By Isabel Ovalle
Imagine walking into a huge building full of books, where you can spend all day reading, browsing, watching films and enjoy a good cup of tea or coffee in an incomparable infrastructure designed especially for Qatar. This dream will become a reality in 2014, when the new Qatar National Library is expected to open its doors.
Professor Claudia Lux was appointed to take this enterprise forward in April 2012. The project director has vast experience in the field, and is very passionate about her work. “I’m very happy to be a part of this incredible project,” she said.
Lux got involved in this venture when it was already running. “I was asked to come to Doha when the project became a National Library, because it was planned to become a central library for the university,” she said.
The building which will house this metropolitan library will be 42,000sqm. “It’s really big and it will hold a wonderful collection, not only English and Arabic, we hope to have also Indian, Philippine, Spanish and French books,” added Lux.
The construction has already begun in the premises of Qatar Foundation, and the opening is planned for the end of 2014. This project is supported by Qatar Foundation and especially by
H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser.
“I gave her some recommendations and she agreed to all of them, including the development of a five year business plan. When I look back to the first half year, we have a website, have presence on Facebook and Twitter; I realise we are on the way to fulfilling everything we have planned,” said the project director.
The edifice designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas will allow library users to have a clear overview of the building on entering, with different services distributed on terraces. This architect is very well known in the library community – he has designed the Seattle public library, among others.
“For Qatar, he has done a beautiful design with many colours that are matching with the country, like the blue of the sea and the sky, the yellow of the sun in all its shades, the sand and the houses. Using also brown, black and red,” explained Lux.
With the building on its works, the clock is ticking to acquire the collection. The base for it will be the Qatar Heritage Library, which has around 100,000 books. This library can currently be visited every Sunday and Tuesday from 10am to 11.30am. During this time, visitors can participate in tours and see the collections.
The first map of Qatar, as well as an interesting collection of Arabic manuscripts and books on science and one of the first Quran printed in German can be found in the Heritage Library.
It also contains about 600 hand-drawn and printed maps, secret studies and reports produced by and for the British Government concerning regions of the Arabian Gulf, in addition to treaties, agreements and other documentation.
The Heritage Library stocks around 200 separate titles of rare newspapers, periodicals and magazines dating back to the 19th century. In addition, there are 2,400 manuscripts dealing with pure sciences, like mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, botany and zoology.
It also comprises works by travellers and explorers, in addition to accounts of scientific and missionary expeditions in many regions, especially on the East.
This collection will be located in a special place of the new building which, from above, looks like an archaeological site. But once you enter inside, it will look like an exhibition.
There will be new books in English for science and research and also fiction and non-fiction books by International authors. There will also be books for teenagers and children.
The director of the project has started attending book fairs to acquire the Arabic collection. The English books will be kept in Europe and the US, where they were bought, until the building is ready.
Lux hopes visitors will come to spend the day at the library, where they will also be able to take advantage of services such as conference rooms.
“There are many possibilities, we’ll have gaming for young adults, workshops, a theatre and rooms for conference calls,” she added.
The library will also have an important collection of music and films and many of the materials will be available online. Nevertheless, Lux stated that “some people think that they can find anything in Google, but there will be a training course for librarians called information literacy, especially for kids and young adults, to learn how to identify in the web what is a reliable source and how to find material that is not found by search engines.”
People with difficulties to read will have access to talking books, and there will be especial services for handicapped people.
Another big challenge when building a library from the ground is recruitment. “We are currently headhunting for trained librarians with a master’s degree. We might need approximately 200 staff in the beginning,” explained Lux.
When the new Qatar National Library opens, it will collect everything that is published in the country, from newspapers to books and digital material.
It’s the first time this librarian is working in the region, and she enjoys the presence of an International community. “It’s very inspiring, especially for a library that collects the world’s knowledge; we really need all these different views,” she added.
Lux hopes the library will become a hub for cultural activity. She is confident everything is going “pretty well” among other reasons, because at least three people from her team have the experience of opening a new library.
Those interested in becoming members of the Qatar National Library can go to the website and facilitate their details. However, Lux recommends “asking librarians, we are eager to help people, we love to explain.”The Peninsula
