The Gulf's largest book collection, Qatar's National Library, has enhanced ties with libraries outside the region and wooed younger readers in its first year, as an anti-Doha boycott drags on.
It has marketed itself as a "noisy" library and features a 120-seat auditorium and a special events area at the heart of the naturally lit space that is reminiscent of a modern airport.
With over one million books and 500,000 digital editions, the library, located in Doha's Education City, is the largest in the Middle East.
Since opening, the institution has also staged more than 1,000 public events, many featuring authors and scholars from Europe and North America -- a symbolic milestone in the face of the regional boycott.
The building is designed to look like folded sheets of paper and employs more than 39 nationalities, has 144,000 members and has loaned more than one million items.
An open-topped subterranean reading room clad in marble holds heritage materials and artifacts related to Qatari and regional history.
