Prime Highlights
- King Abdulaziz University hosted a forum to explore the use of AI in libraries and knowledge systems.
- The event highlighted AI’s role in supporting Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 goals.
Key Facts
- King Abdulaziz University is a leading public university in Saudi Arabia focused on research and higher education.
- The forum introduced access to a major research database with over 23 million academic resources.
Background
King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah held a two-day forum. It explored how artificial intelligence can be used in libraries to manage knowledge. The event also showed how AI can support Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 goal of building a knowledge-based economy.
About twenty speakers participated in panel discussions, seminars, and virtual sessions at the event, which took place at the King Faisal Convention Centre. A technology exhibition was also part of the event. The discussions focused on three main topics, which included AI governance in universities, protection of digital cultural records and development of AI skills by library professionals.
The ScienceDirect full-text database was one of the main highlights that came out of the forum. This resource allows students and researchers to access over 23 million articles and book chapters. It also includes content from about 3,000 scientific journals and over 48,000 books, which will support research and learning.
The event also recognised academic achievements through the Elsevier Awards. Prof. Abdullah Baabdullah received the Research Impact Award, Abrar Al Sufyani was named Best Emerging Researcher, and Prof. Zuhair Natto was honoured for Academic Excellence.
The forum shows that Saudi Arabia is focusing more on using digital technology in education. Under Vision 2030, universities are expected to do more research and use modern tools.
