Kalima goes online

Dr. Ali bin Tamim, Director of Kalima, the translation project of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH), inaugurated Monday the official website of Kalima in the presence of Jumaa Al Qubaisi, Deputy Director-General of the National Library. The project seeks through its website, to enhance communication with readers in the UAE and overseas. Qubaisi was delighted to witness the launch of the website “www.kalima.ae”, and reported that he considered it a new step on the road towards establishing bonds of communication with readers. Qubaisi discussed the use of modern techniques, in order to ensure and facilitate the development of services for readers established to facilitate access to and use of books. Bin Tamim said that the new website used state-of-the-art web technologies, as part of Kalima's goal to provide its services to e-readers and internet surfers. He hoped that the website would provide a further communication channel between the Kalima and those interested in reading. The website includes an introduction of the translation project, its objectives and information pertaining to the latest releases. Readers will be able to browse Kalima’s 536 publications, recorded since 2007, through “Our Publications” window as well as a section marked “Forthcoming” which provides information regarding Kalima’s future publications. Readers will be able to get a general idea about the title and theme of each book, through the publication of an abstract of each work accompanied by its cover picture. The website contains a media window “News and Activities”, which publishes press releases issued by the project and articles about the site and the project published in the newspapers. It also monitors the latest conferences, seminars and activities including information in video and photo format. The website will later have a "window" dedicated to authors whose works are translated by Kalima. This area will allow readers to identify these authors through their published pictures and biographies, as well as their thoughts about the translation of their work into Arabic by Kalima. The website was developed by “Khellan”. Ali Al Jabiri, Director General of Khellan, said that he was pleased to be working with Kalima, as it represented a milestone in the publishing field. Jabiri expressed his company’s great pride in cooperating with the project, stating that the website was one of the most important innovations of this project. Kalima is an independent initiative of ADACH and has the support of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. It is an ambitious, non-profit, initiative which seeks to revive the translation movement in the Arab world through the translation, publication, and distribution of a wide range of high-quality works of literary and scientific writing which has been translated into Arabic. These translated works are then presented to readers in a high-quality print.