All you need to know before heading to Mohammed Bin Rashid Library

Are you curious about the newly opened Mohammed Bin Rashid Library?

Read on to find out all about it.

Like any new place opening in Dubai the excitement is always real! Believe or not a year back we had ventured to see if it was open and landed up at al jadaf metro station.

We were excited to hear its opened and decided to visit on the first day it was open to public and landed up spending half a day.

What you need to do before you get there:

1. Book through the link and choose a time slot.

2. Kids below 5yrs are not allowed ( is such a bummer)

3. Clear up your day coz you might land up spending half a day

4. Carry socks, lots of water and some snacks for kids (cafe in the library has very limited choices)

Recommend going there towards the evening as there is a nice space to ride cycles and a little outdoor playarea. Careem cycles available to rent

Getting there:

It’s pretty easy to get to using google maps. Shaded parking is available.

What to expect?

To be completely mesmerised with books stacked up to the ceiling.

You will asked to provide your booking slot QR code. Once scanned you are allowed to go and explore the whole building. While this is a 7 storey building you only have access to ground, first floor the rest are study rooms, employee offices, conference rooms, special collections library (only people with permission can enter)

Let’s start at the Children’s library:

My kids ran straight tooo…… yes, Pepper the robot. We spent not less than half an hour speaking to her in arabic and english, taking picture, asking questions about the library, storytelling are some of the things she can do.

Next up was a huge squeal “mama, look slides” and that was it one hour of play hoovering from one to the other and back n forth.

We then decided to explore the library and its books. As I looked at the shelves the books were all mixed from arabic to english, age groups, fiction / non fiction was quiet difficult to make sense of with no labelling whatsoever. The gentleman working informed if you are a member you get an ipad to search a book you’re looking for (wasnt working that day). It didn’t make sense to be honest. For us a library is always been about discovering new titles, authors and borrowing them before we decide to add them to our home library. (membership and borrowing books have not been activated)

Just around the corner was a kids hologram that’s an interactive story allowing little ones to truly engage with books. I really loved this as it has some really nice book titles that relate to UAE culture.

After going through different shelves and trying to make sense of the order in front of me I stumbled on dogman, plant vs zombies, and mickey mouse….. that was it ! We each picked our reading nook and spent some time reading. I did spot some books in languages I don’t know. So it’s true when they say they have each book in 30 languages.

I’m absolutely amazed by the reading corners created for kids from cubes, tents, circle reading pods, relaxing chairs, and benched reading pods.  

Washroom outside the Children’s library was locked so we had to spend time to find a female toilet finally found one outside an exit door which was still in the building (confusing I know, just remember when you see a female toilet sign and no door and a fire exit just push that door 🙂 )

After 3 hours we finally got out of the children’s library to explore the various floors.

A book scanner found in each library

Young adult library located on the first floor had a good collection of books like 50 shades of grey? yup, I was thinking the same! As I’ve highlighted before there could definitely be a better order. I went searching for Harry potter and found adult fiction books instead.

Other libraries to explore:

1. Periodicals library

2. General Library

3. Maps and atlases Library

4. Media and arts library

In all honesty, you might find Media and art library interesting. You can find a decent collection of animation books, digital art, architecture both in english and arabic.

If arabic is your first language then Periodical library may be something you would enjoy as it has documents dated from 1950s and in general the proportion of arabic books is 70% and that is the part that I felt wouldn’t be something that all expats could fully enjoy.

We were curious to explore Maps and atlases library imagining seeing a great big globe or a huge atlas instead we found books organized according to countries with limited selection. I did find an intersting book about destinations.

Things to do while at the library:

1. Explore the sea and space Hologram located on the ground floor.

2. Scrolling pages that allows you to choose a story and watch it by manoeuvring it with a rotary button. It’s located on the ground floor near Jadaf waterfront exit.

3. small outdoor play area for kids

Mohammed Bin Rashid Library also has a facility to borrow and browse for books online.

https://www.mbrsg.ae/home/library.aspx

Feel free to drop a comment below if youve visited or plan to visit. I will keep updating this article when I visit next.