UAE’s House of Wisdom Shortlisted for ‘Library of the Year’
The London Book Fair (LBF) will be taking place from 5-7 April, 2022, at Olympia London. The annually-held book fair, a global market for story creators, will reunite the publishing community for three days of learning, networking, and business.
LBF has announced the shortlists for the International Excellence Awards 2022 in eight categories, with 17 countries represented from four continents. In recognition of the most important achievements in the field of publishing, championed by organizations and individuals from around the world demonstrating their passion, creativity, and ingenuity, UAE’s House of Wisdom, the innovative cultural project and the new model for libraries of the future, was shortlisted for the coveted title of ‘Library of the Year,’ vying with two others – Croatia’s Fran Galovic Koprivnica Public Library and South Africa’s City of Johannesburg.
The House of Wisdom, which opened on 9 December, 2020, is an iconic library and cultural centre developed by the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq), after the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated Sharjah as the World Book Capital 2019. It aims to enhance cultural mobility in the emirate and the region, with a huge collection of printed and digital books, covering various fields of knowledge in more than 12 languages.
Located ten kilometres from the city centre on the Sharjah International Airport Road, the library and cultural centre offers students, researchers, and bibliophiles from all over the world a wide range of scientific and literary resources, including 52,000 videos and 26,000 electronic journals, in addition to printed reference materials.
Designed by award-winning British architectural, design, and engineering firm Foster + Partners, the 12,000 square-metre, two-storey ‘knowledge hub’ also includes exhibition spaces, fabrication lab, world-class equipment, specialized digital application to facilitate navigating through books, print-on-demand book stations, discussion halls, indoor and outdoor reading areas, meeting pods, children’s education space, café, prayer room, women-only area, etc., all designed to stimulate innovation and creativity.
Winners of this year’s International Excellence Awards, now in its ninth year, will be announced during the book fair.
