The Saudi Digital Library and technical developments in the fields of digitalization, dissemination and storage of information and what accompanied them of huge increase of number of electronic information sources in its different forms contributed in developing the technical operations and the information services in libraries, as the user became able to virtually wandering in the library through its website in the internet.The is a national online digital library resource in Saudi Arabia. It is the largest source of academic information in the Arab world. It includes more than 310,000 references. The resource was established by the National Center for E-Learning, part of the Saudi Ministry of Higher Education. it is no secret/ It is obvious what the scientific bloc or gathering are represented - in various forms - of a strong role. The Saudi Digital Library is one of the forms of the scientific bloc, that will include all the institutions of higher education and other institutions wishing to join that. This bloc is specialized in the sources of digital information from books, periodicals, dissertations, conferences, seminars and other sources of information that are indispensable for faculty members or for students whether in baccalaureate or postgraduate degree
The vision
Is represented in building a pioneer developed digital library in various disciplines to support the educational process and to fulfill the needs of users in the institutions of higher education in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The mission of the library is to provide, enable and organize the sources of electronic information and to facilitate the accessibility to it by faculty members, researchers, students and specialists employees in the institutions of higher education in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The importance of this Saudi digital library arises from the following points
It is one institution to negotiate with publishers and suppliers of electronic books and magazines.) Saving effort and money for participating institutions.) Standardization of the criteria’s and the mechanisms of work in creating the digital groups in institutions of higher education.) -Sharing the information sources, which might be impossible for each individual institution to get those sources that will be provided by the Saudi Digital Library -Linking institutions of higher education and others with regard to the availability or exchange or borrowing of the sources of information.) The digital library administration seeks within its work to provide a digital content and a developed information services through achieving its goals that it is established for, which are: -Supporting the academic education system and serving the affiliated members of Saudi universities / affiliated Saudi universities members by providing sources of information and its services through the digital library portal. -Establishing a digital environment that keeps abreast of the technical developments in the electronic publishing industry and increases the communication among researchers in the field of scientific production and publishing. Acquisition of digital books produced by prestigious universities in the world, as well as produced by global commercial publishers in various disciplines. -Saving the effort of faculty members, researchers and others with regard to searching and accessing the information in the digital environment.) -Sharing the electronic sources of information among the participated higher education institutions in the digital library.) • -Converting paper-based information sources produced by Saudi universities, which are represented by -Contribution in enrichment the digital Arabic content through the electronic publishing of books and scientific papers and valuable academic researches.) Finding one institution to negotiate with publishers and get the best deals.) The Saudi Digital Library serves students and faculty members at Saudi universities and provides them with sources from a number of publishers such as: Springer, Ovid and etc. These sources are various as books, magazines and archives. The Saudi Digital Library archive starts from about the 15th century AD, which is the archive of the rare books at the British Library of the publisher Gale Cengage, that are available in the Saudi Digital Library.
