The Middle East startup landscape is buzzing with breakthrough innovation and creativity. Zendy is proud to play a role in the ecosystem of MENA-based startups and we’re thrilled to accept the award for Best Startup – Education at the Middle East Technology Excellence Awards.
Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan recently sat down with Asian Business Review to accept the award and discuss Zendy’s mission, vision, and values.
Kamran commenced the interview by giving a big shoutout to the Zendy team for their tireless commitment to Zendy’s mission of providing affordable and accessible academic content to knowledge enthusiasts globally.
Zendy: knowledge without barriers
In 2019, Zendy embarked on an ambitious journey to offer an alternative model of access to scholarly literature. The traditional pay-per-article model was and still is increasingly unattainable for individuals and researchers, especially in emerging regions where access is already limited.
Looking at the success of the subscription market, namely products like Netflix and Spotify, Zendy founders thought why not offer the same experience for users to discover academic literature? Thus, Zendy was born. Zendy is an affordable academic library that offers unlimited access to journals, articles, e-books, proceedings, and more for the monthly price of a single research paper.
With Zendy, students, researchers, and professionals can read, cite, and download leading research. The added benefit of Zendy is saving money, traditional models of access force individuals to pay between $15 – $40 per research paper.
What does the future of academic access look like?
When asked about the future of Zendy and what’s next, Kamran Kardan spoke of Zendy mission which is to continue to reduce inequalities of access to knowledge. As a firm supporter of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Zendy (a product of Knowledge E), is working hard to reach new emerging regions.
To strengthen its mission of creating a global knowledge economy without barriers, in October 2021, Zendy launched its free Open Access platform. Zendy Open features over 43 million free Open Access publications on one easy-to-use platform.
With the support of leading publishers, Zendy’s growth is a collaborative effort, and the next 12 months will be defining for the company. In September 2022, Zendy launched in Nigeria and has since acquired over 7,000 from the booming African region.
“We’re grateful to be recognised as a leading EduTech Startup in MENA and we’re inspired by the many other innovators in the industry who are using technology to make a positive impact in communities globally. The team is currently working on significant updates to the Zendy experience and we’re so excited to launch new features in Q1 2023. Day by day we inch closer to our mission of creating a world where everyone, everywhere can access knowledge without barriers,” said Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan.
The platform won the award for startup in the education category, joining the league of past winners such as Du, Amazon (MENA), the Entertainer, & BLOOVO to become one of the most innovative companies in the Middle East.
For tech startup Zendy, it is simply unfair that students, researchers, and professionals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and other developing regions cannot access the same depth of research as those in developed countries. This is despite the rapid shift in the academic publishing spectrum.
Zendy is a product of Knowledge E, a private technology company providing access to digital libraries, training, consulting, and publishing services in the academic sector. Co-founded by entrepreneur Kamran Robert Kardan, it was built in response to the high cost of access to scholarly literature and the limitations of access to academic content in emerging and developing regions.
As such, Zendy, being a fast mover in the industry, offers an alternative to traditional access models. The startup works with publishers and researchers to bridge the gap in equality in emerging regions. It also offers a unique hybrid model for accessing content to meet the consumption needs of academic and non-academic professionals whilst offering publishers a share of the subscriptions’ revenue.
It offers users two options to access content: Zendy Plus and Zendy Open. The former is a subscription-based solution that provides individuals and organisations unlimited access to premium journals from major publishers, whilst the latter is a global open-access solution that features millions of OA resources from leading academic publishers.
Zendy Plus offers unlimited access to research for an average monthly cost of $15, whilst Zendy Open is free and available from anywhere around the world.
Zendy’s monthly user growth rate is 11%, with a sign-up projection of 35,000 by Q4 2022.
Zendy is also an avid supporter of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals relating to equality and inclusivity in education to promote lifelong learning opportunities for everyone.
“We’re delighted to be recognised amongst leaders in the technology sector in MENA. What started as a simple concept of creating an affordable and accessible digital library, has now developed into a meaningful platform that empowers individuals to leverage research. The best part is that we’re just getting started. Our recent launch in Nigeria and soon-to-be-released feature updates are all designed to continue our mission to support lifelong learning opportunities for everyone, everywhere,” said Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan.
It has won the Startup – Education category in the recently held Middle East Technology Excellence Awards for this innovation.
The prestigious awards programme honours outstanding companies in the region that have made exceptional contributions in the pursuit of technological innovation in their respective industries.
In this collaborative webinar, Zendy and OAPEN teamed up at the start of Open Access week to discuss and debate the discoverability of open climate research in MENA.
