While the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) Library prides itself on being a specialist library for Islamic Art, it has a lot to offer over and above that along with an extremely serene view to boot.
With upwards of 15,000 books, this collection on Islamic Art is one of the largest in the region. Awash by a flood of natural light and perched above the expansive blue of the Arabian Sea, the Library musters the finest visual ambience one could imagine a reading room to have. And the free Wi-Fi, if used judiciously, would only serve to enhance a wholesome library experience.
Open Sunday, Monday and Wednesday, from 10.30am to 8pm; Thursday and Saturday, from 12pm to 8pm — it is closed on Tuesday and Friday — the Library features specialist books and monographs on Islamic art, art reference books, museum collection and exhibition catalogues, and scholarly periodicals on art including auction catalogues. Now, in the four years since it opened in the summer of 2012, the Library has evolved to become a community centre and a place for children and tourists to come by, apart from researchers and students.
Susan Parker-Leavy, the Head of MIA Library, told Community, “The MIA Library is the largest Islamic Art Library in the region. It is a unique and special place because it serves such a diverse group of visitors; scholars, tourists, children, researchers. It is certainly both a library and a community centre. Our library is one of the best places to come to do research about the objects on display at the Museum, or generally to know about Islamic Art, the medium, material, techniques, etc. We have PCs, free Wi-Fi, coffee set-ups during evening, and even outdoor seating in the central courtyard.”
Apart from ready-to-assist librarians and study rooms, there are facilities such as the free use of copier/scanner, which only makes matters easy. In its more than 15,000 books, the staggering range encompasses books, journals, auction and exhibition catalogues, rare books, scholarly periodicals, manuscripts, specialist books, monographs, and even online databases relating to Islamic Art.
“The books are shelved using the Library of Congress subject classification so that the subjects are grouped together,” Susan said. Some of the subjects covered are museum studies, social studies, religion, philosophy, Islamic art, architecture, sculpture, painting, literature, science, medicine, jewellery, gardens, carpets, ceramics, glass, metalwork, calligraphy, and so on.
Among the many goldmines of knowledge steeped in the neatly aligned racks, some highlights are the original volumes of Creswell’s Early Muslim Architecture — very popular with students of Islamic Architecture — and 23 rare Arabic manuscripts that are as special as they are fragile.
To further explore the information riches of this collection, you can use MIA’s Library Catalogue, called the OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue), to locate the materials you need for your studies or knowledge. The OPAC is available at dedicated PCs in the Library, and you can find it online at http://ecatalogue.qma.com.qa
Moreover, many of the Library’s varied collection of 2,000 rare books in English and Arabic that are unavailable anywhere else in the region, have been digitised and can be viewed via the Library catalogue. However, an application to study rare books and manuscripts must be approved 24 hours in advance.
Once inside the world of Catalogue, several Online Resources, or Databases, are available through the link to the Knowledge Portal which you can find at the top right of the navigation bar. To access these terrific online databases, you need to be in the MIA Library: JSTOR, a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources; Oxford Islamic Studies Online encompassing over 5,000 A–Z reference entries, chapters from scholarly and introductory works, Qur’anic materials, primary sources, images, maps, and timelines; and Oxford Art online — the access point for Grove Art Online (art encyclopaedia), the Benezit Dictionary of Artists (Biographies), and other Oxford art reference resources.
Additionally, be it the Majlis Book Club — a monthly meeting to discuss a chosen book in English and Arabic; the Instagram Club — a monthly meet-up group for Instagram users who want to share their Instagram experiences of the Museum; the MIA Collectors Club — here people gather to discuss their personal collection of Islamic Art; or Story Time for Kids — where kids of ages 3-5 are invited to be part of interactive story-telling sessions; engaging the community through a series of programmes has been a major objective of the MIA Library.