Zayed Central Library (ZCL) () is a

national library A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public library, public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, ...

Al Ain Al Ain () is a city in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and the seat of the administrative division of the Al Ain Region. The city is Oman–United Arab Emirates border, bordered to the east by the Omani town of Al-Buraimi. Al A ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. Established in 1977 as one of the

academic libraries An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution, which supports the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are an es ...

of the

United Arab Emirates University United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) () is a public research university located in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. Founded in 1976 by the country's first President, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, it is the oldest university in the United ...

(UAEU), it was opened to the general public in 2016 and hosts a collection of more than 100,000 books for readers of all age groups, making it the largest

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

in the city. It is overseen by the

Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism The Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism () is an agency of the Government of Abu Dhabi established in February 2012 by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu Dhabi, to replace Abu Dhabi' ...

Overview

Zayed Central Library was established in 1977 during the reign of

Sheikh Zayed Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (; 6 May 1918 – 2 November 2004) was an Emirati royal, politician, philanthropist and the founder of the United Arab Emirates. Zayed served as the governor of Al Ain Region, Eastern Region from 1946 un ...

as an

academic library An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution, which supports the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are an es ...

of the

following the latter's inauguration in 1976. Just like other academic libraries, Zayed Central Library adopted the

Dewey Decimal Classification The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) (pronounced ) colloquially known as the Dewey Decimal System, is a proprietary library classification system which allows new books to be added to a library in their appropriate location based on subject. ...

system whereas the cataloging work and the public service was done manually. The university moved to modernize the library in the 1990s by making it University Libraries Deanship and introducing automated integrated systems to fulfill research requirements and converting its holdings into a bilingual database, both in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

. By 2002, the library completed the re-classification of all of its material and resources in accordance with the American Library of Congress. In 2015, the

announced the transformation of the library into a public one by 2016 when President Sheikh Khalifa's declared 2016 as the Year of Reading. Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, the

closed down all public libraries in March 2020, including Zayed Central Library and was only reopened at thirty-percent capacity in November 2020. In 2021, following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in the city, the university hosted the Al Ain Book Fare for nine days between September 21 and 30.

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Al Ain Education in Al Ain Libraries established in 1977 Libraries in the United Arab Emirates 1977 establishments in the United Arab Emirates