About Us
Taking literacy to the next level, Maktaba is a children’s library established in 2015 under Qatari Law 21 of 2006 as a Private Institute for the Public Benefit, where we inspire children and their parents to fall in love with reading, learning and the acquisition of knowledge as a means to achieve their academic, intellectual and creative goals. We believe that every child has the capacity to reach his/her full potential and we design programs to help children develop the skills and the confidence necessary to achieve.
In order to reach a wider community in Qatar, we bring story time, reading and writing activities into the independent (public) and private schools. These programs allow us to promote literacy, help children discover the joy of reading and make reading a part of the daily life of every child. Not only do we help children discover the love of reading, we also work to support avid readers and book enthusiasts through our internship program. University and high school students join the library community helping to deliver daily programs, discovering how libraries work from an administrative standpoint, and engaging with students through our school visits program.
Of course we can’t do this all alone and so we seek out like minded organizations across the public, private and cultural sectors to develop sustainable partnerships that further access to and appreciation for books and the learning opportunities that they present.
Find Us in the Press
What sets Maktaba apart from other libraries is the belief that books and storytelling should be an immersive, fun and learning experience for children. Most afternoons the library arranges story-time sessions for young children in the soft play area where professional story-tellers and authors read stories on numerous topics to an enthralled multi-national audience.
“Maktaba: One Story at a Time”, Marhaba
I think reading is very important. In addition to the well-documented connection to higher test scores and greater academic success overall, reading also helps build important skills like analytical thinking and increased empathy, and expands the vocabulary. It’s also a great way to reaffirm family bonds.
“Towards analytical thinking, increased empathy”, Qatar Tribune
Support Maktaba
Maktaba is a not-for-profit community organization dedicated to serving families in Qatar and as such your contributions are vital to the ongoing success of Maktaba!
There are many ways for you to support the library:
- Become a member and encourage others. Go on, bother them!
- Volunteer some time with us in the library- cataloguing is a blast!
- Collaborate with us on a workshop tailored around your expertise or hobby. Kids and parents will benefit from your passion!
- Encourage your child’s school to organize a field trip to Maktaba. Ask us for details!
- Encourage your company to sponsor Maktaba.
- Share your love of books by spreading the word about Maktaba on social media.