The future media experts and communications specialists are offered the most informative resources to enhance their skills and knowledge under one roof in the Education City.
Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q), arguably the largest and most technologically advanced media school in the world, at its two-storey research library houses a huge collection of outstanding resources, which cover the range from journalism, communication and media education.
The NU-Q library system offers faculty, staff and students numerous specialised services, including research consultations, information about scholarly communication topics, library instruction, and general information on library services.
NU-Q’s Research Library is a truly multidisciplinary resource featuring a diversified mix of books, scholarly journals, publications, magazines, DVDs and other timely sources across several top subject areas. By covering more titles in subject areas, it is ideal for serving diverse needs of serious researchers in the areas of journalism, communication and media.
The unique library has 13,000 books, 18,000 films and aims at expanding the collections to meet the growing demand. The collection includes books about Qatar’s ideology. The library is also connected with the Northwestern main campus in Evanston and several online resources are being shared
“The library is unique in several ways. One way is the strength of its collection - here and in conjunction with our main campus. We also have a clear focus on resources,” NU-Q Library Director Mark T. Paul, told The Peninsula.
“We support students and faculty for classroom, individual, and institutional research, which can be done by our many books, DVDs, and documentaries in our library. It can be also done by using our online resources - we have access to online journals and e-books. And, research is also done in collaboration with our sister institutions here in Education City and our main campus in Evanston.”
“The NU-Q library has books, journals, films, both entertainment and documentary, as well as some television shows. We also have newspapers and production DVDs, which are either images or sounds a student can use when making a film. Our 13,000 books cover the range from journalism, communication, media education, and liberal arts. We have about 18,000 films that includes DVDs, entertainment films, and documentary films that demonstrate how to write and produce films. These films can be used as example as to see various techniques. Then the students can go to the studio and practice,” said Paul.
The library also provides everything that will help students in the actual classroom work they do outside research. Incase if some students would need to do a project outside research, they can get books of how to make films, how to write and edit. The library also has data useful for the faculty for research.
Founded in 2008 in partnership with Qatar Foundation, NU-Q provides its students the opportunity to explore the world and, ultimately, shape its future through its distinguished schools of communication, journalism, and liberal arts.
NU-Q was established by visionary leaders at Qatar Foundation and Northwestern University in Evanston, who recognised the need for a state-of-the-art media school in the region. Since its founding, it has been recognised for its exceptional educational offerings, facilities, and high caliber students. Faculty members come from academia and industry and bring with them a wealth of theoretical and practical knowledge.
The facilities and resources at the NU-Q library have increased vastly since the campus moved into their new building this year. The library is housed in the campus building which is contemporary designed and environmentally-friendly.
“One of the great things about the library is that compared to the library at our previous building we now have double the space, so we have room for much larger collections and resources. In the future we are also increasing liberal arts collection, so we have a better support for that part of research needed within our degrees. And we are certainly looking to increase the documentary films we have, as one of our core strengths here in teaching film making,” said Paul.
Besides the collections, one of the unique facilities at the NU-Q library is viewing stations, where students can work in teams on their project work.
