Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, an independent, research-driven graduate-level university focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies, today announced it hosted an informative workshop on advanced professional services offered by YBP Library Services, the academic division of Baker & Taylor.

The event at Masdar Institute gathered nearly 25 officials, representing research and scholarly libraries from universities and higher academic institutions across the UAE. It included an overview of YBP’s services for academic and research libraries as well as presentations by local libraries that are using YBP’s collection development, acquisitions, and technical services to streamline workflows.

The event commenced with a tour of the campus. The visitors were offered an outline of the various sustainability features, special academic and outreach initiatives, as well as research projects currently being undertaken at Masdar Institute. Joining the guests at the auditorium after the tour, Dr Joe Cecchi, Provost of Masdar Institute, offered them a brief overview of the research-driven institution’s current offerings.

Dr. Abdullah Al Hefeiti, Ph.D., Library Director, Masdar Institute, and Chairman of UAE Academic and Research Library consortium, welcomed the gathering, offering an overview of the facilities currently available for students and faculty at the research-driven institution. Masdar Institute already has an existing agreement with YBP for acquiring books and building collections in innovative ways and has acquired the services of the GOBI online database.

Dr. Al Hefeiti said: “Technology has become integral to today’s books publishing industry, necessitating academic and research libraries to remain in the forefront through collaborations. Our agreement with YBP Library Services enables us to offer access to scores of books and journals which contain the most updated and relevant information for our research-oriented students and faculty. We are delighted to host this event that has gathered so many representatives from libraries across the UAE. We thank the UAE’s wise leadership for their support in building our resources that enable us to share knowledge with the community.”

Simon Samoeil, Collection Development Manager - Middle East, and Michael Walmsley, Director of Sales, offered an overview of YBP Services to libraries and strategic initiatives. Henry Owino, Acquisitions Librarian, Petroleum Institute of Abu Dhabi, offered his perspectives during a session titled ‘Using GOBI to Organize Library Workflows - A Customer Experience’. A demonstration of the GOBI system followed and YBP officials underlined their partnership with the leading e-book aggregators and publishers to offer the most comprehensive digital and print discovery and fulfillment services available.

Currently, 33 local libraries in the UAE are using YBP’s collection development, acquisitions, and technical services to streamline workflows. Out of this, 23 are very active with some using technical services and acquisitions.

YBP Library Services is the global leader in meeting the acquisition, collection development and technical service needs of libraries and their consortia. It also provides books and supporting collection management and technical services to academic, research and special libraries around the world. The key highlight of the event was the presentation on Global Online Bibliographic Information (GOBI) – YBP’s most comprehensive acquisition and collection management database.

Utilized by academic, research and special libraries worldwide, GOBI provides a sophisticated acquisitions and collection management support system. It offers ready access to querying, selecting, ordering, reporting, and approval plan profile management functions across a database of more than four million titles, including 500,000 e-book titles from aggregators and publishers.

Established as an ongoing collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Masdar Institute integrates theory and practice to incubate a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, working to develop the critical thinkers and leaders of tomorrow. With its world-class faculty and top-tier students, the Institute is committed to finding solutions to the challenges of clean energy and climate change through education and research.

 

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