Arabian Gulf Academic Libraries’ Knowledge Representation Practices, Perspectives and Barriers

Knowledge representation through metadata is crucial to successful knowledge management and ensuring access. Libraries, especially those associated with universities and colleges, have been long engaged in important activities of developing, adapting, implementing, and managing descriptive and administrative metadata, bibliographic authority control, etc. A substantial amount of research exists in knowledge representation practices of libraries that operate in North America and Western Europe. However, some other regions of the world, in particular the Arabian Gulf region which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, are currently underrepresented in this research. The exploratory project presented in this paper aimed to address this gap with the goal of developing an understanding of the current state of knowledge representation (including descriptive metadata practices, identity management, use of knowledge organisation systems, and more) in academic libraries of Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar, as well as plans and preparedness of these institutions and their staff for future developments in this area to facilitate discovery of resources, specifically in the aggregated digital environment. The qualitative study used semi-structured interviews of metadata managers at a representative sample of regional university libraries. The findings provide insights into this previously under-researched area and contribute to understanding of related knowledge management barriers and perspectives on a global scale. Implications for practice and research are discussed.