Sharjah TV reports about one of the most significant project concerning the development of Arabic language through history. MediaINFO is a chosen tool for building and presenting “The Digital Library of the Historical Arabic Language Dictionary“. This international project is set to map the development of Arabic Language through centuries.

MediaINFO helps resolve the tough challenges set before the community of researchers. From digitizing old books, to analysing words and exhaustive definitions of terms and their meanings changing through time.

MediaINFO is the essential ingredient in this process. It provides interactive Digital Library which allows access to the raw material. With advanced tools it enables researchers and curators setting up their needed workflows. The flexible MediaINFO platform is open to integration. With very specialized solutions it provides unlimited capacity of growth. This was an essential base of this project. The end result will be a fully defined and meticulously described corpus of Arabic Language through time.

Link to the video

Summary of their report

The digital library of the Historical Arabic Language Dictionary presents the raw material of building the corpus. To insure a successful manufacturing of any product, we have to clearly define two essential elements:

  • The shape of the final product,
  • Designing the Production Lines required for the manufacturing process that includes defining the tasks of the workers
    • the language scientists and 
    • the specialized researchers.

To achieve this in a high performance manner and in a reasonable time frame, it is essential to computerize this workflow process. There are lots of requirements and challenges associated with this;

  • collecting the content of this library by gathering digital books from several resources,
  • scanning books that are only available in paper format.

They are to be stored in a digital platform that supports their searching and retrieving.

About Arabic Language Academy

The academy to preserve the Arabic language is set in Sharjah. It was formed after a decrree by Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah. It will focus on maintaining Arabic language by keeping it relevant to sciences, technology, literature and arts. It will aim to revive and document Arab and Islamic heritage, and encourage books to be published in Arabic.

Dr Hamid Al Nuaimi, chancellor of the University of Sharjah, said the academy would address the major challenges posed by the technological changes that are sweeping the world.

About Sharjah Media Corporation

Sharjah Media Corporation (SMC) is a government organisation. It is dedicated to develop the media industry in the Emirate of Sharjah and was established by Emiri Decree in 2009.

SMC aims to develop national media cadres. They should be capable of keeping abreast with requirements for development by utilising the best expertise and successful experience of public and private media institutions in coordination with relevant bodies.

It aims to reinforce the media’s role in family building and maintaining family cohesion. It develops media performance on the grounds of professionalism, excellence, creativity, responsible freedom, and abidance by professional ethics without harming others’ rights.

About MediaINFO

MediaINFO is a complete software solution for intuitive viewing, browsing, searching, cataloguing and sharing digitized content.

MediaINFO is powering some of the world’s most prestigious libraries, publishers, educational & government institutions, and magazines. It helps organizations utilize and re-use their content more effectively by leveraging past investments in content and re-purposing them for new audiences over a local network or the internet. MediaINFO Digital Library software is developed by Geneza.