The panel featured Knowledge E CEO & Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan, Zendy Partnership Relations Manager Sara Crowley Vigneau, Community Manager at DOAB & OAPEN Tom Mosterd, and authors Declan Conway and Marvin Brown. Open Access is vital in giving communities worldwide an opportunity to produce and disseminate knowledge about the climate crisis we are facing. Openness can create pathways to more equitable knowledge sharing and serve as a means to address the inequities that shape the impacts of climate change and our response to them.
Global accessibility to scientific content
Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan commenced panel discussions by describing the key challenge for individuals who want to access top scientific literature. In today’s publishing environment, individuals either need to be a member of an institution that has a subscription to these resources from the various publishers or part of an organization that may be part of a large consortium that may include access to certain databases.
This landscape has created significant inequality in access models for scientific information. Zendy’s mission to democratize access to scientific literature aims to make academic literature more affordable and accessible for individuals to learn and discover.
The pay-per-article model is not sustainable for independent learners. With single research papers ranging from $10 to $40 per download, vast global inequities have emerged in knowledge economies. Zendy’s hybrid subscription model, which provides individuals unlimited access for the monthly price of a single research paper, aims to help bridge the gap between access and affordability.
As Kamran discussed, challenges also exist in the Open Access framework. In a completely Open Access world, pockets of OA content exist across various platforms. This can make the research journey for individuals arduous. Zendy Open is a solution to accumulate this content for the user and present it on one easy-to-navigate platform.
In reference to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Kamran expressed that the key requirement for progress in climate action is through the power of knowledge.
Zendy Open is designed to make the accessibility of Open Access content easy for individuals from all walks of life. As Zendy Partnership Relations Manager, Partnership Relations Manager Sara Crowley Vigneau discussed, together with usability, partnerships play a central role in providing inclusive access.
Zendy aims to partner with a diverse group of top publishers to ensure individuals have wide-ranging access to over 45 million Open Access publications, available in over 68 languages. Sara discussed the correlation between the impact of the Open Access movement and SDG 4: equal access to education. The principles of Open Access also empower SDG goal 10 (fighting inequalities worldwide) and SDG goal 13 (climate action).
Climate research touches all aspects of our lives, from education to health, our notion of home to the societies we participate, and, importantly, our children’s future. The more industry participants collaborate to provide more visibility and ease of access to climate research, the better-informed individuals, thus creating more opportunities for participation in climate action.
Zendy’s collaboration with OAPEN means thousands of e-books, including hundreds of Open Access titles, are now available free on Zendy.
The role of books in the transition to Open Access
OAPEN promotes and supports the transition to open access for academic books by providing open infrastructure services to stakeholders in scholarly communication.
The OAPEN Foundation offers 3 services: the OAPEN Library, which hosts, distributes, and preserves over 25,000 peer-reviewed OA books, a global indexing service called DOAB, and an OA Books toolkit to help authors learn how to publish via OA channels.
As OAPEN & DOAB Community Manager Tom Mosterd discussed, books play an important role in the Open Access arena, especially in the subjects of humanities, social sciences, and, of course, climate justice. The OAPEN library features books from large publishers, as well as independent publishers from University Press’ from all around the world. The webinar showcased two authors who have for many years participated in the Open Access publishing process. They both provided insights about their books, which are now available on Zendy, and they shared their journey of why they publish Open Access.
Declan Conway: Climate Risk in Africa – Adaptation and Resilience
This OA book highlights the complexities around making adaptation decisions and building resilience in the face of climate risk. It is based on experiences in sub-Saharan Africa through the Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) applied research programme.
The insights inform new ways to promote action in policy and praxis by blending knowledge from multiple disciplines, including climate science, that provides an understanding of future climate risk and the social science of response through adaptation.
Marvin Brown: A Climate of Justice: An Ethical Foundation for Environmentalism
This OA book helps readers combine history, politics, and ethics to address the most pressing problem facing the world today: environmental survival. In A Climate of Justice, Marvin Brown connects the environmental crisis to basic questions of economic, social, and racial justice.
Brown shows how our current social climate maintains systemic injustices, and he uncovers resources for change through civic ethics of repair and reciprocity. A must-read for researchers and educators in the area of environmental ethics and those teaching courses in the fields of public policy and environmental sustainability.
In this webinar, Zendy Co-Founder Kamran Kardan joined an expert panel to discuss current issues and solutions for researchers regarding accessing content and paying for OA publications.
