The Arabic provider Al Manhal ‘s EBA model is our attempt at a new form of digital acquisition that enables targeted acquisition based on usage statistics. The collection comprises over 12,000 e-books predominantly in Arabic on the various topics.
An EBA model is an “evidence-based acquisition”, i.e. a user-based acquisition. The provider Al Manhal opens up parts of its collection for a year and makes books from the Arab world available as e-books. Based on the usage statistics, the accessed works are then acquired permanently. The ways to interact with the material to drive up the user statistics are varied. You can look through the pages of the book you find interesting, you can download the work, you can cite it, copy something out of it or print it out.
Here you can see a list of the different subject areas covered by the EBA model:
Topics:
Art and Architecture (90 E-Books)
Arts (205 E-Books)
Heritage (5539 E-Books)
History, Geography & Biography (1219 E-Books)
Islamic Studies (962 E-Books)
Law (1387 E-Books)
Political Science & International Relations (1681 E-Books)
Social Sciences (1802 E-Books)
Access
The circle of users includes selected universities, libraries and research institutions focusing on the topics of the Middle East. As a member of one of these institutions, you get direct access without a special login. If you are accessing from outside of your campus, you should inquire for further options (eg via virtual private network).
Individuals who are not a member of one of the selected institutions can contact the FID team. Because scientists with residence in Germany and relevant research interests are also entitled to access.
Help with the use of the platform:
The platform of Al Manhal offers numerous tools for research. Some are only available after registration but not essential.
You can also find information on use in the manual of the platform.