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The Qatar National Library plays a vital part in the country’s goal of diversifying away from oil and gas to become a knowledge-based economy. It’s a treasure trove of information - from the region’s culture and history to cutting-edge digitisation technology. But it also acts as a regional centre of expertise, both in restoration techniques and the fight against the trafficking of stolen documents.
An awe-inspiring building
The Qatar National Library doesn't look like a traditional old-fashioned library. Its purpose-built design is layered in symbolism.
"The awe in visitors' eyes as they step in, as their eye scans the whole building, it’s really pleasing to see," says Hind Al Khulaifi, Director of Strategic Planning and Projects. "Once you come in, your eyes can actually see most of the sections of the library.
"It was designed to have the tiers elevated, and to give a sense that with reading, with learning, your soul can be elevated, your consciousness can be elevated. The beauty of this building is it’s fully illuminated by natural light, also another symbolism for the elevation of the soul through light, through learning."
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Al Khulaifi believes modern libraries should also serve as community hubs. Of course, you’ll find books – plenty of them in fact. But you’ll also find study spaces, innovation stations and sensory rooms.
With learning your soul can be elevated... We want people to inquire, we want people to investigate, we want people to discover and increase their curiosity. Hind Al Khulaifi
Director of Strategic Planning and Projects, Qatar National Library
"We want people to inquire," she says. "We want people to investigate, we want people to discover and increase their curiosity through having access to such an abundant amount of resources across different subjects."
The Qatar National Library aims to create an open space for learning. So while someone may, for example, be drawn to the library’s Innovation Station to pick up an instrument or even record a podcast, the hope is that they will also be inspired to pick up a book and learn more about the theory behind it.
The Heritage Library
Designed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, Qatar National Library opened its doors in 2018. At the heart of the QNL, you’ll find the Heritage library. It resembles an archaeological site and is home to maps, manuscripts and photos documenting the region’s rich history.
"The exhibition is focused not only on Arab history," says Tour & Exhibition Officer Ikhlas Ahmed. "It's focused on Islamic history, in general, Islamic civilization. How for example the manuscripts travelled from area to area until the people started to exchange their knowledge."
That knowledge transfer is symbolic of the concept of the national library. As Qatar moves from an oil-based to a knowledge-based economy, the QNL provides a platform to share knowledge both physically and digitally.
"It's very important to read about the region from the other perspective, the travellers’ record," says Ahmed. "Because they were the pioneers I would say, since the 15th, since the 16th century. They came to the region with different purposes. With their diaries, we can read the past of that time."
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The library has one of the earliest references to Napoleon Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt in the 18th and 19th centuries.
"It's considered the first illustration of Egypt at that time," says Ahmed. "Because many scientists, many historians, many scholars documented every part during that expedition. It’s one of the important primary resources to see how life was over there, from different perspectives."
The heritage library is also home to the first printed map, dating back to the 15th century, that ever mentions modern-day Qatar - identified in Latin as Catara, with a C.
Digitising the collection
The next step is to digitise those ancient materials, to preserve them for generations to come. The library’s digitisation specialists can convert 2,000 to 2,500 pages per day. Hany A Elsawy Abdellatifi is Head of Digitisation Services at Qatar National Library.
"We started in 2015," he says. "Until now we reached more than 14 million pages between books, manuscripts, periodicals, posters, maps, photographs and much more. We’re focusing on the language of Arabic. So, we’re trying just to enrich the content of Arabic and to enable it online for researchers, educators and even simple users. So, anyone, from anywhere, anytime can access the collection."
And while heritage works may sound like niche material, that’s not necessarily the case. In 2021, the library says more than 2.5 million people used its electronic resources.
"I think it clearly proves that heritage material, when it is put online and is freely accessible to everyone, as we do, really has a lot of potential," says Marcin Werla, Director of Digital Content & Engagement at Qatar National Library. "It’s something that’s of interest to a lot of people. Not only specifically from the country but really, from the region, from the whole world. We get online visitors from the whole world."
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"Aside from digitising our own collection," says Tan Huism, Executive Director at Qatar National Library. "We’re also working with different partnerships, for example, our partnership with the British Library to digitise materials about the Gulf in their archives for the world to see and be made accessible to everyone. So, that’s a very important part of our role as being the guardian for the region and Qatar’s documentary heritage."
Preserving the country’s rich heritage, in an ultra-modern library, one book at a time.
Preservation and conservation department
QNL is home to more than one million books. Readers can choose to relax anywhere in the 42,000 square-metre seating area. And while it has all the things you might expect from a library, including a café, children’s section and restaurant, what perhaps makes it most unique is the preservation and conservation department.
Compared with all other Arab countries, we definitely have the best-developed centre for heritage conservation, restoration and protection. Stephane Ipert
Director of Distinctive Collections, Qatar National Library
The IFLA Preservation and Conservation Regional Center, or PAC, is beyond the section of the library that’s open to the public, down in the basement. Its mandate is simple: help protect books and manuscripts from across the Arab region.
"There are millions of Arabic and Islamic manuscripts in the region, and there's not the means to preserve and conserve all of them," says Stephane Ipert, Director of Distinctive Collections at Qatar National Library. "So, we can't be stand-ins for everyone and save all the heritage, but we can train people. So, here we have a technical assistance department where we provide training, technical advice, and we also host people here for training, on all issues concerning conservation and preservation, whether it be manuscripts, newspapers, maps… In this way, we can provide what we call ‘capacity building’ to help people improve and take better care of their collections."
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Conservation Technologist Fareed AlShishani specialises in inorganic materials. His role at QNL is all about the prevention of damage, conservation, and risk management. Fareed and other members of the team look after all the items in the Heritage library, as well as books, maps and manuscripts. It’s a varied job – for example going as far as assessing the metals in an astrolabe.
"We have a system for monitoring temperature and humidity that works remotely connected by Wi-Fi," he says. "So, just looking at the computer, I can check the temperature and humidity in storage areas and in the exhibition. And also if we have objects on loan, this system allows us to connect to any Wi-Fi in the world and we monitor it remotely from our computers and actually our smartphones."
In 2022, QNL opened the first mass deacidification plant in the region. Books or newspapers produced after the 1850s have more issues than older manuscripts – as the materials or wood pulp used are more likely to be acidic.
"This deacidification plant is a system that uses a material called magnesium oxide that is suspended in a solution," explains AlShishani. "The thing that makes the system special is that it treats in mass so we don't treat just one item or, or like ten items. We can treat up to like 50 items per day. And then when we finish the treatment, we put them in the dryers, and that takes all the liquid that was used, and that is remaining in the materials. It takes it back and puts it back in the system so it recycles the material somehow. And so, it's cost-effective, environmentally friendly."
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Tackling Smuggling
The PAC Center’s mandate of book protection extends beyond conservation. Experts here are focused on training and tackling a widespread and growing problem: smuggling.
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The trafficking of historical records and other archive materials has been rising in the MENA region due to the number of countries experiencing conflict and upheaval.
But books and literature are much less likely to be protected by national legislation than other artefacts. That’s why the PAC Centre training sessions on the laws surrounding smuggling and looting are so important.
"We financed the travel of Yemeni experts to come here and participate with us in training," says Ipert. "To have them meet with international experts, the police, customs officers… who may be can't get to Yemen very easily at the moment. We explain procedures to them and the legal framework, because you have to understand the legal framework to be able to better tackle trafficking. We explain the restitution process to them. And we have developed here with the Qatar Foundation's other IT departments a unit which automatically monitors social networks day and night to try to identify posts that might be linked to trafficking. So, every morning, our experts get lists of posts and by checking a sale against library databases they see whether it's legitimate or whether it could be related to smuggling. So, it's a lot of work, but it's really important to keep the legacy of the Islamic world alive."
Criminals are coming up with increasingly ingenious ways of smuggling and using technology to help them do so.
"Manuscripts are quite small compared to archaeological artefacts," he says. "So, in practical terms, they travel even more easily, they're easy to export and then sell on the European markets. So, over the past three years, we've developed in cooperation with Interpol, with the international customs union and with other experts a program to fight very specifically against the trafficking of Islamic manuscripts. So, we have a team here that monitors sales: at auction, but also sales on social networks, because there's an important change now where people are doing this kind of traffic more and more on the Dark Web and on social networks. It's less easy to control by the police. So, we're monitoring all these activities."
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Whether it’s the modern techniques used to safeguard the library’s personal collection, or the training and workshops being run to prevent the smuggling of priceless manuscripts across the entire region, it’s clear that preservation and conservation are two very important aims of the PAC Center and the whole of the Qatar National Library.
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A strong earthquake, with a preliminary magnitude of 5.9, struck off the southeastern Greek island of Rhodes on Wednesday, according to the Athens Geodynamic Institute.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
The quake was also felt in the nearby Turkish provinces of Mugla, Izmir and Antalya, with Turkey's AFAD emergency management agency saying it had a preliminary magnitude of 5.4.
It is common for different seismological institutes to record variations in magnitude in the initial hours and days after a quake.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries in Turkey either, although the earthquake caused panic in Mugla province, HaberTurk television said, with residents rushing out of buildings.
The undersea quake struck at 14:37 Greek time and had an epicenter nearly 400 kilometres southeast of Athens and 58 kilometres southeast of the Rhodes town of Lindos, the Athens Geodynamic Institute said.
Greece and Turkey lie in a highly seismically active region and experience hundreds of earthquakes each year.
The vast majority cause no injuries or damage.
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Europe's top human rights court ruled Wednesday that it can adjudicate on cases brought by the Netherlands and Ukraine against Russia for alleged rights violations in eastern Ukraine in 2014, including the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
The ruling by the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights marks significant progress in efforts by the Netherlands and Ukraine to hold Russia legally accountable for its actions in Ukraine and could pave the way for compensation orders. The court said a judgment on the merits of the cases will follow at a later date.
