Zayed Central Library was established in 1977 during the reign of
Sheikh Zayed as an
academic library of the
United Arab Emirates University in
Al Ain following the latter's inauguration in 1976. Just like other academic libraries, Zayed Central Library adopted the
Dewey Decimal Classification system whereas the cataloging work and the public service was done manually. The university moved to modernize the library in the 1990s by making it University Libraries Deanship and introducing automated integrated systems to fulfill research requirements and converting its holdings into a bilingual database, both in
Arabic and
English. By 2002, the library completed the re-classification of all of its material and resources in accordance with the
American Library of Congress. In 2015, the
Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism announced the transformation of the library into a public one by 2016 when President
Sheikh Khalifa's declared 2016 as the Year of Reading. Following the outbreak of the
COVID-19 pandemic in the country, the
Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism closed down all public libraries in March 2020, including Zayed Central Library and was only reopened at thirty-percent capacity in November 2020. In 2021, following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in the city, the university hosted the Al Ain Book Fare for nine days between September 21 and 30. == References ==