Sheikh Hamdan Opens World’s Largest Arabic Audio Library

Last December 6, His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, officiated the launch of the Dubai Audio Library, the world’s largest Arabic audio library to date.

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The library, which was created to cater to seven million visually impaired individuals in the Arab world, is a project established by the Road and Transport Authority (RTA) in partnership with the website Bookshare.org. The launch of the audio library comes alongside the observance of International Volunteers Day.

 

World’s Largest Arabic Audio Library Inaugurated by Sheikh Hamdan

Present at the launch were Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the RTA; and Abdullah Al Basti, Secretary-General of The Executive Council of Dubai.

Sheikh Hamdan presided the ceremonial uploading of the first book to the Dubai Audio Library, ‘Zayed Diwan.’  The Diwan is a collection of 87 poems composed by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, in memory of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The number of poems gathered corresponds to the age of Sheikh Zayed at the time of his death.

The Library is a volunteering platform with the aim of helping out the seven million visually-impaired citizens in the Arab world. The platform aims to establish a culture of volunteerism in support of the Day for Dubai initiative, which seeks to inspire the community to dedicate at least one day in a year for volunteering causes.

The library serves as a testament to the RTA’s efforts to support People of Determination by promoting a culture of reading among this community, which would help them better integrate into society in this manner.

As part of its goal, the RTA will provide 300,000 books in Arabic. Over 10,000 volunteers have signed up to help convert Arabic books into digital format using OCR scanners and edit them before uploading the materials on the website. Other volunteers can also help proofread the materials prior their upload.

A number of books will touch on themes on positive ideas, confidence building, determination in coping with life’s challenges and difficulties, as well as enhancing one’s creativity and imagination.

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