The cases were filed before Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly a year ago.
“Very good news: the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights is another important step in finding the truth and justice for the victims and their relatives of flight #MH17,” Dutch Justice Minister Dilan Yesilg？z-Zegerius said in a tweet.
Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra also welcomed the ruling as a significant milestone in the search for accountability.
“We will continue to do everything in our power to achieve justice for all 298 victims of flight #MH17 and their loved ones,” he tweeted.
What's the background to this case?
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile, fired by Moscow-backed separatists.
All 298 people, most of whom were Dutch, died in the crash.
Russia has denied responsibility for the disaster, though the Dutch government claims it played a key role.
The case may result in Russia being obliged to pay damages to victims' families, but Moscow is unlikely to accept this verdict and be forthcoming with support.
Russia was among the 47 countries to sign up to the ECHR, which is designed to protect human rights and basic freedoms in Europe, but left in September last year due to tensions with the West over Ukraine.
The ECHR cannot overrule national governments.
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The Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in July 2014 when it was shot down, amid fighting between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine.
In the days and weeks after the crash, the separatists and their Russian backers denied culpability while offering a string of shifting explanations.
Russia later vetoed a UN resolution to create a tribunal that would have assigned blame for the incident. But video evidence surfaced that purported to show rebels combing through the still-smoking wreckage, seemingly dismayed at finding a civilian aircraft.
Immediately after the crash, the Ukrainian government produced intercepted audio transmissions in which alleged pro-Russian separatists talked of having shot down a plane.
For Malaysia Airlines it was the second disaster of 2014, following the disappearance of flight 370 in March.
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FILE - People inspect the crash site of a passenger plane near the village of Hrabove, Russian-controlled Donetsk region of Ukraine on Thursday, July 17, 2014. Dmitry Lovetsky/AP
At the ECHR, the Netherlands argued that Moscow played a central role in the aviation disaster, trying to prove that Moscow had "effective control" over the area of Ukraine where the missiles were fired from.
Last year, a Dutch court found two Russians and a Ukrainian guilty of murder or their part in the downing of MH17, sentencing them to life in prison.
They were tried in absentia.
All are thought to be in Russia, which is highly unlikely to hand over the men, deeming the verdict a politically motivated attack.
The court said evidence presented at a hearing last year established that from 11 May 2014, areas in eastern Ukraine controlled by separatist rebels were “under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation” and that Moscow “had a significant influence on the separatists’ military strategy” including providing weapons, carrying out artillery attacks requested by the rebels and giving them political and economic support.
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The court said there was enough evidence to establish the admissibility of most of Ukraine's claims of rights violations and a linked case about the downing of MH17 filed by the Netherlands. It said a small number of allegations were not admissible.
The Strasbourg court is an important part of the Council of Europe, which is the continent’s foremost human rights institution. Russia was expelled from the council last year in an unprecedented move over Moscow’s invasion and war in Ukraine. However, the court can still deal with cases against Russia dating from before its expulsion.
FILE - In this Sunday, July 20, 2014 file photo Ukrainian Emergency workers carry a victim's body in a body bag as pro-Russian fighters stand guard at the crash site of Malays Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
The cases in Strasbourg are separate from a criminal prosecution in the Netherlands in which two Russians and a Ukrainian rebel were convicted in absentia in November of multiple murders for their roles in the downing of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. All 298 passengers and crew were killed when the Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down over eastern Ukraine.
In its case at the human rights court, the Netherlands argues that Moscow played a key role in the downing of flight MH17 and argues that Russia's failure to investigate and lack of cooperation with Dutch prosecutors, along with its denials of involvement, have compounded the suffering of friends and relatives of those killed.
Dutch prosecutors say the missile system that downed MH17 was trucked into Ukraine from a military base in Russia and returned there after the shootdown.
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Ukraine filed cases against Moscow alleging numerous violations of the European Convention on Human Rights, including “unlawful military attacks against civilians which caused many fatalities, including the shooting down of flight MH17, and the summary execution and beating to death of civilians” and soldiers no longer taking part in hostilities. It also accused Russia of abducting 85 Ukrainian children.
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Among the reasons given by the ECHR for declaring the appeals admissable was the fact that the Strasbourg judged ruled "that the areas of eastern Ukraine in the hands of the separatists were, from 11 May 2014 and at least until 26 January 2022, under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation".
In its ruling on admissibility, the ECHR made also referred to the presence in eastern Ukraine of Russian military personnel since April 2014 and the large-scale deployment of Russian troops on August 2014 at the latest.
The judges then pointed out that Moscow "had a significant influence on the military strategy of the separatists, to whom had supplied weapons and other military equipment on a significant scale from the early days, and that finally at their had carried out artillery attacks at their request".
The ECHR will now have to proceed to examine the merits of the appeals to decide whether Moscow should be condemned for the violations of which it is accused.
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