The Digital Information Center participates in an international scientific symposium on digitizing and preserving library collections.

The Digital Information Center of the Intellectual and Cultural Affairs Department at the al-Abbas's (p) Holy Shrine participated in the global scientific symposium that was organized electronically through the (Webinar) of the Digital Cultural Heritage Center at Sulaymaniyah Technical University, in cooperation with Oxford University, University of London and University of Al-Qadisiyah, entitled (Digitization and Preservation of Library Collection).

The participant in this symposium is the Director of the Digital Information Center, Mr. Ammar Al-Jawad, who explained to the al-Kafeel Network, saying: “Our participation was based on the invitation that was submitted to us by the Digital Cultural Heritage Center of the Sulaymaniyah Technical University in Sulaymaniyah Governorate. The participation focused on digitization, and we spoke about the concept of digitization and library collections, what is the benefit of the digitization process, and how it contributes to preserving the heritage of countries, especially our country, Iraq, which has gone through a number of devastating wars, and the destruction and loss that accompanied them of important Iraqi scientific publications, in addition to the damage these products are exposed to due to natural disasters such as fires and floods, or the influence of normal climatic factors on paper and inks, especially when the appropriate environment for storage is not provided, as well as human factors such as theft or misuse."

He added: "Based on what was proposed, we highlighted the pioneering experience of our center that contributed to the realization of the aforementioned, which is the national project (preservation of Iraqi scientific production) which is concerned with digitizing paper products of which no electronic copies are available. We also presented the digitization steps followed in this project with a simple explanation of the steps we are taking to digitize the Iraqi scientific products in our project."

Mr. Al-Jawad invited all those interested and specialists in preserving and digitizing the documentary heritage to accelerate the digitization of the products of their countries, and to strive to apply precautionary measures to avoid the loss of the heritage that occurs as a result of human or natural disasters. Indicating: “We are ready to present a summary of our experience to everyone who needs it.”

At the conclusion of this research lecture, university professors, specialists, authors and officials participating in the symposium expressed their strong admiration for this project, which offers great benefit to every researcher of science and knowledge. They also showed their willingness to cooperate with the al-Abbas's (p) holy shrine, appreciating the efforts and services it provides to the community, especially that these national services and mega projects are provided to everyone free of charge, just for the sake of spreading knowledge in the Iraqi society in particular and in the world in general.