Koha at SLA in the UAE

by Todd Goatley-Seals on Apr 13, 2015

Recently I was invited to participate in a conference for the Special Libraries Association in Abu Dhabi, UAE. A partner of ByWater Solutions (Edutech) was participating in this conference and requested assistance manning the booth to tell folks about the awesome powers of Koha! For anyone not familiar with Edutech they’re a leader in providing learning solutions and services for academic institutions, library’s, companies and governments.

Edutech is known throughout Canada, Europe, India, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE and some of the Asiatic countries (they even have an office in Chicago). There wasn’t a person coming into the conference that didn’t stop first to say hello and exchange greetings with the Edutech team and as a result, the gained interests for Koha were wonderful. Not a person left the booth without hearing about Koha and receiving pamphlets before they left. Koha in the UAE is destined for success.

So now, don’t think that this business didn’t come without some pleasure. If you haven’t tried the UAE (Abu Dhabi and Dubai) be sure to make it a part of your vacation plans soon or at least add it to your bucket list. But don’t wait until it’s to late!

Abu Dhabi and Dubai are incredible! My wife would remind me that I kept saying, “This is incredible”! Even now when I talk about the UAE I say, “That place is incredible”! What a wonderful experience. And what awesome and caring people and such a fascinating culture. The story of the UAE’s development and what they’ve created from barren desert over the past 30 to 40 years is incredible! The UAE is growing at such a fast pace that from what I gathered the changes appear to be occurring overnight. And they’re doing it right. I can’t imagine the level of planning that goes into this creation but it’s on a biblical scale with every consideration being made to make it one of the great destinations! I have never seen so many Toyota Land Cruisers, Porsches, Lamborghinis’, and Mercedes (camel races) in one place, EVER! They have to be issued upon birth. And the incredible structures (i.e. the new incredible Abu Dhabi airport, the incredible homes, incredible business centers, INCREDIBLE malls, incredible highways, incredible downtown structures of Dubai) with their opulence and scale was staggering. And even after all that, what still exists between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, is the incredibleness of beach life with all of its glitz (think South FL from Miami to Palm Beach) to the fast paced incredibleness of a high-end metropolitan city (think Miami, New York, Chicago, LA, Paris, London and Rome) all in arms reach. Pure incredibleness! A friend listened to me go on about the trip to the UAE and out of sarcasm he asked if I’d do it again and I said, “Yes, in a heartbeat”. He couldn’t offend me, I meant it!