DOHA: Over one million pages of rare, historical documents on the Islamic world, Arab culture and the Gulf’s history will be shared with the public through Qatar National Library’s (QNL) online Qatar Digital Library (QDL).
The digitisation of these documents in the next four years is part of the second phase of partnership between Qatar Foundation (QF), QNL and British Library announced yesterday.
The next stage of the collaboration, which will last until December 2018, follows on from the initial partnership announced in 2012 which has raised awareness of Gulf and Middle Eastern history.
QDL will add an additional 970,000 pages from the India Office Records dating from the mid-18th century to 1951 and historical maps and photographs. It will also include 56,000 pages of Arab Islamic sciences manuscripts, and about 100,000 pages from private papers, including those of Lady Anne Blunt, thought to be the first woman to cross the Arabian Desert in the 19th century.
Following digitisation, the material will be added to QDL which originated out of the first phase of the partnership and was launched in October 2014.
QDL provides students, researchers and the general public in any part of the world with free online access to over half a million pages of historic archive and manuscript materials.
It received exceptional reactions from the online community with nearly 780,000 page views in the first month.
Saad Al Muhannadi, President, QF, said, “The planned new materials will preserve and add insights into the history of Qatar, the Gulf and Arab and Islamic history and culture. The project is a testament to QF’s commitment to foster greater understanding of Qatar’s heritage and share the collection of resources with the whole world.”
“The partnership aims to explore and raise awareness about the history of the Gulf and the wider region while creating one of the world’s most ambitious and accessible resources for studies into Gulf history and Arab Islamic sciences,” said Dr Claudia Lux, Project Director, QNL.
Roly Keating, Chief Executive, British Library, said, “One of the purposes of British Library is to work with partners across the world to advance knowledge and mutual understanding. The goal of the collaborative project with QNL is to create a 21st century online library to transform the study of the modern history of the Gulf and Arabic science.”
Richard Gibby, Head, British Library-QF Partnership, said, “Our goal in launching QDL was to create a resource which will advance world knowledge and understanding of the Gulf’s cultural heritage.
“The second phase of our partnership will add depth and breadth, stimulating new research and enabling new discoveries,” Gibby added.
The Peninsula
