On Monday, 9th of January 2023 and In line with efforts to foster greater scientific research in Palestine, the University College of Applied Sciences (UCAS) celebrated the “PaLib final ceremony and lunching of e-library and scientific research portals ” within the Erasmus+ co-financed project “Palestinian Research and Library Platform (PALIB)” which is implemented by a consortium led by University College of Applied Sciences (UCAS) (PS) in association with Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) (PS), Palestine Polytechnic University (PPU) (PS), An-Najah National University (ANNU) (PS), Fundacion Universitaria San Antonio (UCAM) (ES), Università degli Studi dell’Aquila (UNIVAQ) (IT) and Associazione ARCES (ARCES) (IT).
The event was organized under the patronage of His Excellency the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Prof. Mahmoud Abu Moise to provide a dedicated archive of all scientific research papers for Academic, students and researchers in Palestine.
The celebration was launched with the participation of UCAS President, Dr. Said AlZebdah, Dr. Ahmed Al Dahdooh, Project Manager of the Palestinian Platform for Research and Libraries (PaLib) at the UCAS, His Excellency Dr. Basri Saleh, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research; Dr. Shaher Zayoud, Director of Development and Scientific Research – Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr. Abdel Karim Daraghmeh, Director of National Erasmus+ Office – Palestine as well as honorable Presidents and representatives of Palestinian universities in Gaza strip and West bank through Zoom facility.
Prior to the ceremony, Dr. Said AlZebdah welcomed the participants and expressed his thanks to the Ministery of Higher Education and Scientific Research for supporting such initiatives. He also extended his gratitude to Erasmus+ program for continuously supporting to reform the Palestinian Higher Education. AlZebdah praised the role of the two national portals for scientific research and libraries in providing tools that facilitate and enrich the research environment in Palestine and their contribution to enhancing communication between researchers who share common interests, which pushes the wheel of scientific research towards advancement and prosperity.
Speaking about this initiative, His Excellency Dr. Basri Saleh, welcomed the honorable attendees via the Zoom platform and praised the professional efforts that seek to develop the higher education environment in light of the obstacles facing higher education in particular.
Dr. Basri expressed his thanks to the national efforts made by project partners and other universities highlighting the compatibility between the outputs of this project with the Ministry’s strategic plan, which seeks to enhance national practical research and activate research repositories. He also emphasized the Ministry’s endeavor to link the two portals within the research network moderated by the MoHE, and asked all Palestinian universities to link their research repositories within the platform, which contributes to enhancing the access of their achievement at the national and regional levels.
Dr. Abdel Karim Daraghmeh, Director of National Erasmus+ Office – Palestine, said that he is proud to participate in this remarkable event, and he is proud that one of the most important Erasmus+ project achieved its target by launching these portals. He encouraged other Palestinian universities to participate in these portals in order to benefit from the tremendous services they provide.
Dr. Ahmed Al Dahdooh, the project manager, welcomed the attendees, mentioning that these platforms are the first Palestinian portals for scientific research and libraries in Palestinian universities and facilitate access to information from its source also genuinely encourages researchers from different Palestinian universities to connect professionally.
Al Dahdooh stressed the platform’s importance to university students and researchers. Additionally, he noted that Palestinian universities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have to enhance this achievement by making the platform an essential information repository for scientific research in universities. Moreover, this rich source of information will be freely offered to the beneficiaries. He added that the platform is a powerful link between Palestinian universities. It reflects the considerable efforts made in all universities and helps increase the repetition of scientific research topics in universities.
Al Dahdooh presented in a live show the main features of the portals and it mechanism and lunced the portals for public users. The audience praised such a worthwhile project in improving the access process to information and references.
Following the first session, a Panel Discussion on way forward for Regulatory Reforms of the portals on the national level where Dr. Shaher Zayoud, raised the effort of the national PHEIs who are not in the project consortium in enriching the portals and facilitating the network of their repositories’ database with the portals. He also highlighted many of portals leading edge features, including some explicitly developed features allowing centralized collection mechanism and assessment workflow. He also emphasized on the platforms role to raise the Palestinian research rank and enhance a worldwide dissemination of the Palestinian academic achievement.
The links to the portals:
