With National Sport Day falling on the second Tuesday of February, Qatar National Library is celebrating the occasion with a lineup of sport-focused events during the month. 
These special sessions are part of a broader catalogue of virtual and in-person programmes scheduled throughout the month for parents, educators, researchers, budding public speakers, inquisitive young minds, and those with an interest in business, economics, and politics, among other disciplines.
Among the first events of the month is the “Children’s Linguistic Development” lecture on February 2, which will focus on childcare and early learning. Parents, educators and researchers will join speech pathologist Eman Darwish in an online lecture to learn about when children can be expected to utter their first words, the causes of speech delay in children and other topics related to early development.
On the same day, the online ‘2021 Global Economic Outlook’ will provide insights on business, economic and political developments worldwide amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The lecture will be led by Agathe Demarais, global forecasting director at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
The pandemic will also be the focus of the February 4 lecture ‘Human Development in Post-Covid Era’, which will be delivered by a lead author of the UNDP’s ‘Human Development Report 2020’. Held in partnership with the Arab Youth Climate Movement Qatar, the UNDP and the embassy of Sweden in Qatar, the virtual event will share expert views on the report and how the pandemic has exposed the structural inequalities and challenges communities face across the world.
Sports will have their fair share of the spotlight in February, starting with the Library’s first Sport Day Chess Tournament on February 9. Contestants will have a chance to challenge their friends, family online and stretch their minds.
On February 17, the Library will be taking the National Sport Day celebration to the next level, with experts shedding light on the developments made to cement Qatar’s position as the Asian sports capital for 2030, as part of the ‘Past and Future Asian Games in Qatar: Creativity Without Limitation’ online session.
The month’s focus on sports is completed with the February 24 exploratory lecture, ‘Sports from the World to Qatar’. During the event, audience members will not only discover the origin and history of sports around the world, but also learn how they influenced the evolution of sports in Qatar.
February’s lineup of events also covers a rich variety of topics and areas of interest. These include the February 7 online session on Down Syndrome and Healthy Diet, which will coach parents on how to prevent weight gain, if their children are suffering from the chromosomal condition, and a three-part Public Speaking and Argumentation online workshop starting February 8, where students will learn what constitutes good public speaking and argumentative skills. The ‘Elegant Simplicity in the Age of Excess’ is another event expected to draw a diverse group of attendees on February 18. In this online talk, Satish Kumar, a veteran environmentalist, will talk about his journey of living a frugal lifestyle and explore how consumerism drives the pursuit of happiness in much of the world. He will also address responsible consumption and sustainable development, two topics in his latest book, Elegant Simplicity.
Finally, the month will conclude with a special lecture for manuscript heritage enthusiasts around the world on February 28. In ‘Marginal Texts and New Prospects in Studying Manuscripts’, Dr Mostafa El Toubi, head of the research team on Moroccan Manuscript Heritage at the Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences at Ibn Zahr University in Morocco, will examine marginalia or apostils in manuscripts to help open up new prospects for many research fields and to learn more about people’s habits, behaviours, transactions, beliefs, mindsets, ideas, and money exchanges.
Qatar National Library posts regular updates on its website and social media channels with the latest information 
on all events.