الملخص الإنجليزي
The study aimed to identify the role of information institutions in the sultanate of oman in achieving the sustainable development goals 2030 through identifying the extent to what the employees of library sector and cultural centers are aware of the goals of sustainable development 2030 and how they can be achieved. It also aimed at identifying the activities and initiatives undertaken by Omani information institutions to contribute to the achievement of these goals and their efforts in making information accessible to all in order to achieve the goals. Furthermore, the study aimed to find out the obstacles that prevent the institutions from achieving these goals and their involvement in setting the local development plans and bringing out their role in that. Another objective that the study aimed to find out is the extent to what the decision makers are aware of these institutions' role in providing information as a key driver in achieving sustainable development goals 2030. To achieve its goals the study has adopted Mixed Methods Approach, which combines quantitative and qualitative data to understand the subject of research deeply and broadly. The study relied on collecting data from questionnaire, activities form, analyzing documents and semi-structured interviews, which have been applied gradually. The study came up with a number of results, the most important of which are: The employees of libraries sector and cultural centers have a good understanding of sustainable development concept, although they were not familiar with the sustainable development goals 2030. The same thing with the information institutions, they have implemented many activities and programs that contributed to the achievement of the sustainable development goals without prior planning to do so. The results of the study also showed that all information institutions have contributed proportionally in achieving the sustainable development goals in terms of number of institutions that take part in achieving each goal and the number of activities conducted to serve each goal. It also showed that there are four main categories of information access adopted by the Omani information institutions which are: accessibility for people with special needs, accessibility in several languages, full access to information and accessibility through training and teaching. It is also noted that the obstacles faced by institutions of information, from the viewpoint of the employees of library sector and cultural centers and administrations of information institution, are almost the same; and they are categorized into: financial obstacles, unfamiliarity with the sustainable development goals, administrative and human obstacles. Furthermore, the results showed that all information institutions are involved in the development plans either directly or through their supervising institution. Also it is revealed that there is an awareness among decision makers regarding the role played by information institutions in contributing to the achievement of development plans and sustainable development goals, and a clear interest to develop the information sector in the Ninth Five year Plan (2016-2020) and the Future Vision (Oman 2040). Based on the findings, the study came out with many recommendations, the most important of which are: enhancing the awareness of employees in information institutions about the sustainable development goals and the ways to achieve them which can be achieved through training courses and introducing workshops, working on finding other sources of financial support like encouraging the private sector to support the programs and initiatives of information institutions so that contributes to the achievement of the sustainable development goals broadly, and working on building and activating joint cooperation between information institutions and institutions concerned of special needs people in order to enhance their right to access to information and find effective mechanisms to increase their opportunities to access to information sources and benefit from countries' expertise in this area.
