Islamic Libraries: A Resouce Guide

In a posting titled Personalised Search for Everyone on the Google blog on December 4th 2009,

the company notifies the public of its extended Personalised Search features now available.

Personalised Search as it now will be, according to the post "enables us to customize search

results for you based upon 180 days of search activity linked to an anonymous cookie in your

browser." And unlike the past, Personalised Search does not only apply to those with a Google a

ccount or those who enable the Web history option.

What does this development mean for Muslims and islamic libraries? Well, for one it raises

privacy issues. Can someone see what we are searching for? This debate is not new and

other search engines have been logging searches. There is the possibility of turning the Web

history off. Another issue surrounding this issue is that of having results filtered in a biased way.

Is this possible? If you do reserach on a wide range of topics what does this mean for the kind

of serach results you will be getting. What about a user in the library doing a serach on a

computer, a public/shared computer? What does the next person using that computer gets

as his/her results when he does his search. Futhermore, how can a librarian assist a customer

in their search who is phoning in for assistance. The search executed by the librarian in the

 library and the one done by the customer, say at home, might yield very different results.

Here are a few links to discussions surrounding the Google Personalised search and its

implications:

Google's Personalised Search

Google’s Personalized Results: The “New Normal” That Deserves Extraordinary Attention

The Implication of Google's Personalized Search

The Islamic new year, 1431 has begun, AlhamduLillah.

Here is some information regarding the Hijri (or Islamic) calendar sourced from Daily Muslims:

"The Islamic Calendar is based on the Lunar Calendar consisting of 354-355 days annually and

is 10-11 days shorter than the western Solar Calendar. The Lunar month is based on the time it

takes the moon to complete a single orbit around the earth and it is just over 29? days.

The new moon marks the beginning of each new lunar month and it is easy for people to see the

new moon and know that a new month has begun.

Interestingly, the English word ‘month’ is derived from the word ‘moon’.

The Islamic Calendar was started by the second Caliph Umar in 16 AH/ 637 CE [Al-Tabari: Tarikh

Al- Rusul 5/22 & Ibn Sa‘d: Tabaqat Al- Kubra 3/281]. The event of the Hijrah, the migration of the

Prophet Muhammad (SAW) from Makkah to Madinah in 622 CE, was chosen to begin the Islamic

Calendar because it was the first major sacrifice made by the whole Ummah for the preservation

of Islam in its formative period. Ibn Hajar, in his Fath Al-Bari, records that the Caliph Umar is

reported to have remarked: “The Hijrah has separated truth from falsehood, therefore, let it become

the Epoch of the Era”. The Hijrah year reminds Muslims every year of the sacrifices made by the

first Muslims and should prepare them to do the same. The constant use of the Hijri Calendar for

acts of worship and as a frame of reference to major historical events will help Muslims keep links

with their roots and further enhance their knowledge of their religion and history.

There are twelve months in the Islamic Calendar as the Qur’an says: “Surely the number of months

in the sight of Allah is twelve, in accordance with His decree from the day He created the heavens and

the earth, out of which four are sacred” (9:36). These twelve months are Muharram, Safar, Rabi‘

al-Awwal, Rabi‘ al-Thani, Jumada al-Ula, Jumada al-Ukhra, Rajab, Sha‘ban, Ramadan, Shawwal,

Dhul Qa‘dah and Dhul Hijjah. The four Sacred Months (al-Ashhur al-Hurum) are Rajab, Dhul Qa‘dah,

Dhul Hijjah and Muharram [Bukhari]."

We all know about the term information overload. But what about data smog? It is the term given to the overwhelming amount of information that exists in our daily lives causing stress and sometimes

even makes it impossible to separate fact from ficiton. Rapid advances in technology, sophisticated

marketing and bombardment of messages and data causes consist the data smog.

Data smog is not a new term. It was first written about in a book titled Data Smog: Surviving the 

Information Glut by David Shenk in 1997. This article has an excellent review of the book. And the

author himself critiques his book ten years later in this review.

“Information Pollution Alert! Living with Data Smog” lists these tricks for surviving data smog:

•“Get educated: The most important step in dealing with data smog is to build up your mental toolkit, and that means getting educated. There’s a reason that Jefferson saw education as the cornerstone of a functioning democracy.

•Share your ideas with others: Community can be a great protection from malevolent data. Tell people what you’re thinking to avoid the echo effect of standing alone in a tunnel, where only you hear your ideas coming

back to you.

•Winnow news sources to one or two trusted daily sources (local and national paper, for example) and three

or four less frequent analytical sources (magazines, mostly). In their quest to differentiate themselves, news outlets pour on all sorts of gloss and glitter (everything except actual analysis, it seems), but they’re really reporting the same stuff as everyone else — probably from the same wire. Get what you need and move on.

•Learn marketing techniques: Learn what makes your news sources and other information sources attractive

to their customers (advertisers) and take that into account. Read up on how marketers do their job, so you

can identify when marketing techniques are being used on you. Try Robert Cialdini’s classic Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion for a good primer.

•Follow the money: Find out who paid for research and what the payers’ goals are. Most academic books and articles list this in the acknowledgements (for books) or the footnotes (for articles); for mainstream books, you may have to check the references.

•Follow the interests: Ask who a story seems to help, and how.

