Q Life Magazine Q Magazine December 2016 | Page 38

| Issue 1 The British Library Qatar Foundation Partnership In June this year, Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Al Missned met with His Holiness the Pope in Vatican City, where an agreement was signed between the Vatican Library and the Qatar National Library, along with the Qatar Foundation, to digitise the Vatican’s manuscripts relating to the Gulf and other Islamic regions. This is the most recent library digitisation programme that Qatar has undertaken. In January 2013, the British Library and Qatar Foundation entered into a long- term partnership to create an online resource portal documenting the Islamic world, Arab cultural heritage, and the modern history of the Gulf. Described by Oliver Urquhart- Irvine, who leads the partnership, as | The British Library, London 38