Digital Repositories in the Arab Universities: A Comparative Analytical Study

Abstract

Abstract This study aims to analyse and compare the knowledgeable repositories in some Arab universities, the importance of this study stemmed from showing us the advantages and the disadvantages of the digital repositories in the Arab universities and it sheds light on its excellent sides for supporting it and on the defects of its treatment then avoided it in the future. This study used the analytical descriptive approach and the comparative descriptive approach on the sample of the digital repositories in six Arab universities, which are: Alexandria University, Damascus University, Khartoum University, King Saud University, Petrol and Minerals University and Nayef University of the security sciences. The study conveyed the repositories’ distinction in Alexandria University more than the last repositories which are the search sample in the amount of the massive content and the social sharing in books and the existence of the notification tools which allow the possibility of highlighting and underlining some text areas and adding the poster notes and searching in all the text is based on the search server” as it should support five languages: which are Arabic language, English language, French language, Spanish language and Italian language and digitizing the available subjects in the library or the collected subjects from other institutions by a laboratory which is equipped with the latest digital technology which digitalize various subjects including the slides in different shapes, the negative photos, the books, the manuscripts, the photos, the maps and the audio - visual materials and the digital repository is distinguished in Damascus University with using Dublin Core criteria in describing its content and supporting OAI - PMH protocol and repository including instructive guidelines like the depositor guide and the user guide, also the digital repository in Khartoum is characterized by user interface characterized by the good order with the existence of new adds which enter the digital repository according to the existed search type whether it was a subject, an address or the author's name. The two repositories of Nawaf University for the security sciences and King Fahd University for petrol and minerals are characterized from the last repositories in the universities which are the study sample by the advanced search which is more accurate and specific by the way which includes the whole text, the address, the creators or the authors and the summary, the date, the undisciplined and unrestricted search words and choosing the words from the drop down list which include all the available subjects in the repository, the digital repositories in Khartoum universities, King Saud universities, Nayef University for the security science, King Fahd for petrol and minerals are blamed on the absence of determining its repositories policies. And also the digital repositories in Khartoum University and King Fahd for petrol and minerals University while the digital repositories in Khartoum University, King Saud University and King Fahd University for petrol and minerals are blamed on the absence of the social communication by the social communication networks and also noticing using the universities of Damascus, Khartoum, King Saud, Nayef for security services universities of DSpace system in building its repositories. The universities of Khartoum, King Saud, Nayef for security sciences are blamed on the absence of the advanced search for the effective retrieval in its locations and also the digital repository in Khartoum University is blamed on the content's lack of the digital assets.” The study recommended conducting studies about the systems and the approaches of building the repositories in the Arab universities, the searching methods in it and also conducting comparative studies with the digital repositories in the Arab universities and also building standard models to build the digital repositories in Arab universities.