The panel was hosted by Open Access publishing expert Romy Beard, with other guests including researcher and ecosystems ecologist Dr Varun Varma and Plos Strategic Partnerships Director Sara Rouhi.
Challenges of Open Access
Open publishing is becoming increasingly popular. However, researchers are still experiencing many challenges when they want to access paywalled content such as previous research and archived material.
Similarly, Open Access (OA) publishing can be an unaffordable route for unfunded researchers or researchers whose institutions haven’t signed up for any OA agreements, such as NGOs or organisations leveraging research.
Bringing together a range of perspectives, the panel discussed a vast array of topics, including OA agreements, discounts, waivers, technical and cultural barriers, the role and value of publishers that end-users often don’t see, and the solutions that companies like Zendy are proposing to support affordability and accessibility.
A Researcher’s Perspective
Dr Varun Varma commenced panel discussions by recounting his personal experience as a researcher and the many barriers he has faced in accessing content and publishing his research. After studying in the UK and then moving to a developing country to commence a PhD, Dr Varma felt what he described as his ‘first shock’ of access when suddenly, his access to journals was ‘extremely limited’ simply because he was now located in a different region.
Regional-based access limitations are one of the core pillars of inequality that many industry commentators address in conversations about reform. With the signing of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) publishers’ contract launched in 2020 at the Frankfurt Book Fair, inclusivity and equality within the academic publishing sector are under the spotlight.
The flow-on effect of access limitation in developing regions is far-reaching as it significantly increases the time involved in screening literature. What should take weeks then takes months, and as Dr Varma indicated, the tedious nature of the process leaves researchers with missing references, sometimes making the paper incomplete.
The Publishing Spectrum
The narrative for academic publishing is shifting rapidly, with many moving elements working in parallel to ultimately address the pain points of the end-user.
Institutions, publishers, organisations, researchers, librarians, and end-users are all key drivers forcing immense movement and excitement across the entire spectrum of academic publishing and content consumption.
Paid content sits at the crux of the spectrum. The major challenges of availability and affordability associated with paid content motivate other players, such as Open Access and illegal content platforms.
While the Open Access movement generates rapid support and participation, its scattered nature makes the content difficult to discover. Each publisher has an element of Open Access, while some are completely open access. This is great news for end-users who need access to new content, but older content is few and far between, making the research process arduous.
The third participant in the publishing spectrum is illegal content publishing platforms. Praised by many for eliminating barriers to access, unlicensed publishing platforms pose a great risk to the future of research. It all comes down to the role of analytics, and the immense need for the data publishers’ produce based on usage.
The Economy of Academic Publishing
What is the role of a publisher? This is a question asked time and time again. As journal subscription costs increase and the cost of article processing charges (APCs) weigh heavy on researchers, many people wonder where that money goes. And importantly, how does society benefit?
As PLOS Strategic Partnerships Director, Sara Rouhi and Zendy Co-Founder Kamran Kardan explain, publishers completely absorb the exponential costs of technical infrastructure, analytics, and marketing. Here’s why these processes matter:
Sara Rouhi, of PLOS, discussed some of the key-value points of publishers and the incredible costs associated in detail throughout the ChronosHub webinar while highlighting PLOS’ approach to making the business of OA equitable. She also detailed, the future of Open Access business models must diversify to survive and account for regional affordability, cost-recovery, reducing author friction, and engaging Read institutions.
Despite this value, it is evident that the paid publishing model is not sustainable, as it hinders the frameworks of inclusivity and equality. As publishers work on their models of diversification, there are many fast movers in the industry offering alternative methods for publishing and access.
The Zendy Movement: Accessibility & Affordability
With so many moving elements within the Open Access and academic publishing domains, Zendy has a clear mission and purpose of addressing the tribulations of all key stakeholders in the conversation.
Since 2019, Zendy has spearheaded a movement to change the dialogue of academic content access, especially in emerging regions where quality content and affordable avenues of access are few and far between.
As a firm believer in empowering communities through knowledge, Zendy CEO Kamran Kardan saw a new way to connect end-users with quality content from top publishers. Instead of hitting paywalls for every piece of content, Zendy Plus was developed as a subscription-based service to reduce end-user costs withoutcompromising access. Zendy users can access unlimited content for the monthly price of a single research paper.
Currently available with a free 7-day trial in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria, Zendy Plus is constantly updated with new research material.
Addressing the global need for access, Zendy offers Zendy Open, a comprehensive open-access library available for free in all regions.
While a relatively new concept, this hybrid user-centric model for affordable access is gaining traction.
For more information about the ChronosHub Webinar, Open Access, Publishing, or Zendy, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us: hello@zendy.io.
