Dubai Municipality launches e-library, public to get access soon

Hussein Nasser Lootah and other officials during the launch of e-library.

The Dubai Municipality has launched an e-library as part of the government's 'Year of Reading' initiative.
According to an official, the library is likely to be accessible for the public when the municipality opens the security gate and link it to its website, which is expected by next month.
It is currently accessible to the municipality employees through its intranet service.
Speaking to Khaleej Times, Fatma Hashim Al Sadah, principal web designer at the department, who was instrumental in setting up the e-library, said some content will still remain free for downloading.
"There are some 170 resources currently available in the e-library, which will expand in due course of time. They include magazines, journals, books, online training videos and hyperlinks, references, specialised magazines and summaries of books from various sources. We also have link to the online libraries and free links to e-magazine websites."
Prepared by the Department of Knowledge and Innovation at the municipality, the e-library is said to be the first of its kind public electronic resource primarily aimed at professional growth.
However, the Director General of Dubai Municipality Hussain Nasser Lootah, while launching the Dubai e-library, instructed that the library's contents be accessible not only to the municipality staff, but to all people as well.
The Dubai Municipality will be working this year on fulfilling the orders of the President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and His Highness Shaikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, that the year 2016 will be the Year of Reading to make reading a social habit and create an everlasting culture among employees of the Department, Lootah said.
"The initiative unveiled by the president is a new stride of the country's progress towards boosting the culture of knowledge, learning and acquainting with the world cultures in the spirits of UAE citizens and expat residents," Lootah said.
Shaikh Mohammed had earlier launched the Arab Reading Challenge, the grandest Arabic project, the aim of which is to encourage and prompt students to read, he added.
Lootah directed the officials concerned that the tab redirecting to the Dubai e-library be put in a prominently visible place on top of the municipality's website so as make it visible to all. This is aimed at helping the public to make the maximum use of the library's contents while browsing the municipality's website.
To maintain the intellectual property rights of authors and innovators, Lootah instructed that customers, who frequent the Dubai municipality, to browse the website of the Dubai e-library and read its contents without allowing them to download any cultural, literary, or innovative material that belong to the library.
sajila@khaleejtimes.com