Over a half-century since opening its doors to the public, the capital’s oldest library is now overlooked by most residents, according to citizens and library staff, and is struggling to find its role in the digital age.
With a new modernisation plan designed to win back Amman residents, library curators hope to revive the library’s glory days and open a new chapter in its position in the capital.
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Samiha Khreis, editor-in-chief of Hatem magazine, claimed that the Kingdom has never been home to a large reading culture, adding that modern distractions have taken the small portion of regular readers who would normally come to the library.
All agreed that the library struggles to attract the younger generation, which largely views libraries as “antiquated”, museums of the life and time of their parents and grandparents rather than a gateway to knowledge.
Jordan: "Amman Library Looks to Open New Chapter in Storied History"
Filed by on February 15, 2011
About Gary PriceGary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.
