It’s been a year since Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani officially inaugurated the Qatar National Library. From the Day One onward, the magnificent centre of knowldege became the Qatar’s must go-to place.
Within a year, the circulation of books has reached more than a million. Now the library can boast of 139,551 registered members and it has welcomed 738,636 visitors.
It’s also notable that the significant number of its members are young people, especially the children. That’s evident from the fact that over half of the 720,000 books checked out since January 1, 2018 are from the Children’s and Young Adults’ Library aimed at readers under 18. The numbers certify the Library’s efforts. Designed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, the architectural marvel is literally a knowledge powerhouse. It has a rich collection of valuable texts and manuscripts with 174, 866 rare items. The QNL also digitized over 4 million pages of history. The Library’s existing print collection has grown as well, with 41,461 new titles, 29,876 in Arabic.
As the Executive Director of the Qatar National Library, Dr Sohair Wastawy, has said: “On the auspicious occasion of the Library’s first anniversary, you just need to be here to get the sense of the scale and scope of what is the world’s most beautifully designed national library and the many people using it — expansive yet at the same time personal.”
The Library is also the go-to place for cultural and social interactions. It’s a resounding interactive hub for collaborative learning, workshops, research interactions, cultural and heritage events such as concert series, poetry nights; authors forum and lectures and many more. It has organised over 900 curated events in the short span of time.
The QNL has also claimed to have a vast repository of online collections with more than 380,000 ebooks and 200 databases with access to 60,000 electronic journals, newspapers, magazines and other media. Its website got close to 4.5 million page views in the first year itself from all over the world, reflecting the richness and importance of the content. It has four Innovation Stations with musical instruments and recording equipment, green screens, 3D printers, photography and videography studios, and other maker-spaces for members to express their creative sides.
The Digital Library, which was launched as a partnership between Qatar Foundation, Qatar National Library and the British Library in October 2014, has received more than 2.5 million views. It has more than 1.5 million pages of historical records on Qatar and the Gulf.
The ever-expanding Digital Library is set to add almost one million pages of material from partners in Turkey, France, the Netherlands, India and the UK. The Qatar National Library is living up to or exceeding all expectations and became a “the third space after home and work” as expressed by H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, at the launch of the Qatar National Library project in November 2012.
