After Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the UAE, marked 2016 the "Year of Reading", it seems that Dubai is hoping to define that ambition in a big way. The emirate’s municipality has announced Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Library. Due to open in 2017, it will be situated in Al Jaddaf in Dubai.
The 66,000 square meter building will include more than one million international dedicated books and a book section for“visitors and tourists, as well as documentaries, presentations, and lectures from all over the world. The library will be built to resemble an open book and will be seven levels high.
The library is also located near several touristic locations in Dubai, as it is close to both Dubai Festival City and the Versace Hotel. Just one in a string of several building projects approved by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, the Ruler of Dubai, the other projects include a park of miniature landmarks and a snail-shaped museum, among others.
Sheikh Mohammed has also been encouraging citizens to tweet using the hashtag #ReadingYear in order to submit suggestions for projects aimed at improving literacy in the UAE. The tweeted ideas will be considered for future projects such as the new library.