WAM SHARJAH, 27th April, 2014 (WAM) — Knowledge without Borders, KWB, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with neelwafurat.com, the biggest online Arabic shop for books, to launch an e-library, with the aim of supporting KWB’s efforts to promote reading and offer an opportunity for Emirati families in Sharjah to read online books alongside printed books provided as part of its home libraries project.
The MoU was signed during KWB’s participation in the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival (SCRF 2014), which ended on 25th April.
The agreement was signed at the KWB Stand at the Festival by Rashid Mohammad Al Kous, General Manager of Knowledge without Borders, and Salah Bassam Chebaro, General Manager of neelwafurat.com, in the presence of Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, Director of the Sharjah International Book Fair, and a number of Arab publishers and media representatives.
Speaking on the occasion, Rashid Al Kous said the launch of the e-library is a new approach embraced by KWB to provide an additional way to promote the culture of reading through a valuable collection of Arabic books that have been carefully selected to cover various historical, heritage, scientific, and literary topics as well as popular fiction and books for children.” He stressed that the new approach towards e-books will not be at the expense of paper books, which will continue to enjoy their distinguished status by the Knowledge without Borders, emphasising that Sharjah has always been, and will continue to support publishers in line with the vision of His Highness Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, who is always keen to support books, authors, and publishers, and launch initiatives that support a culture of reading.
Salah Chebaro, General Manager of Neelwafurat.com, said, "The e-library will help deliver the cultural message adopted by KWB in a modern means and to a wider sector of readers." He added, "This step marks the beginning of our collaboration with this important and vital cultural initiative, and we are committed to processing the books as per standards and specifications set by KWB, in order to achieve the maximum level interaction between readers and books." Under the agreement, neelwafurat.com will create a free library of 50 online books to be selected by KWB. The e-library will be available through a free application on smart phones and handheld devices running on Android and Apple’s iOS mobile operating systems.
The e-library will be available to 3,000 families in the first phase of the project. Family members will be able to log into the e-book library through cards that will be given to them. The cards will have a serial number and a private password. Access to the e-library application will be available on a maximum of five different devices for each family. KWB will give each selected family the opportunity to benefit from the e-library’s contents for one full year, as passwords will not be valid after the lapse of this year.
WAM/Esraa/Moran
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