On Wednesday 14^th January, 2015, An-Najah National University (NNU) inaugurated the Kuwait E-Library, at the New Campus Library. This initiative was made possible by a generous donation from the Kuwaiti people through the Kuwaiti Society for Student Support, and was implemented by Al-Zaytoonah Society for Youth Development.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by Professor Maher Natsheh, Acting President, Mr. Talal Al-Arab, President of the Kuwaiti Society for Student Support, Mr. Malik Tayyem, Chairman of the Al-Zaytoonah Society for Youth Development, vice presidents and assistants of the University President, a number of deans of faculties, directors of administrative centres, University Library Director Mr Hani Jaber, and a number of invitees.

Prior to the ceremony, Prof. Natsheh met with each of Mr. Talal Al-Arab and Mr. Malik Tayyem, and expressed his thanks to the Kuwaiti people for supporting the Palestinian students. He also extended his gratitude to Al-Zaytoonah for continuously supporting Palestinian universities and students in need. In addition, he commended Kuwait's historical role in standing for the Palestinian peoples’ rights in all fields.

In his turn, Mr. Al-Arab announced that the Library will be offering services for students, professors and researchers; where they can access roughly 32,000 books and references in various disciplines, including recent publications. He further stressed the importance of optimizing library services and achieving scientific and educational goals.

 Mr. Al-Arabi expressed his pride in the Palestinian universities, their great accomplishments, and the rankings they have achieved in the Arab and international world despite the difficult circumstances challenging the Palestinian territories.

Mr. Tayyem, during his presentation, said that launching this library in An-Najah is a result of the framework of joint cooperation between Al-Zaytoonah and Kuwaiti Society for Student Support. He added that there will be many Kuwaiti electronic libraries inaugurated in a number of Palestinian and Arab universities, which have been linked to Springer^[1], in order for students, researchers and academics in the Palestinian universities to constantly benefit from the books available in that library in all scientific and literary disciplines.

During his meeting, Mr. Al-Arab met with a number of University students whose expenses are covered by the Kuwaiti Society. There was also a cooperation agreement signed to foster and support the established Kuwait e-libraries.

A student from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences thanked Mr. Al-Arab for supporting the establishment of the Library and added that this initiative will greatly help in providing students’ accessibility to e-books.

Afterwards, Mr. Al-Arab was toured around the University, where he was introduced to the Media Centre, School of Fine Arts, and met with a number of University officials, who in turn briefed him on the University and its progress and development. Finally, he thanked the University administration for their invaluable efforts toward serving students.

Notes:

-       The meeting included screening a short documentary of An-Najah titled “A Success Story”, narrating the University history, growth and academic and cultural development.

-       Springer ^[1]:   Springer Science+Business Media or Springer is a global publishing company that publishes books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Springer also hosts a number of scientific databases, including SpringerLink, Springer Protocols, and Springer Images. Book publications include major reference works, textbooks, monographs and book series; more than 168,000 titles are available as e-books in 24 subject collections. Springer has major offices in Berlin, Heidelberg, Dordrecht, and New York City.