Uniquely designed Turkish library serves online

KARABÜK

A library in the northern province of Karabük, designed to resemble a row of giant books on a shelf, has been serving readers mostly online amid the coronavirus crisis.

The library at Karabük University’s (KBU) campus was built with support from Turkish philanthropist Kamil Güleç and was named after him. The architecture resembles the Kansas City Public Library in the U.S. and provides access to almost 190 university libraries in Turkey.

During the pandemic during which services in many areas have been moved online, 500,000 people downloaded resources from the library in 2020.

A total of 116, 943 users benefited from the library in which students can borrow and return books at kiosks equipped with self-check systems and as well as scanning mobile phones via pocket library service.

Returned books are sterilized and placed on the shelves.

Refik Polat, the rector of the Karabük University, told the state-run Anadolu Agency that the library has a unique exterior design in Turkey and creates an identity for the school.

“We have nearly 60,000 printed books in our library. The world is now oriented toward electronic books and magazines. We have more than 20,000 e-books and nearly 40,000 e-magazines. Our library is widely used,” he said.

The library also has 6 million works with articles, thesis and other resources, noted Polat.

“We are trying to bring the whole system to a level where it can run with artificial intelligence,” he said, adding that library officials want to make it functional even if nobody is present.