Developing, implementing, and managing metadata is crucial to successful knowledge management, and academic libraries have traditionally played a central role in these activities. The Arabian Gulf countries are underrepresented in the existing research into library metadata practices. This exploratory study used semi-structured interviews of metadata managers at 8 universities with the goal of developing understanding of the current state of metadata practices, including descriptive cataloging, identity management, and knowledge organization in academic libraries of three Arabian Gulf countries (Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar), as well as potential future developments to facilitate discovery of resources. Findings provide insights into this previously under-researched area and contribute to understanding of knowledge management and risks on a global scale.

This report discusses the political future of various countries in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region. A change in the leadership in these countries could significantly affect their policies toward the United States and their willingness to cooperate with the United States in achieving the stability needed to advance U.S. interests in this important region.

This comparative study assesses the state of democracy and examines the process of democratization in the Arab World between the years 1980-1993. It addresses shortcomings in the mainstream democracy literature that excluded the Arab World from the global democratic revolution on political cultural grounds. To fulfil the objectives of this study, I employ both the qualitative and quantitative research approaches to test a number of hypothesized relationships. I hypothesize that transition to democracy is negatively associated with economic development, militarism, U.S. foreign policy, the political economy of oil, and dependency. I contend that emerging civil society institutions so far have had no significant effect on democratization in the Arab World. Finally, I hypothesize that the level of democracy in the Arab World is influenced greatly by the issue of civil rights. In order to investigate the hypothesized relationships, the following data sets have been used: Gastil's Freedom House Data set, "Repression and Freedom in the 1980s" data set, and Vanhanen's 1990 data set. The findings of this study support the aforementioned hypothesized relationships. I find that Arab countries, in general have made modest progress toward democracy, making the Arab World part of the global revolution.