MSI provides services in the field of information technology, documentation, indexing, data automation and research.
We also take the responsibility of indexing Arab newspapers and periodicals. Moreover, we handle the organization and reorganization of archives, libraries, and research centers attached to media establishments, government ministries and companies.
As a research corporation which handles the information, related to the Arab world, we could determine the objectives of our establishment as follows
Since we focus on political and socio-economic affairs in the Middle East, data are collected from around 250 Arab newspapers and specialized periodicals.
They are then processed into different forms of information, and stored in the computer. Data can be retrieved in the following criteria: Full texts or bibliographical lists.
This service has the following characteristics: It aims at creating an electronic, documented, research tool, specialized in the political, economic, strategic, and social issues in the Arab world. It is based on daily scanning of periodicals and observation of the most important events and facts. It collects the most important published events, studies and analyses from 250 Arabic newspapers and magazines. Our data bank consists of the following databases:
General News Data Base
A database covering 40 dailies and weeklies from the year 1994 until today, and comprising 250000 records with full texts.
Book Reviews
This project is aimed at indexing and documenting book reviews published in newspapers and periodicals that appeared in the Arab countries (250 dailies and weeklies), keeping the text as published. The project also aims to produce a database, relating to bibliographies of books. The database, consisting of 20000 records from the year 1998 until today.
Contents of specialized Arabic periodicals
To set up a bibliographical and electronic database for more than 225 specialized Arabic periodicals, the project is designed to preserve the intellectual and cultural memory of the Arab World, and to provide a new research material in the Arabic language. This database furnishes us with bibliographical citations only. The database, consisting of 220000 records from the year 1920 until today.
A data base is a collection of information; it is a set of related files that is created and managed by a data base management system (DBMS). The software always determines database and file structures.
Our database comprises all of the information maintained by our establishment. Therefore, it includes texts, paper documents, and data stored by computer systems. Through indexing and documentation, according to the newest norms and rules adopted by international bodies to preserve the cultural memory of the contemporary Arab World likely to be dispersed, we were able to create a data base in which the interest in accessing information stored within data bases will be increasing.
MSI also provides an Arabic thesaurus, which contains more than 20,000 terms in various political, economic, intellectual, and social fields. Relying on this database, MSI seeks to establish unified methods for indexing, classification and documentation, which will later permit the creation of communication opportunities among various research centers in the Arab world.
according to software compatible with the specifications of the Arabic language. Indeed, MSI has produced software consisting of a comprehensive bibliography that lists, describes, and identifies sources of information. The software has overcome the problems of the Arabic language providing research instruments, which allow the restitution of the information in an easiest and fastest way. MSI has thus surpassed the status of a mere consumer to become a producer and a source, which participates actively in the field of information technology.
The data processing aims not only to safeguard information, but it also aims at making it available and useful for the largest number of people. This century is characterised by popularization of information leading to accessible information for everybody. And above all, we treat every order with the utmost professionalism and expertise irregardless of its size.
MSI prepares indexes of newspapers, magazines, books, documents and reports. The indexes can be delivered on paper and on computer disks in a way that allows an electronic retrieval of information and its diffusion via Internet.
Thanks to our experience in documentation and data collecting, we organize and reorganize research and documentation centers, libraries and archives in various government ministries, newspapers, periodicals, and companies, according to the needs and potentials of the concerned institution.
MSI organizes training sessions for individuals on the methods of indexing and classification according to the scientific norms adopted by international bodies. The goal is to set up a team of staff from each institution, able to follow up the work.
By request, MSI prepares and publishes specialized reports, studies and books related to political and socio-economic events in the Middle East.