Dubai and Moscow libraries open talks on manuscripts and digitisation

The latest:

Mohammed Bin Rashid Library in Dubai opened cooperation talks with the Russian State Library on manuscript restoration, heritage preservation and digital technology, the Emirates News Agency reported. The visiting delegate, Timofey Shchegolkov, Deputy Director General for Operations, Construction and Security at the Russian library, was received by board member Dr Mohammed Salem AlMazrooei. No agreement was announced.

Details:

• The visitor: Shchegolkov, who oversees operations, construction and security at the Russian State Library, was received by Dr Mohammed Salem AlMazrooei, a board member of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Library Foundation, and Ali Juma Al Tamimi, director of the Libraries Department, with other officials attending, the Emirates News Agency said.
• The agenda: Both sides focused on library management, manuscript restoration and heritage preservation, along with advanced technologies to safeguard historical collections. The discussion also extended to translation, publishing and the exchange of literary works between the two institutions.
• The Russian numbers: Shchegolkov set out his library’s digitisation programme, which he said has made more than 6 million books and manuscripts accessible over five years, carried out with Russian federal libraries. No comparable figure was given for the Dubai side’s digital holdings.
• Artificial intelligence: The two sides discussed the expanding role of artificial intelligence in culture and the creative industries, including its potential to support knowledge preservation while protecting the authenticity of human creative work, according to the agency account.
• Dubai’s collection: Shchegolkov toured the library’s specialised collections, digital facilities and its book management and retrieval systems. He also visited the Treasures of the Library Exhibition, which holds more than 300 rare manuscripts, historical books, maps and atlases, including rare editions of Russian authors.
• The literary framing: Officials tied the talks to cultural links between the UAE and Russia and to the standing of Russian writers, naming Alexander Pushkin, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy as figures whose work shapes that shared literary ground.
• The assessment: Shchegolkov praised the Dubai library’s infrastructure, services and heritage work and pointed to room for further collaboration, the agency said. He did not set out which specific projects either side would pursue first.
• The exchange: The visit closed with an exchange of publications. Shchegolkov presented Facets of a Great Dream: The Architecture of the Russian State Library, containing rare archival documents and photographs, and received Treasures of Mohammed Bin Rashid Library in return.
• What was not set: No memorandum, timeline or follow-up meeting was announced, and neither institution named a budget, a joint project or a department to lead future work on restoration, translation or digitisation.

Background:

Mohammed Bin Rashid Library is Dubai’s flagship public library and heritage institution. The Russian State Library in Moscow is among the world’s largest national libraries and anchors the federal network driving Russia’s mass digitisation of books and manuscripts.

Between the lines:

The substance on the table is technical rather than ceremonial: restoration methods, retrieval systems and digitisation at a scale the Russian side put at more than 6 million items. Dubai’s leverage in any such exchange is its rare holdings, including the 300-plus manuscripts, maps and atlases on display. With no signed document announced, the meeting reads as scoping rather than commitment.

What’s next

Watch for a memorandum of understanding between the two libraries, a named joint restoration or digitisation project, or a reciprocal visit by Dubai officials to Moscow.