Culture & Education | Thursday 20 December, 2018 3:13 am |

The department of Public Libraries at Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the Emirate’s dedicated entity for culture, arts, heritage, and literature, announced that its winter camp for this year will commence on 15 December. The camp will be take place until the 27th in Al Twar and Al Mankhool libraries from 3:30 – 7pm.

The programme targets children from the ages of 6 – 12 and will include specialised and innovative training courses that focus on technological development, the modern trends of artificial intelligence and future prospects, creativity, and innovation.

Dr Hissa bin Masood, Director of Dubai Public Library, said: “We are pleased to announce the launch of the winter camp this year in conjunction with the first semester vacation. As we strive to provide a fun and enjoyable environment for our children, these activities will help us attract and explore talented literary and artistic talents to help them continuously develop their skills by optimising their school vacation through engaging in a variety of activities in a safe and appropriate age-appropriate environment.”

During the camp, supervisors will hold various technical and scientific workshops as well as reading and storytelling activities. These activities are meant to encourage children to adopt reading as a continuous habit in their daily lives, in addition to developing their scientific research, public speaking, writing and reading skills, the latter being associated with libraries to encourage the children to visit and become members to keep track of the various activities that are held throughout the year.

Dr Hissa bin Masood concluded by saying: “Dubai Public Libraries launches many programmes,most prominently the summer camp, throughout the year, seeking to uncover talented individuals. We at Dubai Culture are proud of the societal role played by our libraries that have become knowledge, education, and entertainment destinations, strengthening the relationship between the library and the student through effective and constructive communication with parents to improve the abilities of their children.”

The Dubai Public Library network includes eight libraries for adults and another seven for children. Some branches feature multi-purpose halls, classrooms, and exhibition spaces, and all branches of the Dubai Public Library are connected via computer systems. This has established close links with other modern libraries, providing access to vast sources of information on a diversity of topics in both Arabic and English.