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From terrarium making to live painting: Children celebrate as Dubai's Mohammed Bin Rashid Library completes one year

The library welcomed over half a million visitors in the first year

Published: Sun 18 Jun 2023, 6:05 AM

Updated: Sun 18 Jun 2023, 4:02 PM

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The library is not a place to be serious and quiet. Instead, it’s a place to discover cool new things, do fun activities and hang out with friends and cousins. That’s what the youngsters who attended the first-year anniversary of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Library (MBRL) in Al Jaddaf would say.

On Saturday, the lectern-shaped library celebrated one year of its operations with a wide variety of activities and workshops that were free for all. From terrarium making to live painting, there were plenty for visitors to choose from. The library welcomed over half a million visitors in the first year.

Five-year-old Rashid Al Abdouli and his cousin Khalid tried their hands at restoring old documents. They assisted as the technicians demonstrated how to carefully apply glue and then paste paper over torn and worn old fragments of written paper from books. “It was fun,” said Rashid. “I enjoyed trying to restore the document.”

The boys had come to the library with several of their cousins to enjoy their weekend. Six-year-old Maryam Omar Al Marri and Jawaher Al Thuaniji who came with them enjoyed a life-sized game of chess while the boys checked out the restoration process.

“Today, as we celebrate our first anniversary, we are proud of our achievements and their constructive role in promoting cultural awareness and knowledge,” said Mohammad Ahmad Al Murr, Chairman of MBRL Foundation. “We aspire to make MBRL a leading cultural hub and a unique model for the next generation of libraries.”

Promise to come back

Little Adeena and Inayah visited the library for the first time with their family. “They love the library and have made me promise that I will bring them back at least 10 times over the summer,” said their mother, Asra. “We just looked around at all the libraries and the kids were impressed with the collection of books. Prior to that, the family posed for a photograph at one of the activity corners.

“All the activities were so much fun,” said Adeena. “We loved it here. We also went outside the library near the water and walked around a bit. I am definitely coming back here. It is so nice”

During its opening last year, MBRL staff had said that they did not want to enforce a strict silence rule at the library, especially on the ground floor. The area was meant to be lively and play host to several activities.

Favourite place

For Xiaowei and her 8-year-old daughter Xiaoyu, MBRL is one of their favorite places in the city. The family moved to Dubai earlier this year and are bracing for their first summer in the country. “Ever since we came, the MBRL is one of our favourite places,” said Xiaowei. “We spend a lot of time here.”

Xiaoyu said that she loved how big the library was and how she would always find new books to read. “There is always something new or something I hadn’t come across before every time I come,” she said. “Now I am just waiting for when the library will let me take books home.” She later posed for a live drawing session as part of the anniversary celebrations.

In the span of a year, MBRL made several accomplishments that contributed to promoting cultural awareness and supporting knowledge-sharing, including the addition of nearly 120,000 books.

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