Qatar, in its quest for knowledge and development, has been making swift progress for the last few years and the country has added several golden feathers to its cap of success. This time it is not a feather, it is a gem on the crown of glory.
Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani officially opened the country’s knowledge treasure house, Qatar National Library (QNL), yesterday. The one millionth book was placed on the shelves of the library in the presence of Father Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and several dignitaries from across the world.
Since QNL’s soft opening in November last year, the library has received over 161,000 visitors, registered more than 51,000 new members and the number of borrowed books has exceeded 300,000, which proves the immense popularity the facility has achieved in less than six months.
The QNL with its mission to spread knowledge, nurture imagination, cultivate creativity and preserve the nation’s heritage for the future, aims to create and sustain an intuitive and trusted information. In this pursuit, QNL has tied up with world-renowned libraries and data houses to preserve and spread knowledge. It plays a leadership role in preserving local and regional heritage content through active participation in the World Digital Library (WDL). The WDL is a free and growing online collection of important cultural treasures from countries and cultures around the world and it is a Unesco programme led by the US Library of Congress in partnership with libraries around the world. QNL is one of the highest contributors from the Middle East to WDL.
A partnership project between Qatar Foundation and the British Library (BL) was launched in July 2012 to digitise the BL’s collections relating to history of Qatar and the Gulf, medieval Arab science and medicine. The Qatar Digital Library is a major outcome of this partnership.
QNL also signed an MoU with the Council of Library and Information Resources to enhance and make available digitised cultural heritage content through the Digital Library of the Middle East.
Through these partnerships and its function as as a research library with a unique heritage library, QNL aims to promote a deeper global vision of the history and culture of the Arab Gulf region. The library is is providing all citizens and residents of Qatar equal opportunities to benefit from its different and vast specialised facilities such as dedicated section for people with special needs, Innovation Station, Heritage Library, Qatar Digital Library and reservation of study spaces to name a few. QNL will give an impetus to Qatar’s march towards a knowledge-based economy by providing resources for students, researchers and the citizens. It will promote life-long learning process and will contribute to a better future for all.
