Abu Dhabi, Nov 08th, 2010 (WAM) -- H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, said the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre would be playing an active and constructive role in furthering the inherent traditions fostered by the founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

These traditions stress the value of dialogue and tolerance, which have become key principles in the approach of President H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan - an approach based on love and interaction with the another.

He highlighted that the Mosque is an architectural landmark that the State and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, in particular, is proud of; and the leadership is giving it attention because it represents a foundation upon which to build and develop culture and thought in the United Arab Emirates.

Both locally and globally, the Mosque demonstrates the aesthetics of Islamic architecture and uniqueness of the United Arab Emirates. In opening the library of the Mosque to researchers and the public, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, hails the accomplishment of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre as it represents a significant and important addition to the realms of cultural and scientific knowledge.

During the opening of the library, Sheikh Mansour highlighted that the library has three thousands books written in more than a dozen languages. It also has a number of precious rare books and unique editions that have historical value.

The opening ceremony was attended by Ahmed Juma Al Za'abi, Deputy Minister for Presidential Affairs, Ahmed Mohammed Al Humairi, Secretary General of the Ministry of Presidential Affairs, Mohammed Khalaf Al Mazrouei, the Advisor for Culture and Heritage at the Court of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and the Director General of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH), Dr. Ali bin Tamim, Chairman of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre, Ali Al Hashimi, Judicial and Religious Affairs Advisor at the Ministry of Presidential Affairs and Ishaq Al Anba Bishoy, Pastor of Al Anba Antonio Cathedral Church in Abu Dhabi in addition to a number of senior officials.

Dr. Ali bin Tamim, Chairman of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre, said: "The opening of the Centre's library is aimed to promote science and knowledge. These are the key principles that the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan sought to spread and root in the United Arab Emirates. In addition, the library and its contents have a civil dimension which promotes the values of interaction with others, benefits from global knowledge and promotes the meeting of people and knowledge through the provision of extraordinary sources on Islamic architecture, arts, sciences and knowledge. Within the next ten years the library will have a reputation for the quality of its content on themes of Islamic civilization."Bin Tamim added: "The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre, through the creation of the library, aims to provide various forms of work and organize it in books, periodicals, audio-visual materials, and manuscript in different areas of knowledge. It seeks to acquire intellectual works on Islamic civilization, architecture, arts and sciences, written in many modern languages, documenting all their forms in periodicals, research and specialized and comparative studies. It aims to spread knowledge and develop contemporary culture and interest in Arab and Islamic heritage, while contributing to its revival and renewal. This is in addition to providing quality library services and contributing to the management of events and activities of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre. The library will work on the translation and publication of research in the fields of Islamic and Arabic sciences, so as to achieve a qualitative addition to scientific research in the field of Islamic civilization."Bin Tamim revealed that the library includes primary sources specializing in Islamic architecture, arts and sciences, centred on Islamic civilization as manifested in the perceptions of others. He said: "The librarys contents are growing at a record pace and these collections are available to researchers, specialists, and interested persons. The acquisition of these collections falls within the objectives of the library and its interest in preserving heritage publication in various areas of science and knowledge. The library includes copies of precious Arabic manuscripts, rare books and documents, copies of the holy Quran printed in Europe, during the time period between 1537 and 1857, totalling to 50,679 pictures of the manuscripts, which includes editions that are very rare."Dr Tamim said that the management of the Centre looks forward to the formation of databases and access to sources of information stored on optical disk, as well as building networks of internal information that helps organize the information and its circulation. He said: "In the area of information services, the library will provide information and answers to direct enquiries, or those received via the various communication modes, and will provide services of exceptional quality. It will meet users needs through the establishment of state of the art systems and equipment, compatible with the requirements of scientific research."Talal Al Mazrouei, Director of Events and Cultural Activities, said: "The management of Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre is working on the continuous development of the library collection, feeding its sources of information in various forms", pointing out that "the library will provide places for learning and reading, and will provide information in all its forms, holding books, periodicals, maps, manuscripts, multimedia and electronic resources. Services will be offered in accordance to the needs of library users, students and researchers with extra provision for people with special needs."He also revealed that diverse and rich cultural activities will be held in the library to reflect its role in monitoring the Arab and Islamic heritage and contribute to its revival in line with the requirements of the day and in contribution to serving the community and its development at the cultural level. This will be done through the holding of conferences, seminars, lectures, exhibitions and celebration of religious, national and social holidays. In addition to the display of printed materials the library will arrange the exchange of experiences with specialized institutions and will organize visits, to support its concerns, vision and objectives in the spread of knowledge and culture, while sharing this with counterpart libraries and centers.

"The library is indexing all the books, references and other various information by using the classification system of the Library of Congress, with the cataloguing system rules of Anglo-American (second edition) AACR2. The electronic catalogue of the library, which includes indexes of authors and titles, and addresses the topics, aims to facilitate the task of the researcher to access information quickly and efficiently in all types of library materials that is available," Mazrouei concluded.

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre has signed a contract to buy the Millennium, highly specialized library content software developed in the United States, for use in the library. This system is compatible with the advanced systems used by academic institutions of knowledge and research in the United Arab Emirates. It is considered to be a step towards the realization of the vision of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre for the utilization of modern technologies, which help meet the increasing demands for documents and information in both print and digital form.

Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2010.