The National Library: Twelve Halls, and a Theatre Seating Two Hundred and Ninety

The National Library of Kuwait is not one large room but twelve halls, each with its own public. Anyone entering for the first time assumes it is for researchers alone; in fact there is a hall for children, a second for young people, and a third for people with special needs.

The halls

• The general halls.
• The Kuwaituna hall.
• The private collections hall.
• The children’s hall, and the young people’s hall.
• The hall for people with special needs.
• The audio and visual materials hall.
• The government and United Nations publications hall.
• The periodicals hall.
• The hall for publications of the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters.
• The master’s and doctoral theses hall.
• The Arab heritage hall.

What the reader gets

Reference services and searching of information sources through the electronic catalogue, searching the databases the library subscribes to each year, and support services for researchers and students such as photocopying and scanning.

And a door of its own for authors

The library is the body for legal deposit, protecting authors’ rights and neighbouring rights. It is also the only official agent in Kuwait for issuing the International Standard Book Number.

A theatre and two training halls

The building holds a theatre and two halls fitted with audio-visual equipment, bookable for courses, conferences, workshops and exhibitions, provided the event is free of charge and non-profit, whether organised by the library itself or by an official, private or voluntary body.

• The theatre seats two hundred and ninety.
• The large lecture hall seats eighty.
• The small lecture hall seats twenty-five.

How to book

An official letter is submitted to the library’s director general setting out the type of event, the number of people, speakers and guests, the timings and contact numbers. It goes by email, by fax on 22415195, or in person at the building during morning hours only.

The request is put to the director general for a decision. Where the conditions do not apply, or a booking already exists, an official letter of apology is sent with the reasons.

The theatre carries a deposit of one thousand dinars, paid before the event and returned afterwards if the theatre is handed back undamaged.

Photo: rows of tables and lamps in a reading hall. By Dr. Marcus Gossler, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: the National Library of Kuwait, the “library halls” and “services” pages.