As the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM), we aim to increase the quality and quantity of the city's libraries in line with our ‘Living Istanbul’ vision, using the latest generation of library sciences. We subscribe to the mantra, "There will be no place where culture, art, and books cannot reach", and envision libraries not only as buildings to provide book loan services and study areas, but also cultural and social hubs that encourage learning and exchange.
We are rapidly establishing state of the art libraries in disadvantaged or under resourced neighbourhoods in Istanbul. Providing not only rich book collections but cultural and education centres. As in our other projects, we adopt a participatory, interaction-oriented approach that responds to the needs of the locals.
At our next-generation libraries we aim for children living here to have a social place where they can develop their skills in different disciplines through various workshops we organize, in fields such as drama, music and fine arts, that support their education. Next-generation librarianship elevates traditional library functions, out libraries have multi-purpose spaces suitable for both individual and group works, electronic and digital production rooms, exhibition areas, conference halls, silent and collaborative study, and children's sections.
In deciding the location of the new libraries we rely on the needs maps prepared by the Istanbul Planning Agency specifically for the next-generation library project. These maps take into account various statistics such as population density, distance to cultural and educational institutions, data of households receiving regular social relief, and pending invoice applications.
Our library activities are all underpinned by a desire to foster cultural activity and create spaces for socialisation. In line with this we host a variety of activities such as seminars with valuable members in literary, cultural and artistic fields, creative drama activities, fairy tale workshops for children, and exam preparation programs for young people.
We also attach great importance to the proper identification of the local stakeholders and beneficiaries of our libraries and the development of joint action mechanisms. Using this approach the next-generation library project has brought a new library to almost every district of Istanbul since 2019. We are also taking steps to improve the Atatürk Library, home to Turkey's rarest collections, so that it’s users can continue to benefit from this collection, which opened to researchers on September 5th, 2022.
We also continue to digitize the exceptional archive of the Atatürk Library. In 2012 and 2014 we began two projects aimed at cataloguing rare Ottoman period works within the Directorate.
We offer 40,000 rare works published in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish. Some of which include İbni Sina's el-Kanun fi't-Tıb dated 1593, one of the first Ottoman books published in Europe, Nasırüddin et-Tusi's work, Kitab Tahrir Usul li-Oklides, which was published in Rome in 1594, and all of the works published in Müteferrika Printing House, the first Turkish printing house. These works are available free of charge, and have been catalogued and identified in line with international librarianship standards.
