In the children's section of The Old Library in Dubai, a mother is reading out loud to her young son, who giggles happily in response. Across the room, a woman has settled into one of the library's armchairs and is reading intently as her son browses through the teen section. A steady stream of people of varying ages and nationalities weave their way through the shelves, searching for their next read.
If, as the doom-mongers say, the age of the book is over and the Kindle is making libraries defunct, there's no evidence of it here. "It just keeps on staggering me how many people we have coming in and joining every day," says Jenny Orford, the library's chairwoman. "You'd think the numbers would be declining because of Kindles and things like that.
"Joining the library is pretty cheap - we charge Dh200 for a year, with a Dh50 registration fee," she adds. "You can take out eight books at a time and keep them for a month. That's cheaper than most electronic books. With things like the Kindle there is still a limit to the range of books available, whereas we probably have a bigger range that is readily available. Also, when it comes to children's picture books, they haven't really come up with a substitute on those electronic devices yet, in the same way. There will probably be an impact eventually but right now, it's not really having an impact at all."
While UAE readers may not be spoilt for choice, they do have a handful of high-quality libraries at their disposal. The Dubai Public Library has eight branches across the city, with an archive of over 430,000 books in various languages. Abu Dhabi's National Library offers nearly two million books, periodicals and manuscripts. There is also a handful of smaller, privately run English-language libraries in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
The Old Library is located on the grounds of the Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre (Ductac) at the Mall of the Emirates and stocks more than 18,000 books. As the name suggests, it is the oldest English-language library in Dubai and is a non-profit organisation staffed entirely by volunteers, meaning that all of its funds are channelled back into buying new books. The library has around 1,900 members but because these are family memberships that are used by multiple individuals, Orford estimates that the number of people actively using the library could be as high as 5,000. This number has increased steadily over recent years, particularly since the library moved to its new location in Ductac.
The nationality mix of members has also become increasingly broad. "A few years ago I would have said that our members were predominantly Westerners, with a large percentage, also, of Indians," says Orford. "Now we have every single nationality. We have quite a few members who join initially because their children are learning English as a second language, so there are people from Eastern European countries, Asia and Africa. In the last couple of years we have had a lot of Emirati nationals joining. Again, a lot of them join because they have children going to schools where they are learning English so it is a way of helping them. But we are also seeing more and more who are reading themselves."
The library's dedicated children's section and extensive collection of teen fiction also lays rest to another myth - that the younger generation isn't interested in reading books. I'm delighted to discover, in each of the libraries that I visit, that the books I enjoyed while I was growing up are still a vailable, and massively popular. In Al Shaheen Library in Abu Dhabi, I come across all the old favourites: Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, Judy Bloom, Tintin and Asterix.
Located in a quiet backstreet off Hamdan and flanked by tailors and electronics shops, Al Shaheen Library is a private enterprise founded by Aisha Lakdawala and is home to a collection that includes 8,000 Mills & Boon novels. "I never liked reading Mills & Boon myself but, due to demand, I had to stock them," says Lakdawala. "Those are our most popular books. What people like is light reading, which offers them an escape from their hectic lives."
Lakdawala, originally from Mumbai, moved to Abu Dhabi in 1989 and discovered a dearth of libraries in the capital. "In Mumbai, we have a library on every corner. I was missing books, and my children also developed an interest in reading as they were growing up, so I used to bring books back with me from India and slowly this turned into a collection. My brother said to me, 'Why don't you start your own library?' and so we started with nearly 600 books. Ten years on, we have nearly 20,000 books."
With 50 per cent of her members hailing from India, Lakdawala now stocks a number of popular Indian magazines, books by Indian authors and Amar Chitra Katha's popular Tinkle collection of comics. Self-help books, romantic novels and general fiction are also popular, she says.
The library currently has 400 members and charges Dh60 for a four-month membership, with weekly reading charges of between 50 fils and Dh1 for children's books and Dh2 for adults. "We try to keep our rates very low because we want everyone to enjoy our services," she explains.
Does that mean that the library is more of a passion than a profit-making enterprise? The cost of renting commercial space in Abu Dhabi, combined with the cost of the books themselves, means that the library will never be a big profit-making exercise, she says, which may go some way in explaining why there are still relatively few private libraries in the capital.
"There are still not enough libraries in Abu Dhabi. People still come here and say, 'Thank god we found this place'. The government libraries have always been there but private libraries are still quite scarce. When I wanted to open, the officials in the government offices would say, 'Why do you want to spend your money on this? Open a boutique or a salon instead'. They were trying to be helpful but I wanted to do this. I already had a day job so it was more like a passion than a business."
The Dubai-based Rashi Panjabi has also indulged her literary passions with the recent launch of Reader's Paradise, an online library with a novel (if you'll excuse the pun) approach. This library offers a free delivery service, so all members have to do is browse through www.readersparadise-me.com, select the books they want and wait for them to be delivered to their door.
Formerly a bricks and mortar library in Sharjah, Reader's Paradise was given its new virtual guise when Panjabi moved to Dubai last year. "We had all these books and we didn't know what to do with them so we thought we'd just create an online library. We wanted to cater to the Dubai market but not lose our clients in Sharjah. It's so hot outside and people live such busy lifestyles that we thought they'd appreciate the delivery aspect. We do free-of-charge delivery twice a week, in Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman. There are certain days dedicated to each area."
Members can choose from three separate monthly packages, Avid Reader, Relaxed Reader and Light Reader, which range in cost from Dh90 to Dh200 and offer varying benefits. The library already offers 10,000 titles and the collection is updated regularly. "We keep our inventory quite fresh and recent, and we have suppliers from the US, UK and India," says Panjabi. "We sometimes get the book just before it hits the bookshops here. We replenish our inventory at least every two to three weeks, so people should keep browsing our website to keep updated on our new stuff."
The response so far has been positive, with 200 new members having joined since the site launched in March. And again, Kindle has proven to be less of a threat than expected. "We did think that Kindles would be a reason that people wouldn't become members but so far, it hasn't really affected us much. For children, I think it will always be better for them to have a physical book to read, so they can see the graphics and all the colours. It's a whole different experience when a child looks through a book."
