2016
April 29: Yas Mall hosts its first Reading Fair to engage children and families of all ages. This is part of its commitment to contribute to the Year of Reading in the UAE.
April 29: Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation announces the expansion of its knowledge initiatives and projects to consolidate its efforts in the dissemination, transfer and localisation of knowledge in the region. The enhanced initiatives are unveiled to mark 2016 as the Year of Reading.
April 24: Books worth Dh2.5 million are allocated to enrich Sharjah’s public, school and university libraries. It will significantly expand the number of titles available to the public and comes in line with 2016 being declared the Year of Reading in the UAE.
April 19: A new environmental library opens to the public at the headquarters of the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment in Dubai. The library opening is in response to the Year of Reading 2016.
March 27: A new Sharjah Museums Department initiative is encouraging local school students to read books this year at its museum libraries. ‘Read at Sharjah Museums’ is a year-long scheme held to mark the UAE leadership’s recent declaration of 2016 as the Year of Reading.
February 17: The Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development is to open an Innovation Oasis by the end of the month as part of more than 80 initiatives approved in response to 2016 as the Year of Reading.
February 16: Knowledge without Borders announces the launch of ‘1,001 Titles’, an initiative which aims to release 1,001 Emirati publications over the next two years, in line with the UAE’s declaration of 2016 as the Year of Reading.
February 1: Dubai unveils plans for a massive seven-storey library which will be the largest cultural and learning centre in the region. Located at Al Jaddaf, the Mohammad Bin Rashid Library to be built at a cost of Dh1 billion will house 4.5 million books. This The Year of Reading will be marked by the launch of this state-of-the-art library.
January 12: A Knowledge Chair initiative featuring mini libraries is launched by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) and Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation. It involves the arrangement of books in circular shelves around a central chair, replicas of which are being placed in five RTA facilities. The project is in line with the 2016 Year of Reading campaign.
January 11: His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announces the start of ‘The UAE Reads’ campaign a day before, which will continue throughout 2016. The slogan of the year 2016 will be ‘The UAE Reads’.
January 6: Du partners with publishing house Kalimat to contribute to the Year of Reading initiative by providing libraries of government schools with 11,900 books this year.
January 2: Abu Dhabi Police announce a campaign to promote reading among inmates at correctional and penal institutions, as part of its contribution to the UAE’s Year of Reading.
2015
December 30: Employees working at the Office of The Crown Prince of Dubai will be entitled to read at work for a maximum of three hours a week, in response to President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan declaring 2016 the year of reading.
December 28: His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, launches hashtag #Year_of_Reading in the UAE, in order to garner people’s ideas and opinions to establish reading as a community habit.
December 5: The UAE declares 2016 as the Year of Reading to create a generation of book lovers and consolidate the country’s position as a global capital for culture and knowledge. Announcing the initiative, President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan says: “Reading is a basic but integral skill for a new generation of scientists, intellectuals, researchers and innovators.”
- Compiled by Gulf News Archives
