Qatar National Library (QNL) participated in the 27th Doha International Book Fair, where they attracted thousands of visitors keen to learn more about the library and its functions and registered more than 1,300 new members.
During the fair, QNL organised a series of interactive presentations to raise the awareness of the library’s efforts in digitising and preserving historical materials.
QNL also hosted lectures on the different efforts taking place in Qatar to collect and preserve cultural treasures. Presenters included Ibrahim Fakhroo, a collector of Islamic artefacts; Mohamed Fikri, director of Special Collections and Archives at QNL; and Jaber al-Hajri and Hamad al-Malki, founders of the first social media heritage preservation Instagram account in Qatar: Turath_Lawal.
In addition, QNL hosted an array of community activities designed to foster a culture of reading among people of all ages. These included a book discussion with the Qatari author Abdulaziz al-Mahmoud, and literary lectures with authors Hessa al-Awadhi and Dr Ahmed Abdul Malek. QNL’s dedicated children’s area welcomed more than 700 children and their families each day, where they took part in activities such as story time and young author sessions with the goal of teaching children to learn and express themselves in a creative environment.
Through dedicated database stations, QNL’s booth highlighted the library’s rich online databases and diversified information services. The QNL team was on hand to answer questions and to help visitors register to gain free access to the library’s wealth of digital resources.

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