26th Annual Conference & Exhibition of the Special Libraries Association / Arabian Gulf Chapter: “Emerging Technologies and their Applications in Libraries and Information Institutions” 7 - 9 March 2023, Kuwait

The Special Libraries Association, Arabian Gulf Branch, held its twenty-sixth annual conference in the State of Kuwait, in cooperation with the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research and the American University in Kuwait. and information institutions.” The conference was attended by many academics and professionals in the field of libraries and information. The following is a review of the proceedings of the conference.
The conference themes consisted of: Emerging technologies and the development of information services.; Virtual Reference Service Technologies: Cases and Experiences.; Blockchain in libraries.; Big Data and Data Analysis in Libraries: Experiences and Cases.; Augmented and Virtual Reality Applications in Libraries: Experiences and Practices.; Artificial intelligence and its applications in libraries: experiences and cases.; Applications of expert systems and machine learning techniques in information management.; Semantic web applications in information retrieval.; Applications of OCR techniques in the digitization of audio and video resources.; Library bookmark apps.; Smartphone applications in libraries.; E-Book and Digital Publishing Platforms: Interfaces, Applications, and Services.; The gap between scientific practices (educational programs and scientific research activities) and professionalism in the sector.; The challenges faced by the Gulf information institutions and the appropriate ways to address them in the application of emerging technologies.; Convergence with global practices in terms of using emerging software and applications.; The readiness of the Gulf information institutions to meet the continuous changes in the needs of the digital beneficiary.