Qatar National Library (QNL) is expanding its use of artificial intelligence while preserving traditional reading culture, positioning technology as an enhancement rather than a replacement for the library’s core public role.
As artificial intelligence increasingly shapes how people study, research, write and consume information, QNL is adapting its programmes and services while continuing to place books, learning and community engagement at the centre of its work.
Israa al-Rantisi, Librarian – Adult Programming at QNL’s Public Engagement Department, told Gulf Times that technology has long been embedded in the library, well before the recent global surge in interest surrounding artificial intelligence.
“Even before AI became the main theme right now, QNL is known for being built on technology,” she said.
The growing importance of AI, however, has prompted the library to give the subject greater attention across its public programmes.
“In recent years, especially this year and last year, we started conducting a lot of programmes about artificial intelligence and how it is intertwined with everything that we do,” al-Rantisi said.
These include sessions introducing users to AI tools as well as lectures examining their advantages, limitations and wider implications.
But the intention, she stressed, is not to replace the conventional role of a library.
“We try to embed it, not to cancel the traditional library way. It’s just to enhance everything that we offer,” she said.
That balance is becoming increasingly important as libraries respond to changing habits among younger generations and a growing appetite for digital access.
QNL already offers extensive online resources, databases, e-books and audiobooks alongside its physical collections. According to al-Rantisi, audiobooks and electronic books have become particularly popular among users.
The institution also serves several roles simultaneously, functioning as Qatar’s national library while also serving public and academic audiences.
“Our library is both a national, a public and even an academic library,” she said. “We try to be diverse and reach everyone.”
For university students and researchers, the library provides databases, journals and digital resources that can support academic work and research papers. Its public programming, meanwhile, ranges from activities for children and young adults to programmes designed for adult audiences.
Yet QNL’s response to changing expectations extends beyond technology.
Al-Rantisi said the library has increasingly sought to create spaces where people can simply meet, exchange interests and build communities, a shift shaped partly by feedback from its own patrons.
Community meet-ups, which had existed previously on a smaller scale, were expanded this year after the library observed demand for more relaxed forms of engagement.
“We noticed that the patrons are looking for things that are more casual rather than strict lectures, academics,” she explained.
The approach has broadened the idea of what a visit to the library can look like.
Book discussions remain part of its core offering, allowing readers to meet and exchange views on what they are reading. But programming now also creates room for interests ranging from arts and crafts to chess and planting.
“We’re not only focusing on books,” al-Rantisi said. “We also try to be more diverse.”
The aim, she added, is “to offer something for everybody in the society”.
One of the library’s flagship initiatives in this area is Write to Inspire: Books and Authors, an annual programme examining different aspects of writing and publishing in Qatar.
The inaugural edition brought together authors who were relatively new to publishing and gave them an opportunity to discuss their first books and the process of bringing them to publication.
The second edition shifted the focus towards Qatar’s local publishing houses. Publishers participated in a small fair where aspiring writers could learn more about the publishing process and connect directly with industry professionals.
This year, the conversation moved towards one of the most pressing questions facing publishing worldwide: artificial intelligence.
“The focus is on the use of AI in publishing,” al-Rantisi said.
The programme was designed to include perspectives from across the sector, including publishers, authors and the Ministry of Culture, with discussions extending to possible regulations surrounding the use of AI in writing and publishing.
“There is a publisher point of view, an author’s point of view, even the Ministry of Culture and what regulations they might add to control the use of AI in writing and publishing,” she said.
The progression reflects a library that is increasingly operating beyond shelves and reading rooms, as a platform for conversations about how knowledge itself is changing.
