The British Council and HSBC, working with Hamad Medical Corporation have launched a new initiative in Qatar to bring mobile libraries to children. Mobile libraries are well established in many parts of the world and the benefits they bring to hospitalized children are widely recognized.
Both as concept and reality, libraries and library services for patients have enjoyed a long and successful history and Bruce Bruce-Porter, an English physician, once wrote that Caliph Al Mansur's great hospital in Cairo, Egypt (c. 1276 A.D.) provided not only medical and surgical care, but also priests to read the Holy Quran day and night for patients wishing to listen; and music and storytelling for patients who could not sleep.
The modern day mobile libraries at Hamad Medical Corporation will be stocked with books in English and Arabic to appeal to a range of ages, reading levels and interests in order to bring joy to hospitalised children and their parents.