SHARJAH – The 13th Sharjah International Library Conference concluded on Monday with a call for libraries to work more closely with schools and local organisations and involve students and other users in shaping their services.
The three-day conference brought together 400 librarians, academics and other specialists from 16 countries. The Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) organised the event in collaboration with the American Library Association at Expo Centre Sharjah from Nov 7 to 9, alongside the 45th Sharjah International Book Fair.
Mansour Al Hassani, the SBA’s director of publishing services, said the future of libraries depended on how well they responded to people’s needs, invested in staff training and built partnerships with educational and community institutions.
Libraries as after-school spaces
Mastura Muhamad, director of Malaysia’s Selangor Public Library Corporation, said libraries could serve their communities by responding to everyday needs. She cited Selangor’s Transit Libraries, which give children a safe place to spend time after school and get help with homework.
Dana Ikhlef, head librarian at Al-Awael Bilingual School in Kuwait, said involving students in initiatives such as Knowledge Week and the Library Ambassadors programme had encouraged more pupils to use the school library.
The conference also examined how technology and data could improve library services. Ahmed Rabia, a librarian at Al Ittihad Private School Jumeirah in Dubai, discussed how schools could use digital platforms and assessment data to match books to students’ reading levels and interests. A separate discussion brought librarians and experts together to exchange ideas on artificial intelligence, digital libraries and information security.
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