Ruler issues law to set up bin Rashid Library

Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has issued Law No. 14 of 2016 regarding the establishment of the Mohammed bin Rashid Library and Decree No. 36 of 2016 on the formation of the board of directors of the MBR Library Foundation. 

The board, to be chaired by Mohammed Ahmed Al Mur, is tasked with drawing up general policies and strategic plans required to deliver the library's objectives. The foundation will run the library and promote the organisation locally, regionally and globally. Members of the board will serve a three-year term, subject to renewal. 

The AED1 billion library, launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid in February this year, will feature more than 1.5 million volumes, 1 million audio books and 2 million e-books, making it the world's largest electronic collection and the biggest library in the Arab world. 

Spread over one million sq. ft. the facility will include eight specialised libraries, can accommodate 42 million visitors annually and will host over 100 annual cultural events. 

'We want this library to serve as a cultural forum, an incubator for knowledge and a civilisational centre in the region,' said His Highness Sheikh Mohammed, adding that the library would contribute towards promotion of reading and transformation of culture and turn it into a community product that would advance national development. 

He directed the foundation to start setting up the cultural structure of the library so that it becomes the Arab World's largest knowledge incubator. 

'The knowledge provided by the library will encourage the movement of authoring and translation, bring intellectuals and thinkers closer, and spread the culture of dialogue, tolerance and acceptance of others,' he added.