Qatar Foundation and British Library in online collaboration- Gulf Times

The British Library and the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) have unveiled a partnership to transform people’s understanding of the history of the Middle East, and the region’s relationship with Britain and the rest of the world.

The project, announced yesterday at the British Library’s flagship building in St Pancras, London, will digitise more than 500,000 pages from the archives of the East India Company and India Office, in addition to 25,000 pages of mediaeval Arabic manuscripts – all of which will be made freely available online for the first time.

Britain’s Minister for Communications and the Creative Industries Ed Vaizey MP, Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts MP, Qatar’s Ambassador to the UK Dr Khalid al-Mansouri, British Library’s chief executive Dame Lynne Brindley, and Qatar National Library director Dr Claudia Lux were present at the ceremony.

The digitisation will take place over the next three years at the British Library, in close co-operation with the new Qatar National Library, and the digitised pages will be available in both Arabic and English.

Once live, the site will also offer users the opportunity to add their own Gulf-related stories and memories, enabling them to contribute to the online resource, whether by sharing images of mementos and old photographs, or by recounting the stories their grandparents once told them.

The project also encompasses the digitisation of thousands of pages of mediaeval manuscripts that demonstrate the significant influence of Islamic scholars in the fields of science, medicine, mathematics and geometry.

Together, these resources will illuminate centuries of Arab history and culture and massively boost understanding of the rapidly-changing Gulf region and its place on the world stage.

“The India Office Records held by the British Library are an extraordinarily rich source of historical material relating to the Gulf,” said Dame Brindley.

Vaizey said that it is tantalising to know that so much fascinating information charting the UK’s relationship with the Middle East will soon be freely available.

The Qatar National Library, expected to open in 2014, will also offer an extensive collection of print and digital resources to residents across Qatar.

Making material from cultures around the world available on the Internet in multilingual format, the library is currently developing its capacity for the digital conversion of important documents.

Dr Lux stated that the India Office Records at the British Library hold one of the world’s foremost archives of material related to the Gulf region.

Ambassador Dr al-Mansouri described the British Library and Qatar Foundation partnership as priceless and will increase the awareness and the knowledge of the people of the Gulf about their history.

“This huge quantity of historical material released online can only enrich the many studies, research papers and textbooks that inquire into the history of the Gulf, and the wider region. It will transform the perception of many in the wider world.”

The India Office Records, dating from the mid-18th century to around 1947, will include a wealth of information on the politics, people, places, trade, culture and customs of the Gulf region.

Thousands of pages of research work about these records, already prepared at the heritage library of Qatar National Library – including transcription and translation into Arabic – will be incorporated to identify names and places, making it accessible to the Arab community.

Personal names, place names and keywords will be fully searchable, transforming research possibilities for these collections.

To date, this material could only be consulted by visiting the British Library’s Reading Rooms in London.

Once it is digitised and uploaded onto a dedicated online platform, it will be freely available to researchers across the UK, throughout the Gulf and around the world.

Nineteenth and 20th century gazetteers – originally secret documents intended only for the eyes of senior officials – will provide a treasure trove of first-hand information, testifying to the critical strategic and commercial importance of the Gulf to European powers including Britain, France and Germany, which were actively involved in the region at that time.

Source:http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=519821&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16