Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the dedicated entity for arts, culture and heritage, has announced a new initiative to support the Dubai Public Library Database with an innovative Dubai Library smart application.

The new application, Al Manhal, is aimed at improving the city’s library services and helping all segments of society to access library books and e-books, said a statement from Dubai Culture.

This high-tech application will enable users to easily sign up, renew or cancel memberships of Dubai Public Library, and reserve books, publications, classrooms and multi-purpose halls, it said.

The application will also allow subscribers to benefit from an extensive collection of e-books within the library’s ‘Al Manhal’ and ‘Gale’ databases, it added.

The pioneering database empowers users to effectively search for information, and enables researchers and professionals to access a wide range of reference books to gain some of the highest quality library content in the world, said a statement.

Additionally, ’Al Manhal’ will provide the ability to search in Arabic for a wide range of periodicals and electronic reports, it added.

Fahad Al Mamari, director of Dubai Public Library, said: “Through the launch of this application, we aim to upgrade the performance of Dubai’s public libraries, in line with the authority’s mandate to support the UAE National Strategy for Reading 2026 and further facilitate the accessibility of knowledge to the public.”

“The new advancement will also support Dubai Public Libraries’ rich portfolio of cultural and educational books through the adoption of the latest technologies and advanced services, which meet the needs of our visitors to reach a vast range of information quickly and effectively,” he added.-TradeArabia News Service