpses of the library and publisher networks in the digital era.
Dr Claudia Lux, project director at QNL, said: “The conference was an incredible opportunity for the Mena information and library professionals to share ideas, learn more about innovative library technologies, present and review best practice implementations and network with colleagues. We are glad to organise the second annual Mena-IUG Conference in Qatar and are pleased that the conference attendees reported to us that this is one of the most practical and beneficial events they have attended throughout this year.”
From its inception, the Innovative Users Group has been an independent organisation dedicated to serve as a forum and influence the development and improvement of Innovative Interfaces Inc products for the benefit of members.