Doha: The International Federation of Library Association and Institutions (IFLA) has selected Qatar National Library (QNL), a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), as the Regional Arabic Speaking Preservation and Conservation Centre (PAC).
The announcement came during the 81st IFLA general conference and assembly in Cape Town, South Africa, earlier this month.
IFLA has 13 PACs worldwide. The PAC strategic programme aims to ensure published and unpublished library and archive materials in all formats are preserved in accessible form for as long as possible.
QNL will represent 25 countries in Middle East and North Africa (Mena) where Arabic is one of the official languages. By serving as PAC, QNL is supporting QF’s vision of protecting and preserving the region’s heritage and culture and making them accessible for future generations.
More discussions with IFLA will be held for PAC activities. Currently, these include Arabic and English workshops on preventive and active conservation, production of web pages on QNL portal in Arabic and English, and free information (printed and digital format) in Arabic on preventive conservation, digital preservation and material providers.
Dr Joachim Gierlichs, Associate Director, Special Collections and Archives, QNL, said: “The library is proud to become the first PAC. This comes as a result of its continuous efforts to preserve Qatari and regional heritage.”
Engineer Saadi Al Said, Associate Director, Administration and Planning, QNL, said “We are proud that QNL has been selected as a PAC in Mena. The appointment is in line with its function to collect and provide access to global knowledge relevant to Qatar and the region. The centre will help QNL become a hub for the region’s heritage, and establish strong relations with other libraries in the region and beyond.”
Dr Claudia Lux, Project Director, QNL, said: “Being an IFLA PAC puts the hosting organisation at the forefront of preservation and conservation. It enables the organisation to participate in a worldwide network and offers opportunities to participate in preservation and conservation activities of IFLA, such as IFLA’s work with international partners like Unesco (Memory of the World and others) and Blue Shield.”
The QNL/PAC centre is considered one of the prominent laboratories in the region. It is equipped with some of the most modern devices for book paper conservation treatment, including light and suction tables, cutter, hydraulic press, leaf casting machine, drying racks and fume hood for solvent treatment.
The lab will include an area devoted to biological risks in libraries and microscopes for material analyses and identification.
QNL continues to collaborate with prominent institutions around the world such as World Digital Library (WDL) through organising a symposium every year on the preservation of heritage. Such symposiums and meetings provide opportunity for sharing best practices in heritage preservation and benefit QNL, other libraries and information centres in the region.
QNL is home to Heritage Collection, founded in the early 1980s as part of H E Sheikh Hassan bin Mohammed bin Ali Al Thani’s vision to create and make accessible a landmark repository of Qatar and regional history in the heart of Doha.
Heritage Collection is a contribution to Qatar’s cultural landscape.
Its early Arabic printing section contains some of the first Arabic books printed on presses in Shweir (Lebanon), Aleppo, Mosul, Bulaq and Hijaz.
The Peninsula
