National Library of Qatar

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The National Library of Qatar ( English Qatar National Library , Arabic مكتبة قطر الوطنية, DMG Maktabat Qaṭar al-waṭaniyya ) is a national library of the emirate of Qatar planned since the 2000s .

The National Library of Qatar is currently in digital form. The building was opened on November 7, 2017 as part of a soft opening. Claudia Lux , the former director of the Central and State Library in Berlin , has been the “Project Director” of the National Library, which is currently under construction .

In 2003, the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki designed a new building, the completion of which was planned for 2006. With a height of 117 meters, the library would have been one of the highest in the world. However, Isozaki's design was not implemented.

Regardless of the old plans, the Dutchman Rem Koolhaas was commissioned to build a central library for the Qatar Foundation , the “Qatar Foundation Central Library” (QFCL). In 2012 the project was renamed "Qatar National Library" and is intended to serve as the national, university and city central library. In accordance with the framework plan for Qatar's policy for 2030 that was adopted in 2008, it is intended to support the conversion from a carbon-based to an education-based economy and therefore promote research and science.

Arabia by Jodocus Hondius (1598, reprinted 1612), part of the Heritage Collection
View of al-Wakra , Qatar, from Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf Vol. 2 (1908) digitized by the British Library , published by the Qatar Digital Library

The flat, rhombus-shaped building with a silver-colored outer skin and oval windows, whose special glass prevents direct sunlight, has 45,000 square meters of floor space, which is intended to bring together various functions. In a contiguous reception, distribution and reading room covering the entire building area, 300,000 books are to be available on three levels, which are not divided into scientific literature for university members and general literature for the entire population, but integratively according to fields of knowledge.

According to Koolhaas, the wide, undivided space is supposed to symbolize the infinity of knowledge, which is supported by a 120-meter-long bridge that leads through the entire building and from which four-meter-high showcases with valuable historical documents (“Heritage Collection “) Will be visible. This includes 2,800 manuscripts , 600 maps and 30,000 books from the 15th century onwards, including the first works printed in Arabic script, the collection of which Hassan bin Mohamed bin Ali Al-Thani began, which is to be continuously expanded and partly in the World Digital Library is accessible.

In addition, a children's library, a restaurant, an exhibition and relaxation area as well as conference, seminar and multimedia rooms with access to 109 databases, 450,000 e-books and 34,000 online journals and abstracts are being built. The individual levels, which can be seen all around, are accessed by conveyor belts , while the books are transported via a separate transport system and booked using RFID identification.

The shell of the Koolhaas design was largely completed in mid-2014 and was originally supposed to open in 2015 after the completion of the interior work, which has been delayed repeatedly until 2017. So far, the library has been in cooperation with the British Library in digital form (“Qatar Digital Library”), in which over 7,000 users were registered in 2014 and which are to be networked with the physical holdings in an innovative way, as library use in Qatar has so far been very weak is. The library management maintains a preliminary planning office in Education City near the convention center. The library builds on the holdings of the Dar Al Kutub Library in downtown Doha , which was set up in 1962 and which Lux calls the previous national library .

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ifla-l@infoserv.inist.fr. Retrieved November 8, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Rolf Lautenschläger: Off to the desert. Head of the state library leaves. In: the daily newspaper , March 6, 2012.
  3. ↑ Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: ALG.jp .  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / alg.jp
  4. ^ Claudia Lux: Qatar National Library - Architecture as innovation in the Arab world. In: International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Vol. 40, 2014, No. 3, pp. 174-181, here pp. 174 f. (PDF) .
  5. ↑ See also The Heritage of Ibn Al Haytham at Qatar National Library UNESCO exhibition. Video. In: YouTube , uploaded by QNLibrary , October 26, 2015 (English).
  6. ^ Claudia Lux: Qatar National Library - Architecture as innovation in the Arab world. In: International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Vol. 40, 2014, No. 3, pp. 174–181, here pp. 179–181 (PDF) .
  7. ^ OMA's Qatar National Library Nears Completion in Doha. In: Designboom.com , September 29, 2014.
  8. ^ About the Qatar Digital Library. In: QDL.qa (English).
  9. ^ Claudia Lux: Qatar National Library - Architecture as innovation in the Arab world. In: International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Vol. 40, 2014, No. 3, pp. 174–181, here p. 179 (PDF) .
  10. ↑ Location Maps. In: QNL.qa (English).
  11. ^ Claudia Lux: Qatar National Library - Architecture as innovation in the Arab world. In: International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Vol. 40, 2014, No. 3, pp. 174–181, here p. 178 (PDF) . See also Qatar National Library - 50 years Anniversary Film. Video. In: YouTube , uploaded by QNLibrary , November 25, 2012, Part 1 and Part 2 .

Coordinates: 25 ° 16 ′ 57.2 ″  N , 51 ° 32 ′ 25 ″  E