Dear friends,
Fr. René-Vincent participated in the IFLA congress (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) which was held in Colombus, Ohio (USA) from August 13‒19.
Over the years, fr. René-Vincent and the IDEO library team worked to complete an enormous project to not only catalogue books and scientifics articles, but also to bring to light the concept and development of the application of the catalogue itself, AlKindi.
This has unbelievable potential, as no other cataloguing software is currently available on the market which can give all the characteristic data pertinent to the Arab-Muslim heritage, particularly the dates of the Hijri calendar and the specific names of persons.
Apart from the international forms of known names (which are useful but sometimes very simple), the application of AlKindi allows one to systematically and easily record the author’s n ames under the form « Ibn Ḫaldūn (808/1406) (Abū Zayd) (Walī al-Dīn) ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad al-Tūnisī al-Qāhirī » with Latin and Arabic alphabets, noting his death date in the two calendars, and the different elements that compose his name and clearly identify him.
The other novel feature of AlKindi is that it integrates the latest advancements in the world of cataloguing. Behind the obscure acronyms (FRBR-LRM, RDA, ISNI, VIAF…) hides the features that allows, for example, one to gather under the same subject all editions and translations, even to list the relations between subjects (i.e. commentaries and refutations…) and between persons (teacher, student, commentator, preface writer…). Also, we can parse out all the possible relations that an author has with a particular article (author, translator, preface writer, illustrator, honored person…).
It is our deepest wish to put forth the best of the Arab-Muslim culture within the framework of the latest standards.
Thanks to your help, all this is accessible via our catalogue, in the most intuitive way possible. And to AlKindi more useful, a version of the online catalogue has been released for smartphones.
Thank you for your support!
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