Minister visits French National Library, checks out Oman section

PARIS: Dr. Abdul Munim bin Mansour Al Hasani, Minister of Information visited the French National Library, which dates back to the 15th century.

During the visit, which came as part of the Sultanate’s Participation in Paris Book Fair as a special guest, the Information Minister was accompanied by Her Highness Sayyida Dr. Mona bint Fahd Al Said, Assistant Vice- Chancellor for International Cooperation at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), Sheikh Hamad bin Hilal Al Ma’amari, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Heritage and Culture for Cultural Affairs and members of the accompanying delegation.

The minister and the accompanying delegation toured the library’s building, which includes the most specialised collections of books, maps, pictures, manuscripts, coins and medals.

He visited the section dedicated to the Sultanate’s publications as it was agreed to provide the library with a series of Omani publications in a bid to allocate a fixed corner in the library on the occasion of the Sultanate’s participation as a Special Guest in Paris Book Fair.

The library has more than 14 million books, including 5 million books that can be browsed online for free and in all languages. It includes 250,000 manuscripts, 360,000 periodicals, 800,000 maps, 2 million musical pieces, one million audios and tens of thousands of film materials and photographs.

The Oriental manuscripts of the library include rare collections of manuscripts in history, astronomy, marine sciences, some human and philosophical sciences, as well as copies of the Holy Qura’n written in various Islamic eras that has been collected for centuries by French merchants, travellers and diplomats in Arab and Islamic countries.

The library’s building consists of 18 floors including 7 floors for offices and 11 floors for books.