CEO of Knowledge E & Co-Founder of Zendy Kamran Kardan speaks at the Thought Leadership Forum
UAE startup Zendy (a product of Knowledge E) recently spoke at the Middle East Thought Leadership Forum in London, an event spotlighting trailblazing innovations in the academic world.
The Middle East Thought Leadership Forum in London is the second annual event by Gulf Conferences, a London-based education networking company. The event showcased the latest developments in education, empowering a hub of collaboration between the MENA region’s key drivers and the wider international community.
Under the patronage of the secretary-general of the Association of Arab Universities, the Forum featured a host of attendees, including ministers of education and higher-education experts from various regions and institutions.
CEO of Knowledge E and Zendy Co-Founder, Kamran Kardan, held a session on the global impact of knowledge and discussed Zendy’s pursuit of democratizing access to research and literature both in MENA and around the globe. Zendy offers a premium subscription in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. Zendy also offers a free open-access global platform.
Access to quality academic research helps governments, communities, and individuals thrive and innovate to create a better tomorrow. Zendy’s mission is to transform access to academic content globally, but right now we have a key focus on enriching the MENA region with a seamless digital platform enabling unlimited access to world-class journals, articles, e-books and more.” said CEO of Knowledge E and Zendy’s Co-Founder Kamran Kardan.
In the wake of COVID-19, the Forum addressed key challenges in the education sector, including the fundamentals of knowledge development, information sharing, and the immense role of technology in facilitating an equitable learning experience.
To find out more about Zendy, visit: www.zendy.io.
About Zendy
Zendy is a product of Knowledge E. Since its inception in 2019, Zendy has introduced thousands of users in MENA to a knowledge experience like no other. Zendy’s intuitive digital library features millions of journals, articles, e-books, and magazines, allowing users to access unlimited content for an affordable monthly price. Zendy also offers a global knowledge solution with a free open-access platform.
Before libraries and books had the opportunity of moving online, many philanthropists, politicians, and librarians started travel libraries to spread knowledge within their communities. Whether a bookmobile or a book wagon, these book collections became quite popular among readers in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially among the wealthy and educated. The many benefits of reading had made it worth going all these extra miles from town to town.
Reading can improve your language, expand your imagination, enhance your retention, make you more opinionated, increase your critical thinking abilities, teach you a new skill, promote subject-specific knowledge, or even simply provide an escape. We hope that by using Zendy, you’ll be able to harvest all these benefits and more. We promise that this month’s top reads will inspire, enrich, and entertain you.
1. Weight-loss Salvation: How Real People Lose Weight and Keep It off (e-Book)
Weight gain and weight loss have been the subject of numerous debates. Even professionals tend to disagree about the best practices regarding weight-loss plans. One thing is certain though, most of us want to prevent weight gain. This book follows the journey of one such person, who had struggled with weight gain and tried all sorts of different diet plans and pills until he finally found a sustainable way of losing weight. The book is co-authored by Stuart McRobert, who has previously written multiple books about exercise and health. Throughout the book, both authors detail the best way to approach and apply weight-loss plans for both men and women by addressing the psychological and physical aspects of weight gain, food addiction, conditioning, distractions, weight-loss scams, caloric expenditure, finding motivation, and plateauing. Access this rich resource to learn more healthy recipes, facts about walking, stretching, exercise, and other tips that can help you maintain your ideal weight.
2. Rethinking Sociocultural Notions of Learning in the Digital Era: Understanding the affordances of networked platforms (Journal Article)
It is no secret that the nature of networking and social connections has changed with the emergence of the digital world, especially with social media cementing its presence in our daily lives. In addition to keeping us updated and connected to the rest of the world, networking platforms also have the ability to facilitate our learning experiences. Plenty of these platforms’ features can be invaluable in developing a robust remote learning journey that can cater to different learners’ needs. Sociocultural learning theories can shed light on the importance of the various social, practical, cultural, historical, and other aspects that create more immersive and impactful learning. This article from the Journal of E-Learning and Digital Media dives into the affordances of digital platforms and how theories of learning could be revisited to match the changing world we live in. Learn more about how the visibility, scalability, flexibility, and persistence of the digital world could help improve learning outcomes.
3. C++ Fundamentals: Hit the Ground Running with C++, the Language That Supports Tech Giants Globally (e-Book)
C++ is one of the many programming languages that programmers use to communicate with computers. This type of code has been used for plenty of purposes, such as developing games, creating software, organising data structures, building browsers, operating systems, and applications. C++ is one of the fastest programming languages and one that is great for developing digital products that require high-quality processing of images and visuals. Anyone familiar with programming will be able to benefit from this book’s comprehensive content. Learn more about the recent features of C++, understand the best practices, and write bullet-proof code with the help of standard templates.
