JEDDAH, 4 May 2006 — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah yesterday instructed authorities to improve the overall condition of the country’s libraries and information centers, making use of modern technology and the tremendous flow of information about all cultures and human knowledge.
“King Abdullah also emphasized the importance of conducting research, studies and translations (to and from other languages) of different sciences, knowledge, literature and arts,” said Faisal Bin-Muammar, adviser at the royal court and supervisor of the King Abdul Aziz Public Library in Riyadh.
Abdullah made his comments while presiding over a meeting of the library’s board of directors. He also urged libraries and information centers to intensify their efforts in making use of modern information technology to preserve Arab and Islamic calligraphy as well as Arab culture.
The king heard a report on King Abdul Aziz Library’s program to promote people’s interest in books. He was also briefed on the Encyclopedia of Saudi Arabia, another project being implemented by the library. He inspected the encyclopedia’s first volumes on Makkah, Madinah, Riyadh and the Eastern Province.
“The king wants the encyclopedia in both Arabic and English and made available on the Internet,” Bin-Muammar told the Saudi Press Agency after the board meeting.
King Abdullah called for joint efforts in the service of Islam and the Kingdom.
“We have to promote the true teachings of Islam and reject religious extremism,” he quoted the king as saying.
The king later toured the King Abdul Aziz Public Library and glanced through its rare documents, calligraphic writings, books, maps and the library’s own publications. There are six branches of the library: two each for men, women and children.
The Saudi-funded King Abdul Aziz Foundation for Islamic Studies and Humanitarian Sciences in Casablanca, Morocco would also be part of the new initiative.
In a recent statement, Culture and Information Minister Iyad Madani said his ministry was currently working on a project to reorganize public libraries, allocating specific days and times for women. He said this was taken in response to demands from intellectuals, including women.
Madani also spoke about his ministry’s efforts to improve the standard of libraries in the country, in coordination with the Education Ministry, by supplying them with an adequate number of books and transforming them into recognized cultural institutions.
“We hope that we can introduce changes and reforms to these libraries as we know that they are an important part of the cultural scene in every city, town and village. We want to make them a cultural institution with multifarious activities,” Madani told a seminar titled “Public Libraries in the Kingdom: Present Challenges and Future Prospects.”
There are nearly 80 public libraries in the Kingdom and most of them are attached to universities and colleges. The Culture and Information Ministry took over the responsibility of libraries from the Ministry of Education two years ago.
