The Arab Federation for Libraries and Information (AFLI) announced earlier this month participants accepted in the training program entitled “AFLI Regional project for professionals’ excellence in university libraries”.

The program seeks to achieve the following outcomes:

1. Developing skills of library specialists from university libraries in the Arab countries.
2. Increasing awareness of the importance and role of university libraries in education and scientific research.
3. Implementing joint or cooperative projects aimed at serving and developing university libraries.
4. Involving civil society in implementing the sustainable development goals and promoting them through project implementation.

Sixty-two participants from 13 Arab countries were selected according to the criteria announced at AFLI website earlier this year (Egypt; Sudan; Libya; Tunisia; Algeria; Morocco; Palestine; Jordan Lebanon; Saudi Arabia; Iraq; Oman and Yemen).

The Regional AFLI Program for professionals’ excellence in university libraries will be held from mid-June until October 2021. Librarians will be trained on Data management; Change Management; Libraries and Development: (USDs) using Moodle -the open source e-learning system- to provide the participants with the educational modules.

Number of lectures, workshops and webinars will be conducted during the specific period on knowledge management; modern forms of scholarly communication; open access; performance indicators; AFLI unified standard for university libraries; recent trends in services; modern technologies in libraries.

It is worth mentioning that the regional program will be conducting in partnership with the Bahrain Library and Information Association; Tunisian Federation of University Libraries; Associations of Algerian libraries and information; Saudi Libraries and Information Association; Sudanese Association of Libraries and Information ; Iraqi Association for Information, Libraries and Documentation Specialists; Omani Library Association; Library and Information Association in Qatar; The Palestinian Library and Information Association; Library & Information Association of Kuwait; Libya Library Association;  Egyptian Library Association; The General Authority for Book, Publishing and Distribution in the Republic of Yemen; The Deanship of Library Affairs at Jazan University; and the Saudi Digital Library (SDL).