4. “You Win, or You Die”: The Royal Flush of Power in Game of Thrones (Journal Article)
College literature courses are increasingly diversifying content and including more contemporary works into their curricula. George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is one of the novel series that has gained widespread popularity among the general public as well as made its way into the minds and hearts of university professors, literary critics, and literature students. This article explores some of the elements that have made this work a fertile ground for interpretation and analysis. The representation of different forms of governance in Martin’s work is examined and their diverging natures compared in this article. By adopting a Foucauldian approach, the author draws on the many complex realities and relationships of power that the world of Game of Thrones paints. Learn more about why this fantasy series can make for thought-provoking scholarly consideration.
5. Wanted: Heroic Leaders to Drive the Transition to “Business Beyond Usual” (Journal Article)
We cannot hope to change the world by doing the same thing we have been doing for ages. As the need for sustainability grows, changing the way we do business grows with it. In order to solve the environmental issues we are facing today, we need to move towards ‘business beyond usual’. This article addresses these needs from a practical perspective, highlighting the gap between theory and practice while reviewing research findings related to sustainability. By focusing on what business leaders need to take action for corporate sustainability, the article discusses the shortcomings of micro foundation research and questions whether motivation, emotions, and values could truly translate into sustainable action. Read more about how to empower and create the ‘heroic’ leaders of tomorrow.
Access articles, e-books, magazines, and more on Zendy – your gateway to knowledge and discovery! Zendy Plus is available in Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the UAE. For everywhere else in the world, there’s always Zendy Open.
Apoptosis is a bodily function that plays a role in preventing cancer. It is the natural process that rids your body of damaged or unwanted cells. If you’ve never come across the term before, you might want to read more about it on Zendy! You can learn more about various scientific, biochemical, and physiological processes like artificial gene amplification and extension, cell physiology, immunohistochemistry, immunoblotting, and more on Zendy. More importantly, you’ll be able to narrow down your search results for each keyword string you enter by subject, publication, language, or origin..
Once again, we’ve rolled out our top reads to give you a brief idea about all that you can find on Zendy. In this month’s top 5 Zendy reads, you will learn more about the advantages and significance of pharmacy automation, the cognitive and psychological benefits of music therapy, the linguistic and extra-linguistic elements of stylistic devices in English discourse, how business information managers and other professionals are dealing with the corporate repercussions of the pandemic, and potential teaching methodologies that can help overcome the challenges of teaching history courses.
Here are Zendy’s top 5 reads for December:
1. Five Trends in Pharmacy Automation. (Magazine Article)
Without pharmacy automation, pharmacy staff might be tied down to carrying out mechanical tasks like counting pills. Instead, these professionals’ expertise and time can be repurposed. Pharmacy automation has the ability to reduce expenses, save space, and increase security. This article from the Hospitals & Health Networks magazine lists all the benefits and the recent trends of implementing smart, automated cabinets in hospital pharmacies. By eliminating the need to report on drug inventories, nurses will have more time to consecrate to patient care and other life-saving or administrative tasks.
To learn more about how automated cabinets can improve efficiency and help reduce the risk of narcotic abuse among hospital staff, click here.
2. “Don’t Let Me Go” – A Case Study on Music Therapy in Early-stage Dementia (Case Study)
Science is just beginning to uncover the ways in which music can be therapeutic. In this detailed case study, we come to meet Ana, a lovely lady in her 70s, who suffers from early dementia. Throughout the music therapy sessions conducted, Ana gradually opens up to her therapist, who learns of her emotionally traumatic experience of losing her daughter. Becoming familiar with the session structure and not being confronted about her confusion or disorientation, Ana became less resistant to therapy and grew more relaxed throughout her sessions. Singing seemed to be Ana’s preferred musical engagement, so her therapist guided her in writing a song following the parody technique. Since Ana was already familiar with the melody, this ensured that she wouldn’t be overwhelmed with too much new information. After some weeks of engaging with her new therapist, Ana was reading poetry, reciting hymns, and had already written a song about her family.
Step into Ana’s music therapy sessions and learn more about how to comfort and connect with people with dementia. Read the full case study here.