•Consume critically: Ask yourself if the opposite conclusion is possible, and how your source deals with that possibility. Biased sources usually ignore or belittle opposing viewpoints, instead of engaging them. But it’s

rarely likely that the other side is stupid or in some sort of conspiracy.

•Does it matter? Maybe this should be the first thing you ask, about anything. It’s easy to get caught up in

things that ultimately don’t matter. That’s OK if you’re just having fun, but not much to build a life on.

This isn’t anything like a comprehensive response to data smog — at best it’s Data Smog 101. But it’s a start — and we need a start, because the alternative is getting less and less informed about the real world around us.” Dustin Wax, 2009

Information on Islam in Africa in the 15th C and before now has a chance for survival as a new library opens in the city of Timbuktu, Mali according to the news report below. Earlier reports such as this indicate the interest of foreign governments' in the preservation of extensive collections of Arabic anf Islamic manuscripts. Several years ago The Library of Congress created an online exhibition called Ancient Manuscripts from the Desert Libraries of Timbuktu.

Saving Africa's precious written heritage

By Andrew Harding

BBC News, Timbuktu

A drizzle of dust and sand falls over Ahmed Saloum Boularaf's fingers as he gently lifts the ancient, camel-skin bound manuscripts from a wooden box and puts them on a desk in his makeshift library in a mud-brick house close to the centre of Timbuktu.

"Termites, rain and mice," he said in an accusing voice, brushing a few flecks of 15th Century parchment from his jacket.

"This was my grandfather's collection. It covers topics from science to medicine, history, theology, grammar, geography - a little of everything."

Threatened

Across Timbuktu, in cupboards, rusting chests, private collections and libraries, tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of manuscripts bear witness to this legendary city's remarkable intellectual history, and by extension, to Africa's much overlooked pre-colonial heritage.

"This is the proof," said Mr Boularaf.

"Africa was not wild before the white man came. In fact, if you will excuse the expression, it was the colonising that was wild."

But this unique literary evidence is under threat, as time, the elements, and a simple lack of resources take their toll in northern Mali.

"We are losing manuscripts every day. We lack the financial means to catalogue and protect them," said Mr Boularaf, who recently rescued his collection from the rubble of a mud building next door that collapsed after a rainstorm.

Now a giant, new, state of the art library has landed - rather like a spaceship - in the dilapidated centre of Timbuktu, offering the best hope of preserving and analysing the town's literary treasures.

After several years of building and delays, the doors are finally about to open at the Ahmed Baba Institute's new home - a 200 million rand (£16,428,265) project paid for by the South African government.

"It's a dream come true," said South African curator Alexio Motsi, exploring the underground, climate-controlled storage rooms that will soon house some 30,000 manuscripts.

On the ground floor, behind elegant colonnades and fountains, rows of empty desks are ready for newly trained workers to begin repairing and digitizing the documents.

'African renaissance'

"I feel proud… and nervous," Mr Motsi said as his team prepared to hand over the keys of the institute to the Malian authorities.

“ There's a lot to be uncovered here. It's time we started relooking at the history taught in school about Africa ”

Curator Alexio Motsi

The struggle to save Timbuktu's manuscripts has been gaining momentum for many years.

When South Africa's former President, Thabo Mbeki, visited the town in 2001 he declared the documents to be among the continent's "most important cultural treasures", and promised to help conserve them as part of his vision of an "African renaissance".

Most of the manuscripts are in Arabic script, but contain many local languages.

They provide unique insights into Timbuktu's emergence as a trading post, and by the 1500s as a famous university town, full of students and scribes.

They also help refute the notion that sub-Saharan Africa produced only oral histories, with little or no written records.

Some of the documents discuss social and political problems, usually in an Islamic context, while others offer medicinal advice, including one 13th Century herbal remedy to help treat women in labour.

"I think pre-colonial Africa had its own civilisation going on, which matches what was going on in the west," said Mr Motsi.

"There's a lot to be uncovered here. It's time we started relooking at the history we were taught in school about Africa."

The new institute plans to hold exhibitions, and open a souvenir and coffee shop in order to translate interest in the manuscripts into tourist revenue for one of the world's poorest countries.

But those ambitions will not have been helped by new travel advisories issued by the UK and US governments, which are warning tourists to steer clear of the town altogether because of the threat of kidnapping by militants with links to al-Qaeda, who are now using the Sahara as a hiding place.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8386866.stm

Published: 2009/11/30 16:35:51 GMT

© BBC MMIX

Syria: Islam’s Most Important Library to Reopen in Aleppo

"After decades of neglect, one of Islam’s most important libraries is about to reopen in Aleppo, offering scholars access to some 70,000 books and rare works of art, and shining a light on a centuries-old tradition of learning.

Aleppo, Syria’s second city, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, outdone only by Damascus. It has also been a centre of scholarship for millennia, especially for the three Abrahamic faiths."

To read more visit http://arabdetroit.com/news.php?id=1011

Assalamu 'Alaykum (peace be with you)

Welcome to the blog on the website Islamic Libraries: A Resource Guide.

This blog will contain information and news about islamic libraries and issues surrounding the organisation and management of such libraries. Occasionally general library information will be posted here, inshaAllah (God willing).

Thank you for visiting the website.