King Abdulaziz Public Library

King Abdulaziz Public Library is a charitable organization dedicated to books and their beneficiaries. It was founded by King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (when he was Crown Prince) in 1985 and inaugurated on February 27, 1988.

The legal architecture of the library was completed after the issuance of a Royal Decree on June 20, 1996, establishing a charity named 'King Abdulaziz Public Library' to provide knowledge resources and serve researchers and scholars.

The library houses a wide range of topics, with a particular focus on the history of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the legacy of the Founding King Abdulaziz Bin Abdulrahman Al Saud. The library also monitors the Islamic and Arab heritage, aiming to present it in a manner that meets contemporary demands. Additionally, the library holds studies related to the Saudi heritage, Arabic literature, equine and equestrian studies, and library and information studies.

The library offers activities that contribute to serving the community, including organizing lectures and seminars, and participating in national, religious, and social events. Additionally, it supports scientific research, writing, translation, and publishing, alongside providing information services for women and developing children's culture.

The library has implemented multiple projects, such as the Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Award for Cultural Cooperation between the Kingdom and China, the Arab Digital Library, the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Translation Award, the Kingdom Encyclopedia, the Arabic Union Catalogue, the Arab-Chinese Digital Library, the Children's Book Club, and the National Cultural Reading Project.

The headquarters of King Abdulaziz Public Library is based in Riyadh City and includes, as well as its branch in al-Murabba, a women's library and a library dedicated to children. The library also provides a branch for reference services on Khurais Road in Riyadh, a branch at King Salman Social Center, and a branch in Qaisariat al-Kitab.

The King Abdulaziz Public Library's branches include the Services Branch and Reading Halls - Khurais. It is located on Khurais Road in Riyadh City and was established in 2011. The branch provides knowledge services in the public hall, the children’s library, and the young adult’s library, where it displays various services and books that cover knowledge, cultures, science, art, literature, and studies. It also features a set of exhibitions and theaters.

King Abdulaziz Historical Center branch, in al-Murabba, is located in the al-Murabba Neighborhood in the al-Hukm Palace area of Riyadh City. It was established in 1999 and equipped with the latest technologies adopted in library and information services for researchers. The branch provides information services for beneficiaries through browsing and reading halls. It also features the Children's Book Club, which aims to strengthen the bond between kids and books and provides specialized services for this age group.

King Salman Social Center branch: The King Abdulaziz Public Library partners with the King Salman Social Center to reach the largest possible segment of society members and spread reading among them by providing cultural events that vary between lectures and workshops, along with holding various meetings outside the library. The center is located on King Abdullah Road in the al-Mughrizat Neighborhood of Riyadh City.

The Qaisariat al-Kitab branch: King Abdulaziz Public Library's branch was opened in Qaisariat al-Kitab in Justice Square in Riyadh City, in cooperation with the High Commission for the Development of Riyadh (currently the Royal Commission for Riyadh City) and the Emirate of Riyadh Province. The branch was inaugurated on April 23, 2019, which coincided with World Book Day.

China branch: This branch of King Abdulaziz Public Library is located at the University of Beijing and is the library's first branch established on the continent of Asia (outside the Kingdom). The foundation stone-laying ceremony was on November 20, 2015, and the official inauguration was on March 30, 2018. It was established over an area of 13,000 m, consisting of six floors. The library features reading halls that can accommodate more than one hundred people and contain more than two hundred thousand books. The branch also includes a specialized exhibition center and lecture hall. Additionally, there's a library of ancient manuscripts and an Arabic-Chinese Studies Center.

King Abdulaziz Al Saud Foundation for Human Sciences and Islamic Studies branch in Casablanca, Morocco: established in 1985.

King Abdulaziz Public Library provides several services, including advising and referencing services, borrowing, and photocopying, in addition to specialized automatic searching and the opportunity to publish scientific research.

The library also offers a range of electronic services, such as research topic affidavits, remote reference services, and book publication services, including children's books. It also provides hall booking service, special collections service, group visit booking, offers to sell collectibles service, and lastly, a collaborative training request service.

The library contains a restoration center for manuscripts, documents, photos, rare books, maps, magazines, newspapers, currencies, coins, and other historical and heritage materials. This center aims to protect these items from damage and corrosion and to maintain the various historically valuable materials preserved by the library. The center, inaugurated in 2022, is located at the library's headquarters.

The center employs Saudi women who specialize in the restoration of ancient materials, documents, and manuscripts using modern, specialized equipment. It includes multiple sections, which are processing and sterilization, manual restoration and documentation, automated restoration and lamination, sewing, and binding. Each section is provided with high-quality equipment, such as an ozone sterilization room, a suction cabinet for asphyxiating and toxic gases, an automated restoration device, a lamination device, and laser cutters. Additionally, there are processing tables, photovoltaic panels, caustics, and hand presses.

The center provides sterilization, restoration, and binding services for historical sources, including manuscripts, documents, movies, and photographs, as well as microfilm and digital preservation services.

By 2023, the center had successfully restored and sterilized more than three thousand rare scientific materials from cultural heritage origins, including collections of photos, documents, maps, rare books, and manuscripts. Additionally, the center has restored a rare photo of the ancient city of ad-Dir'iyyah, capturing the city's ruins in the early twentieth century, which highlighted the state and condition of ad-Dir'iyyah, along with the palm forests surrounding it. The center also restored 415 rare photos of Jeddah City and 117 rare books, including the leather cover and inner pages. Additionally, it managed to restore a collection of Saudi currencies known as 'Hajj Pilgrim Receipts,' issued on July 25, 1953. The center has also restored over 615 rare documents and a series of rare magazines.

The center has sterilized 2,235 rare and valuable maps in preparation for their restoration and preservation. Among these maps are the map of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula drawn by Abraham Ortelius in 1570, the Ptolemy map that included the Arabian Peninsula in 1564, and Giacomo Gastaldi's map drawn in 1554. Additionally, there are maps of the Nile Delta and Asia dating back to 1799.

The number of rare books in the King Abdulaziz public library is 32,625, in addition to 123,680 rare documents, 7,620 manuscripts, 8,100 photos, 617 maps, and 8,100 currencies and coins.

The King Abdulaziz Public Library cataloged its collections and archived them digitally. This procedure facilitates recalling the material and assessing its technical state by examining the state of documents and materials that need restoration, then sending them to the laboratory and performing dry cleaning to remove any debris, dust, or fungus, filling holes with a unique material that has a paper-like color, and completing the eroded parts.