3. Cognitive and pragmatic approach to using stylistic devices in English literary discourse (Research Paper)
Discourse theory has evolved a lot since the great philosopher and sociologist Michel Foucault first coined the term. Similarly, different theories and advances in literary and linguistic studies have affected how we view, interpret, and analyse language. This paper examines language and literature through the lens of cognitive, discourse, and pragmatic theories. The author applies these theoretical considerations to 20th-century works of literature to demonstrate how semantic, syntactic, and extra-linguistic factors influence the production and perception of meaning. To exemplify these principles, the author refers to antithesis, a stylistic device. Contemporary scholars have moved away from absolution when it comes to interpreting meaning. Increasingly, weight has been attributed to the text’s contextual factors, the readers’ cultural backgrounds, immediate surroundings, personal experiences, and what the author refers to as the “cognitive structures and processes that underlie the production and reception of language”.
To continue reading about how linguistic factors and pragmatic constituents play a role in making stylistic devices more appealing to audiences, click here.
4. ‘Never let a good crisis go to waste’ – The 2020 Business Information Review Survey: Part I. (Journal Article)
The Business Information Review Survey is a reputable, peer-reviewed publication that has been running for 30+ years. This article from the journal combines insights from leading information managers that work in different sectors, such as financial services, law, professional services, manufacturing, mining, and technology. The conversations among these professionals centre around changes in corporate structure, staffing, the impact of technology, content delivery, working arrangements, and client engagement. Several participants shared their strategic priorities for the coming year, and perhaps not surprisingly, most of these priorities were consistent across different organisations. It seems clear that continuous efforts towards organisational alignment and readiness to respond to changing demands and needs make for unmistakable pillars of success among today’s information managers.
Continue reading the first part of this article and learn more about recent experiences with organisational models and staffing trends here.
5. Teaching the History of Psychology (Journal Article)
History courses tend to be less engaging than other courses simply because of the static quality of the course content itself. Prof. Christopher D. Green’s experience with teaching History of Psychology courses is not different. In this article from the Canadian Psychology journal, Prof. Green analyses students’ attitudes towards the course material and proposes different approaches to render it more entertaining and relevant to psychology students. For one whole semester, Prof. Green collected public tweets from students about the course only to find out that most of them displayed a sense of boredom and resentment. To bring the course material closer to undergraduates, Prof. Green suggests offering a deeper and often broader context to events which led to the birth of different theories and schools of thought, connecting events and intellectual developments through causal relationships whenever possible.
Wondering why students struggle to relate to dry subject matter in history courses or how to motivate and further engage them? Read the full article to learn more.
Access articles, e-books, magazines, and more on Zendy – your gateway to knowledge and discovery! Zendy Plus is available in Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the UAE. For everywhere else in the world, there’s always Zendy Open.
In 1731, Benjamin Franklin started a lending library called the Library Company which became the first public subscription library in the US. Today, more than 50 years later, digital libraries are able to offer a world of books and scholarly resources that readers can access and read in the comfort of their homes. Zendy places a wide variety of reading material in your hands, from insightful articles about technology addiction in pre-schoolers, thorough e-books about the history of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance, numerous chapters about the rise of creative writing, books about gender and diversity studies, news pieces discussing economic irrationality, a primer on the fundamentals of screenwriting, the latest research exploring the neurological component of empathy, and plenty more.
We hope that our monthly top reads will continue to inspire you about the many resources you can find on Zendy. In this month’s top five, you’ll be able to read about how Nespresso reworked their branding to achieve remarkable growth, the role of family in rearing up the young leaders of the future, how women are shaping the world of finance, the countless mesmerising cosmic objects, and the challenges and opportunities of developing e-governments.
Here are Zendy’s top 5 reads in November:
1. Nespresso: Branding the “Ultimate Coffee Experience” (Journal Article)
Whether you are a real coffee connoisseur or just enjoy the occasional espresso, you’re probably more than familiar with Nespresso. Founded as early as 1986, Nespresso turned out to be one of Nestle’s most successful brands. This article from Media/Culture Journal explores the brand’s early start and the different corporate shifts it made until it gradually designed a premium coffee experience and became a giant in the coffee market. Despite the noticeable abundance of different coffee brands, Nespresso seems to have maintained a yearly growth rate of 30%. Initially, Nestle’s coffee pods were meant to target the corporate and commercial sector with offices and restaurants being its primary customers. The shift to domestic focus resulted in countless gains for the brand.
Find out how Nespresso was able to grow 20 times faster than an already growing coffee market here.
