Dubai: His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, has ordered the distribution of 3 million books to thousands of schools in the Arab world.
The announcement comes following the opening of the Mohammed bin Rashid Library, the biggest cultural centre and library of its kind in the region.
“The library will have positive impacts that will reach out to the whole region. We have the Arab Reading Challenge that involve the participation of 22 million Arab students who will support the library’s mission,” Sheikh Mohammed tweeted.
On Monday, Sheikh Mohammed inaugurated the Mohammed bin Rashid Library, a new cultural beacon in the region. Built with an investment of Dh1 billion, the library aims to cultivate a culture of reading, while supporting the development of creativity, knowledge and art at both individual and social levels. It will provide a platform for intellectual, literary and imaginative minds across the region and the world.
About the new library
Across its seven floors, the Mohammed bin Rashid Library features a significant amount of content. This includes more than 1.1 million printed and digital books in Arabic and foreign languages, over 6 million dissertations, around 73,000 music scores, 75,000 videos, around 13,000 articles, and more than 5,000 historical print and digital journals within an archive covering 325 years, along with about 35,000 print and digital newspapers from around the world, and nearly 500 rare collectibles.
The Mohammed bin Rashid Library has nine specialised libraries including The General Library, The Emirates Library, The Young Adults Library, The Children’s Library, The Special Collection Library, The Maps and Atlases Library, The Media and Arts Library, The Business Library and The Periodical Library. In addition to paperback books, the library provides access to a wide range of e-books and other digital media, and access to millions of books, information sources and pieces of content from around the world.
