Concurrently with the Reading Month

The National Archives Organizes Two Lectures on the Emirates Library and Ways to Access its Collections



Within the series of lectures and activities that the National Archives holds in the Reading Month, the Emirates Library at the National Archives organized two virtual lectures, the first lecture is entitled “Emirates Library, A Resort for Knowledge Seekers”, and the second lecture is entitled “The Electronic Catalog of the Emirates Library”. Both lectures aimed at strengthening the links between the Emirates Library and readers and facilitating access to its holdings to benefit from its collections, resources and references specialized in the history of the UAE and the Arabian Peninsula. Subsequently, the Emirates Library adopts the same goals of the National Archives which documents the memory of the nation for the generations to come.

 The first lecture was delivered virtually by Mrs. Sharifa Al Fahim, Head of the Emirates Library Section at the National Archives. She spoke about the importance of the Reading Month and pointed to the significance of its slogan this year (My Family Reads), which emphasizes the role of reading in building people over the course of their lifetime. She emphasized that the Emirates Library, as it celebrates the Reading Month, exerts all possible efforts to enable readers and researchers to access its collections and provide them with its services throughout the year.

Then, she reviewed the history of the Emirates Library, which was established in 1968, in the same year as the National Archives upon the directives of the Founder and Builder Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Next, she introduced the services and facilities which the library offers such as allowing access to its paper and electronic resources, photocopying and circulation services and the model reading hall designed in accordance with international standards with open shelving system, a number of modern computers, special researcher cabins and  Wi-Fi service.

The lecture focused on the holdings of the Emirates Library, which include thousands of distinctive paper and electronic resources, university references and dissertations, rare books, Arab and foreign periodicals. It also contains a wealth of specialized books dealing with many aspects of the UAE, topics related to the GCC states and a large number of books in all fields in both Arabic and English, in addition to items in other languages including French, German, Persian, Dutch and Portuguese.

The second lecture was delivered by Omar Hammadneh, librarian, who talked about the Emirates Library electronic catalog and  methods for searching by book title, author name, series, or ISBN. He said that researchers can access the library catalog on the National Archives’ website and submit their requests electronically. He also mentioned that the Emirates Library has been providing its services electronically to many researchers in the UAE and abroad.

He explained that the search box at the top of the Emirates Library Catalog enables its visitors to look for the following categories of information:  Articles About the UAE, Subject Guides, Liwa Journal Index ‘the National Archives’ scientific journal’, E-Resources, Rare Books and Napoleon Collection Online.

Both lecturers answered a number of questions about ways of extending circulation periods and other questions.