LOC15:57
12:57 GMT
KUWAIT, April 29 (KUNA) -- Since the establishment of the Kuwait National Library in April, 1994, it has become a national repository for over two million volumes of books, manuscripts, and other publications.
Looking back at the inception of the library, it is to be noted that it was initially built during the reign of the late Sheikh Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, upon an initiative by a few Kuwaiti intellectuals in 1923.
In 1936, a new building was constructed for the library and was annexed to the Public Education Department. The library was given a new name "The public Information Library" and it played an important role in the life of educated Kuwaitis during the late forties.
In 1954, some intellectuals called for building a new house of books to be in-line with the development of modern Kuwait. A number of public libraries were opened in Kuwait by that time. However this did not distract the attention away from the need to build a central library that is worthy of the growing developments that Kuwait was witnessing in various fields. The onset of the sixties witnessed tangible and significant efforts in this direction.
In 1979, the national library was appended to The National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature, which arranged to renovate the building of Mubarakiyah school ( the first regular school in Kuwait ) so as to be a suitable place for the central library with all the various memories it has for the generations of the Kuwaiti youth who studied within the walls of this esteemed school. Thus the central library moved to its new premises to represent the first bibliography center within the country to be in charge of information exchange services.
The National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters (NCCAL) exerted great efforts to achieve the cultural objective that the state of Kuwait should have its National Library. Thus the concerned authorities called two British experts who presented a study which included some recommendations in this respect and urged the construction of The National Library. The idea of establishing a national library was assumed practical and this project was included within the largest construction projects of the National Council. The location that was chosen was on the Arabian Gulf Road with an area of 23,000 square meters. By 1990 the necessary blueprint of the new building was ready.
The Central Library suffered a heavy blow resulting from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, when it was demolished nearly completely and rare manuscripts, book collections as well as its furniture were looted and carried away to Baghdad. With the help of the UN, however, some of the looted collections were restored back in 1991; but the more important items related to the Kuwait national heritage, including books, manuscripts and printed materials, the archive of audio documents, in addition to most of the valuable collections of periodicals and newspapers were mostly either lost or damaged.
This had vast consequences on postponing the erection of the new building project for many years because the same was related to the priorities of rebuilding the state.
Supported by the Kuwait Government, restoration of the infrastructure of the Central Library by the National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature began during 1994.
The government considered the Central Library as an official department, the aim of which is to be responsible for collecting, organizing books, manuscripts, and documents and protecting all aspects of the Kuwait national heritage, notably that which is related in particular to the culture and public life of Kuwait.
Restoration work which involved restitution of the lost rare book and traditional collections, in fact, required great efforts and money as there was an urgent need to operate the library in a more elaborated technological style of work.
Plans are now under way to computerize all work in the Central Library, substituting the currently used manual mode of work with a modern digitized system, with a view to benefit from the web technological services in building up the required national bibliographical list .
The library's mission, in a nutshell, is to compile, organize, document and protect the national heritage and various kinds of intellectual output.
It also seeks the organization and protection of intellectual materials about Kuwait, and Arab and foreign countries as well as other compilations, documents and similar materials about the cultural heritage of the Arabian Gulf, Arabian peninsula and the Islamic civilization.
Furthermore it strives to work as a national bibliography center as well as to support and facilitate activities of higher education and scientific research. (end)
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