Delegates recently met in Qatar for the 2014 WDL Arab Peninsula Regional Group Symposium, which focused on heritage preservation and awareness training.

The two-day symposium, entitled Preserving Cultural Heritage Content Training – A legacy for the future, took place in Qatar’s National Convention Centre and was attended by around 40 delegates. These included senior representatives, professors and librarians from a number of libraries, universities and heritage bodies, including QNL, Qatar University, Kuwait University, King Hamad Digital Library in Bahrain, the California State University in San Francisco and the Library of Congress.

Following a heritage-training workshop last year, organisers World Digital Library (WDL) and Qatar National Library (QNL) sought to continue activity through the region, with dedicated discussion to the value of preserving heritage and culture, the means to ensure preservation of cultural items, and the ‘themes approach’ to presenting them.

In previous workshops, attendees focused on technical training with regard to digitisation and metadata standards. In this most recent session, heritage awareness and the role of digital libraries in helping to preserve and increase awareness of heritage content was the main topic for discussion.

QNL is planning further sessions in the future, which will focus on discussions, training and events for heritage in the Arab Peninsula.