2. دور الأسرة في إعداد القائد الصغير (e-Book)
This book is part of a longer series of Arabic books that aim to guide and advise families, parents, educators, and educational institutes on the best constructive approaches to fostering better leaders. By considering the family as the first nurturing environment, the book highlights the important role that family plays in affecting and steering children’s behaviour. A child’s habits and tendencies can be greatly influenced by his closest family members. Parents are urged to encourage their child’s development in different areas including health, education, morality, and political knowledge, as well as continuously offer a loving and supporting environment that inspires a sense of fulfilment and tolerance. Because of how complex parenting has always been, this publication can be an invaluable resource to many parents.
Parents can inspire their children to be more proactive, read more here.
3. Fortune (Magazine)
The most recent December 2021 – January 2022 issue of the magazine is out, loaded with plenty of tips and insights into the world of investment, market shares, and finance. In this issue, you’ll find articles about Elon Musk’s influence on the stock market, Gen Zers perception of cryptocurrency, Tesla’s soaring share prices, the science of trends and econophysics, investors’ hunt for more adaptable companies, and more. In addition to that, you’ll get to hear directly from inspiring women in the world of finance and entrepreneurship, like Global Head of Investment Banking Services at Goldman Sachs, Kim Posnett; Spanx founder, Sara Blakely; co-founder and CEO of 23andMe, Anne Wojcicki; and Women’s Philanthropy Institute director, Jeannie Infante Sager. Finally, don’t forget to read the feature article “Insulin’s Deadly Cost” which addresses the irrational increase in insulin prices while discussing the evolution of other treatments for Type2 diabetes.
To continue reading about the latest in world finance, click here.
4. Astronomy (Magazine)
Astronomy magazine has been continuously publishing invaluable articles for amateur astronomers since 1973. With 12 issues published annually, it provides monthly astronomy tips and facts all year long. This special issue of Astronomy is no exception. Curated by the editor himself, the January 2022 issue features a long fascinating list of 101 cosmic objects that every astronomy enthusiast should not miss! Anyone who is passionate about observing space will be thrilled with this comprehensive list as it details how to spot each of the objects with a telescope. The first object on the list is Centaurus A, a galaxy in the shape of a hamburger with a supermassive black hole in the middle. Some 200M+ years ago, an elliptical galaxy collided with a spiral galaxy which formed Centaurus A as we know it.
Want to learn more about the Orion Nebula, the Hercules Cluster, the Magellanic Clouds, and other captivating cosmic objects? Click here.
5. E-Government: Perspectives, Challenges, and Opportunities (e-Book)
This book examines how government services can be digitised by studying the previous experiences of different local e-governments. By reviewing the various literature provided on this matter, the book offers a clear guide of when and where enterprise architectures can be applied to e-government initiatives, which frameworks are best to follow, and what the potential challenges and opportunities are. The authors of the book also provide insight into the factors that can contribute to the successful digitisation of the governmental sector. As governments increasingly invest in developing their digital services, enterprise architectures gradually become proposed for such initiatives. This book includes an experiment which compares five sites for e-government in Greece, a closer look at South Korea’s e-government successes, and more.
Large-scale digitisation can be transformative, learn more about government e-services here.
Access articles, e-books, magazines and more on Zendy – your gateway to knowledge and discovery! Zendy Plus is available in Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the UAE. For everywhere else in the world, there’s always Zendy Open.
Zendy’s abundant resources include a wealth of knowledge in anthropology, art and culture, biomedical research, and more! Through Zendy, you can access the latest research articles across different disciplines and fields; download comprehensive e-books about the fundamentals of neurology or how to start the next disruptive business; read manuscripts detailing everything about horses from as early as 1741; flip through all past and current issues of leading tech, geography, and health magazines; browse interviews with inspiring figures across industries; and so much more.
As always, our Top 5 Zendy reads are ready to give you an idea about what others are reading on Zendy each month. This month’s series includes an e-book about one of Brazil’s most vibrant states, an interview with an exceptional stage director, a study examining the benefits of automated dispensing cabinets, an invaluable book that deconstructs the socio-political landscape around sustainability, and a modern companion to the best-selling motivational entrepreneurial guide Think and Grow Rich.
Here are Zendy’s top 5 reads in October:
1. Brazil’s Living Museum: Race, Reform, and Tradition in Bahia (e-Book)
Bahia is one of Brazil’s most cultural northeastern states. Bahia’s history bears an acute resemblance to that of Brazil. Though Bahia has often been romanticised, it has also been disparaged on many occasions. For many Brazilians and countless tourists that decide to visit Salvador, Bahia represents Brazil’s African roots. Afro-Bahians seem to have preserved their cultural autonomy and have been mostly unaffected by modern tendencies. This e-book celebrates Bahia’s multi-cultural heritage, discusses its many cultural influences, and delves into its rich social, religious, natural history while acknowledging what it currently represents to Brazilians and how it came to be the African cultural epicentre of Brazil.
