"Smart locker" In Sharjah libraries, self-borrowing of books is available around the clock

Sharjah, April 8 / WAM / In Sharjah Public Libraries, access to books is no longer linked to working hours or entering the building, as the “Smart Locker” service allows members to borrow books themselves around the clock.

The process begins with reserving the required titles through the library’s electronic catalog and then receiving them from the smart locker located at the back gate of the Sharjah Library using the Emirates ID or membership card, which expands access to knowledge beyond traditional time frames and reflects the library’s transformation into a flexible service centered around the user’s needs.

This advanced digital landscape is essentially the process of organizing knowledge before it is made available through a cataloging system based on the Anglo-American rules of indexing and the Dewey Decimal Classification. In a library whose roots go back a hundred years ago, specifically 1925, the cataloging system in its various stages formed the backbone that linked the book and the reader before and during the library’s gradual transformation into a network of 6 branches covering the cities of the emirate, and today it includes more than 791,328 diverse knowledge sources and provides access to more than 15 million electronic resources.

To understand the extent of the transformation witnessed by Sharjah libraries in cataloging systems, we must return to the global roots of the “index card.” One of the oldest documents that outline the features of this system dates back to the year 1791 during the French Revolution, when cards arranged alphabetically according to author or title were used. The history of libraries also documents the adoption of the card index in an organized manner in the Harvard Library since 1840.

Later, the Library of Congress transferred this model to the mass production stage with the start of printing index cards for new books in 1901. The index exceeded 22 million cards distributed among 22 thousand drawers. By the end of the century, the page on this system was practically closed, as official sources of the Library of Congress document that the last index card was printed in 1997.

The fundamental transformation in the work of libraries began with the transition of indexing to “machine language” through the development of the MARC standard in 1968, which allowed the recording of book data in a unified digital format that could be exchanged between systems. With the adoption of this standard, collaborative cataloging emerged, which enabled libraries to share ready-made records. This transformation was consolidated by the launch of the first electronic participatory indexing system in 1971, before the era of index cards practically ended with the final cessation of printing them in the year 1971. 2015.

At the level of Sharjah Public Libraries, the opening of the new building in 2011 was an essential step in modernizing services and the systematic transition towards digital systems, as automated systems were adopted to manage catalogs and lending in Arabic and English. With this transformation, the digital presence of libraries expanded, and thousands of electronic and audio books were made available through the digital platform by 2019. The year 2020 came to highlight the practical impact of this path with the opening of access to millions of multilingual electronic resources, which contributed to increasing beneficiary membership by 70% and attracting users. From dozens of nationalities.

This transformation is also evident in the educational and professional dimension of libraries, as the “Smart Knowledge Library” was launched in 2021 as a platform for specialized virtual courses, before Sharjah Libraries announced in 2025 the launch of an advanced version of it that adopts short educational paths, digital tests, and instant certificates in a design compatible with smartphones.

In the same professional context, Sharjah Libraries sought to deepen the discussion about the future of library work by choosing “Artificial Intelligence in Libraries: Innovation and Impact” as the focus of the 2025-2026 session associated with the Library Literature Forum Award, in an indication of the shift of interest from digitizing content to developing institutional practices using advanced technologies.

Along this path, libraries globally are moving towards a stage beyond MARC standards and traditional search interfaces towards models based on “linked data” that make the bibliographic record part of a broader semantic network that enhances discovery and deepens research.

Within this framework, the experience of Sharjah Libraries in its centenary can be read as a gradual path that began with indexing aimed at enabling the user to locate the book and access it easily, then moved to large-scale digital discovery, while the features of the next stage are drawn to develop a more accurate and intelligent search experience that combines global standards and the local cognitive identity that distinguishes its collections.

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