Mission Statement

For the past ninety-six years, Sharjah Public Libraries founded a level of interest in education and knowledge. It has augmented world events' awareness and supported the cultural system through a plethora of services and endless information streams within the society. The main library in the heart of the cultural square in Sharjah and its five branches along the coast of the emirate serve individuals and groups' various needs despite gender, race, ethnicity, age, minority group disadvantages in health, and almost any characteristic.

Sharjah Public Libraries rely on three themes stating its direction:

  • Learning and Information aim to provide knowledge resources in all its forms, ensuring organized preservation and creating easy access to it in a safe and supportive educational environment.
  • Reading and Literacy fight illiteracy in all its forms, developing the skills needed to obtain knowledge through the written word and technology towards lifelong learning.
  • Diversity and Inclusivity provide library services in multiple forms meeting our diverse community's different needs, encouraging sustainability of an educated and participatory community.

The operations orbit around giving a right of access to more six million printed books, e-books, and other electronic resources in more than thirty-one languages, including Arabic and English, in addition to a collection of manuscripts, rare books, and audiobooks. Moreover, free admission to more than three-hundred annual enrichment programs, activities, and initiatives. Group and individual learning and recreation conducted on-location and virtually. Also, all services offered include circulation, reference services, document delivery, acquisition requests, facility reservation, free accessibility of computers and internet, and other exclusive services.


Consolidated Mission Statement

  • We are a governed non-profit, dynamic, versatile community center offering free access to information in any of its various formats to all.
  • We exist to facilitate the progression of an educated and literate population.
  • We facilitate the progression through promoting reading, offering access to information, and anchoring communities.
  • We are driven by the plan of enabling the public library to be an attractive habitat for both knowledge consumers and contributors to share and co-create knowledge works.
  • Our institutional culture of information transfer guides us; we will utilize our greatest resources to serve and provide all opportunities for learning and growth.
  • We are tech-savvy and have treasure troves of knowledge, we will go beyond to serve you.

Vision

We picture Sharjah Public Libraries as an ideal destination for information in any format, knowledge, and learning enrichment; free and accessible to all through its physical and digital space, under which we will continue providing exceptional services towards increasing lagging KPI by 60% by the year 2024.


Values

We Sharjah Public Libraries’ culture is based on a set of core values that define and guide professional practice and reflect the history and continuous development of a modern library.

Access: All information sources that we provide directly or indirectly, regardless of technology, form, or knowledge transfer methods, are readily available, equally, and fairly available to all users.

Diversity: Reflect our appreciation for cultural diversity by providing a full range of resources and services to all the ethnicities and cultures we serve.

Education and Lifelong Learning: Create, strengthen and preserve the learning community, and motivate its members to work together to provide lifelong learning services for all.

Preservation: Support the preservation of information resources published in all media and formats.

Service: Provide the highest level of service to all library patrons to achieve excellence in the profession by preserving and enhancing our knowledge and skills by encouraging coworkers' professional development.

Social Responsibility: All of our practices are environmentally sound, economically feasible, and socially fair.