By Shahad Kamal
KUWAIT, Nov 19 (KUNA) -- Kuwait Book Fair held a symposium Saturday to highlight King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives (Darah)'s role in preserving Saudi, Arab and Muslim heritage and personal libraries in the Saudi Kingdom.
"Darah surveys the country in search for personal libraries, then contacts their owners to offer its services," Ayman Al-Hanehan, a specialist at Darah's Manuscripts Department, said in the symposium.
"Darah also creates a database for the surveyed libraries and draws maps for their sites." He pointed out that the database includes important information such as the owner of the library, its address, administrator, the number and types of books, manuscripts and other materials and the condition of the contents.
Then, Darah staff sterilizes, restores, catalogs, binds, renovates the available materials through King Salman bin Abdulaziz Restoration Center (Tarmeem), he stated.
He clarified that Darah also seeks to collect materials of historic significance through direct purchase from their owners, endowment or gifting.
The aim of this collection is to better protect and preserve these materials from damage, he noted.
Al-Hanehan touched upon the history of libraries in the Saudi Kingdom and the efforts exerted by Darah in collecting, renovating, digitalizing, and preserving historical manuscripts and books.
King Abdul Aziz Foundation (Darah) was established by a Royal Decree in 1972. It aims to serve the history, geography literature and heritage of Saudi Arabia as well as of other Arab and Islamic countries in general.
Darah's Manuscripts Center has a valuable collection of local and original manuscripts, as well as a large number of manuscripts about the history of the Arabian Peninsula. The Center aims at sterilizing, restoring, cataloging, binding and keeping manuscripts available for researchers.
The total number of pictorial manuscripts related to the Arabian Peninsula's history exceeds 2,000 pictorial manuscripts of several places around the world. (end) shd.ibi