| Background. The study identified the impact of the electronic age on the form and services of the academic library at present and its implications in the future. In the light of it, the present status and future plans of the academic libraries of the six Arabian Peninsula countries, namely: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, were surveyed.; Purpose of the Study. The purpose of the study was to identify through a questionnaire, the automation projects of the thirteen academic libraries of the six above mentioned states. In doing so the organizational set-up was studied as well as their plans for future automation and Regional cooperation in doing so. Based on the overall information collected from the survey, guidelines were set for the library automation for the University of Qatar Library.; Procedure. The questionnaire was sent to the Deans of Library Affairs and Directors of Libraries for the thirteen universities. Analyses of the three parts of the questionnaire was made, namely, the Library Profile, Library Automation Status and the Future. Answers to each question were tabulated and findings presented. Comparison findings of the three parts of the questionnaire were made and the results were: (1) Types of Automated Libraries. The trend seemed to be that the libraries of the more technical/specialized universities were automated while the libraries of the comprehensive universities were not. (2) Arabic Bibliographic Standards and Bibliographic Tools. One of the basic problems of academic library automation seemed to be the lack of standardized bibliographic tools for the control of Arabic bibliographic information. (3) Bilingual Systems. The narrow choice of only two presently available systems that can handle the automation of a bilingual collection. (4) Trained Manpower. The lack of trained competent librarians seemed to be another problem for automation.; Drawing upon the above findings, guidelines were presented for the automation of the University of Qatar Library and recommendations made on the Regional level for the thirteen academic libraries under study. |
