Preserving national heritage is one of the strategic objectives of King Abdulaziz Public Library. Through this mission, the library seeks to enhance access to knowledge, enrich cultural and civilizational content, generate, manage, organize, and publish knowledge resources, preserve and disseminate heritage content, and promote technological advancement and content digitalization.
King Abdulaziz Public Library has strengthened its knowledge archive through the adoption of advanced technologies to accommodate its rich cultural holdings, particularly those related to national memory, creativity, history, and Arab and Islamic heritage. The library has embraced digital transformation and advances in information preservation, acquiring diverse materials including books, documents, rare photographs, maps, coins, rare currencies, and other important resources used by researchers, scholars, historians, and students for academic study and research.
In this context, the library has implemented several digital projects that have expanded its digital channels while applying digital-service quality standards and automating procedures that enhance archiving through various scientific methods. The number of cultural heritage items digitized by the library has reached 63,476.
The library’s heritage collections represent its most significant cultural asset, forming a knowledge system that enables the study of both historical and contemporary civilizational dimensions while preserving the Kingdom’s diverse heritage. The library houses 218,576 holdings, including 128,904 documents, 7,645 manuscripts, 6,318 rare coins and numismatic items, 7,811 photographs, 617 maps, and 34,235 rare books.
The library’s Equestrian Studies Center includes 4,696 materials comprising books, studies, and photographs, while the library’s database contains 28,350 archival and documentary materials, books, rare items, manuscripts, and photographs.
The library has also published extensive collections of specialized books on the history of the Kingdom and the Arab and Islamic worlds, highlighting distinguished aspects of Arab-Islamic civilization, while continuing to advance its knowledge ecosystem in line with Saudi Vision 2030.
The library has evolved into a fully integrated cultural institution dedicated to enriching knowledge content in all its forms. By employing advanced technological systems and diverse information resources, it serves as an effective link enabling researchers and intellectuals to access treasures of Arab and global knowledge while continuing its mission of safeguarding and preserving national heritage for future generations.
Source: Riyadh Daily