JEDDAH, 4 May 2004 — The King Abdul Aziz Public Library in Riyadh has embarked on two major projects — a unified Arabic index for all libraries in the Arab world and an encyclopedia on Saudi Arabia with documentary information on its culture, heritage and progress.
Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, recently chaired a meeting of the library’s board of directors and urged them to push ahead with the index project.
The King Abdul Aziz Library has already surveyed 170 libraries in the Kingdom and abroad and contacted others, the Saudi Press Agency quoted Faisal ibn Muammar, its supervisor, as saying.
The project “is a gift of Prince Abdullah to local and Arab libraries.”
The encyclopedia project, Muammar said, would be arranged by region and involve some 110 Saudi academics.
Prince Abdullah has instructed the library to publish the volume on Makkah as quickly as possible to mark the occasion of the selection of the holy city as the capital of Islamic culture.
