Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
A new landmark cultural centre will open its doors to public tomorrow as part of the kingdom's special week of celebrations to mark National Day. His Majesty King Hamad will inaugurate the centre on Thursday and the library will be open for membership for both Bahrainis and members of the expatriate community.
The BD20 million project on Al Fateh Corniche will mark the beginning of a new chapter in cultural history on the island.
The centre will comprise a grand conference hall with a capacity of 1,000 seats and a second multi-purpose hall with a 400-seating capacity.
The imposing Shaikh Isa National Library will operate under the umbrella of the cultural centre and is part of a regional push to celebrate Arab culture.
A grand foyer fitted with a magnificent chandelier and patterned marble floors are an impressive reminder of the 7,000 square metres of sprawling library space and its accompanying facility. The library comprises five floors, two of which are in the basement.
The children's section situated in the basement will have more than 10,000 titles, with CDs, computers and educational games in addition to the titles. Most books will be in Arabic but English will feature prominently including some in French.
The Shaikh Isa National Library will hold 45,000 volumes featuring topics in different fields of knowledge and a vast variety of reference materials and periodicals in Arabic and English spread over two halls on the ground floor.
On the first floor there will be a specific space earmarked for publications by Bahraini authors and books on Bahrain including 3,500 research and thesis materials.
The second hall will comprise more than 13,000 international publications in Arabic, English and French.
There will be a specialised area on the second floor where an electronic library, video conferencing, internet facility and reading halls will be available for the use of researchers.
A multimedia and audio visual library will also be one of the highlights of the library where eastern and western classical music will be available for use.
"What will make the library unique in the region are the services that will be offered at the facility. The library will cater to services for all categories from the blind to handicapped.
"Presently there are 70,000 titles in the library and over the years we will increase the number to its capacity of 250,000 titles," said Dr Mansoor Sarhan, director of Shaikh Isa National Library.
"We have 2,000 volumes of rare books printed between 150-200 years ago. The library has a good budget and the volumes have been purchased from all over the world," said Dr Sarhan, 63, an author of 27 books in Arabic on various different subjects.
