President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian visited Qatar National Library during his official trip to the State of Qatar.

During the visit, an agreement was reached to study opportunities of cooperation with Matenadaran, the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts.

“We have agreed, and I will organize this upon my arrival, to send a number of books here,” President Sarkissian said.

The library has a three-fold function: as a national library, a research-level university library, and a central metropolitan public library equipped for the digital age. It has a great variety of books and e-materials in Arabic, English and other languages as well as audiobooks, DVD and CD materials.

According to the 2018 data, the library has a collection of more than 800,000 books and more than 500,000 eBooks, periodicals and newspapers, and special collections. QNL houses the collections of the Heritage Library which includes rare books, manuscripts and other materials related to the Arab-Islamic civilization. Historical sources about Qatar and the region, manuscripts by travelers and explorers who visited the region are kept here. Most of the materials has have been digitized and are accessible to registered in online catalog.

President Sarkissian also touched upon his meeting with Sheikha Moza bint Nasser.

“Sheikha Moza is a modern woman who has a vision for the development of her own country and the entire mankind. Together with Sheikha we reached an interesting agreement to set up a working group to study possible cooperation opportunities, including student exchanges, research work and so on,” he said.