“Sibawayh” is a digital library that specializes in publishing Arabic books only – no hard copies are available for books that are published with them. Abdul Aziz Hamza, Managing Director of Sibawayh, said he thought of having an online digital library seven years ago aimed at technical programming and marketing. Now, when it has begun there are several challenges before the Arabic digital library. For instance, building a relationship with the writers and publishing houses and convincing them to publish their books with them. Sibawayh focuses on protecting their writers' copyrighted books so that others without registering or paying cannot get hold of it; for which they have developed a new format called Quad Digital Publishing (QDP). Any book uploaded in any format can be converted into a QDP guaranteeing publishers and writers of complete protection, and they cannot be shared on any social media web sites as well. The exclusive digital library have also registered and patented it – a major milestone in the journey of Sibawayh. The digital library facilitates reading, searching and surfing within the book, especially for scientific and educational books. Readers on the web can also interact with others, participate in discussion and even evaluate books. While reading a particular book online, readers can change the light, highlight and zoom as desired. Believing in spreading knowledge, Sibawayh encourages youth to read and write. They advise budding writers to improve on the language and learn from their errors. Asked Hamza what will come of the books that are available in print, he said books available in hardcopy will never vanish, the only difference will be the price. In the future, interactive books for kids,including illustrated ones with sound effects and music, along with books on history and economy with charts and statistics, will also be available in QDP format, of course. Also in there plans is to make available pre-paid cards in malls and stationery shops for customers to purchase their books online easily. Sibawayh is also keen to participate in writers' seminars, symposiums and other such events. “We are keen on participating in book fairs as this is something new in the field of online libraries. We will be there in Egypt book fair, as the first e-library,” said Yousef Raffah, Vice President and a partner.
