The Saudi Center for Digital Content "Raqmin" is one of the centers of the King Abdulaziz Foundation (Darah). It is responsible for transferring, developing, and building the digital content of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's historical sources and making them accessible to specialists, researchers, and interested individuals. It was established in 2009 through an agreement between the Ministry of Education (then the Ministry of Higher Education) and Darah, initially named the Center for the Development of Electronic Preservation and Regulation of the Historical Sources of Saudi Arabia.
The center's name changed from the Saudi Center for Digital History to the Center for Developing the Electronic Preservation and Regulation of the Historical Sources of Saudi Arabia, which, in turn, changed in 2019 to the Saudi Center for Digital Content (Raqmin).
The center's tasks
The center's tasks focus on the preservation, organization, and digitization of historical sources, using custom descriptive standards tailored for the organization. This comes in addition to building specialized expertise in this field and developing policies and laws for the preservation and management of scientific resources through scientific studies.
The center provides its services to government, semi-government, and private sectors, as well as educational, scientific, and research institutions and entities, and document preservation and archiving centers. It offers training, educational, and awareness courses in digital content preservation and enrichment.
The center collaborates with various relevant local and international entities, e.g., the Ministry of Education, the World Digital Library, the National Centre for Archives and Records, etc.
The center's initiatives
The center has launched several initiatives like Wikidowen, the volunteer enrichment project for Saudi, Arabic, and Islamic digital content on Wikipedia. Another initiative is the Saudi History platform, which serves as a digital media platform for Saudi history. One of its completed projects in 2020 was the digital conversion and technical processing for 566 historical film and audio reels in Darah, converting them into high-quality digital formats.
In 2022, Wikidowen completed a voluntary enrichment project about Saudi women. It was launched through the National Volunteer Portal under the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development. The project aims to enrich Arabic content on Wikipedia by creating articles about Saudi women in various fields and improving existing content in the encyclopedia.
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