Though both titles are eerily similar, Getting Away with Murder is a play that premiered long before ABC’s famous How to Get Away with Murder and told a completely different tale. The play narrates the story of seven psychiatry patients who meet for their regular group therapy session only to discover that their psychiatrist has been murdered. The comedy thriller first opened on the 17th of March in 1996. In this article from Back Stage journal, the director of the play, Jack O’Brien, discusses what drew him to the script and how the story evolved. Jack O’Brien was the artistic director of the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California, from 1981 to 2007.
3. Patient safety: Analysis of the impact of the implementation of automated dispensing cabinets on drug return in a university hospital (Journal Article)
Technological advancements have aided so many different industries in organising, checking, and standardising their procedures. Pharmacies and hospitals have similarly witnessed how technology can enhance and safeguard certain operations. One area that still poses a challenge in many hospitals is the return of medications. Delays or failure to return medications may encourage deviations and cause medical errors, especially when medicines are accumulated in nursing units.This study from the journal of Clinical & Biomedical Research analysed the amount of returned medication in a university hospital both before and after the implementation of an automated dispensing cabinet. The mean percentage of returned medications was as high as 27% in the years preceding the use of the automated cabinet and dropped as low as 4% in the year following its use.
To continue reading about the risks that automated dispensing cabinets can prevent, click here: https://zendy.io/title/35785
4. Stakeholder Politics: Social Capital, Sustainable Development, and the Corporation (e-Book)
Corporate executives and managers might not always be well-equipped to approach ethical and sustainability matters. “While managers rely on facts and rational analysis, their self-appointed critics have mastered the arts of political discourse, issue framing, and media manipulation”. More and more, companies need to pave roadmaps and become familiar with the ‘socio-political terrain’ within their industries. This book aims to guide companies to maintain ‘political legitimacy’ by promoting sustainable development within and outside their organisation. Stakeholder Politics demystifies the most common socio-political problems and explains how to address each of them. The author provides a typology of stakeholder networks that community leaders could identify to ameliorate the social capital patterns within their networks. Furthermore, the book presents real-life cases where managers have already used the approach successfully. This will help community leaders to predict and avoid socio-political risks.
Click here to learn more about navigating the corporate and sustainable development socio-political terrain: https://zendy.io/title/36532
Think and Grow Rich: The Legacy: How the World’s Leading Entrepreneurs, Thought Leaders, & Cultural Icons Achieve Success (e-Book)
Self-help books have always been popular. In fact, Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich, published back in 1937, was one such type of book. In 2017, James Whittaker published a modern companion of Hill’s book (endorsed by the Napoleon Hill Foundation), which was “released in conjunction with the major motion picture, Think and Grow Rich: The Legacy”. The book recounts the experiences and success stories of some of the world’s biggest entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and cultural icons. The book is packed with experiences of rising above obstacles and disadvantages to find personal contentment. Read more about the journey of different inspiring figures from professional athletes, media moguls, venture capitalists, television personalities to self-help gurus, international speakers, and bestselling authors.
Access articles, e-books, magazines, and more on Zendy – your gateway to knowledge and discovery! Zendy Plus is available in Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the UAE. For everywhere else in the world, there’s always Zendy Open.
In the age of information, many individuals and professionals are still unable to access high-quality research especially if they are not affiliated with a university or an academic institution. Traditional subscriptions are very costly, and many might not be able to afford them. Other factors like language barriers might also place some people at a disadvantage when it comes to accessing and reading research.
Through this talk, and in partnership with Dubai Cares, we hope to inform, educate, and raise awareness about the benefits of opening research and knowledge to make it more inclusive and offer access to a wider audience. Our experts will discuss how limited access to high-quality research can contribute to social and educational inequality, and how innovative and affordable solutions can bridge the gap by making research more accessible.
Our Experts:
Kamran Kardan – CEO and Founder of Knowledge E
Samantha Miles – Head of Training and Consulting at Knowledge E
The discussion will address how non-academic professionals can gain access to research, current subscription models and cost, publisher collections, and current societal challenges like the spread of false information and the need for informed action. The talk will also touch on the many benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration, inclusive research, and the features of impactful modern libraries.
Education specialists, researchers, librarians, and related professions will especially find this discussion enriching. Attendance is open to the public.
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