The Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Djhabi) hosted the 25th annual Special Libraries Association - Arabian Gulf Chapter (SLA-AGC) Conference & Exhibition between 5th-7th March at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Abu Dhabi.

The annual conference, which this year was held under the theme ‘The Internet of Things: The Future of Connected Internet Societies’, represented a platform for experts, exhibitors, professionals, companies, and other stakeholders in the libraries sector to exchange ideas and best practices, and also discuss future challenges facing the sector in the age of technology and the impact on information investment.

Abdulla Majed Al Ali, Acting Executive Director of the National Library Sector at DCT Abu Dhabi, said: “This year, the conference discussed an important issue in an attempt to look ahead into the future of libraries in light of the amazing technological developments we are witnessing.

“The theme ‘The Internet of Things: The Future of Connected Internet Societies’ launched discussions among guests at the conference and allowed them to identify challenges and opportunities in this changing world, in addition to exchanging expertise, knowledge, best practices and tools in the field of libraries, and methods of digitizing them and upgrading them to keep up with the very latest advanced technology. We were very pleased to be hosting this unique gathering of experts in Abu Dhabi.”

The conference discussed various key topics, including information security, privacy, legislations, regulations, and rights, applications, knowledge management and standards. The information security topic covered several areas, such as data confidentiality, verification, controlled access, and the role of technical and operational standards in developing and deploying safe IoT devices. The privacy topic discussed how to adopt and localise IoT devices and systems to enhance users’ privacy expectations.

Activities on the first day included sessions which discussed matters related to knowledge management, its standards, a general outlook of the protocols of IoT, Internet connectivity technology, and the benefits libraries can gain. Throughout Wednesday and Thursday, the conference continued to discuss various subjects related to IoT, knowledge management, future influences in the IT sector, the readiness of libraries in Jordan to become ‘smart libraries’, children’s libraries and how to benefit from them, the profession of the librarian, and the trends in scientific conferences and their role in enhancing the profession. There were also sessions that discussed information security, privacy, legislation, regulations, rights, IoT applications in the IT sector, and future trends.

For more information about the event, please visit https://slaagc.org/

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