News

As part of its 2018 program of activities and events, Naseej Academy ran a workshop during the 4th Lebanese Library Association Conference, held in Beirut on May 9–11, entitled “Using QR Applications to Market your Academic Libraries services: Methods and Tools”.

The workshop was conducted by Dr. Abdallah H. Metwally, Professor of Libraries and Information and General Supervisor of Naseej Academy, who examined the concept of marketing, highlighted the differences between promotion and advertising, stressed the need for academic libraries both to promote and to advertise their services, and reviewed the basic steps in marketing library services.

Prof. Dr. Abdallah focused on the definition, meaning and general structure of QR (quick reading) code, the background to its development, the different types of QR code and how it works, and the characteristics that distinguish it from vertical codes in terms of storage capacity, speed of reading and diversity of content.

The workshop also addressed the benefits for academic libraries of using QR code to market their services. In addition, participants were guided through the use of open source software in creating or reading and downloading code on smartphones.

Tools and techniques employed to great success in the workshop included brainstorming, practical exercises, case studies and working groups.

The workshop was attended by librarians, information specialists, and students from various entities, including Lebanese University, Islamic University of Lebanon, the Rafik Hariri University Library, American University of Beirut and University of Notre Dame, to name but a few.

Dr. Fawz Abdallah, President, Lebanese Library Association, applauded Naseej Academy on its efforts, which ensured the workshop was a success. For his part, the General Supervisor of the Academy affirmed his interest in furthering cooperation with the Lebanese Library Association.