Registration for the Qatar National Library

As noted previously I registered online for access to the Qatar National Library’s e-books but it requires you to visit their temporary offices in Education City. If you haven’t registered yet first go to the following link and register:

https://library.qnl.qa/selfreg

So then out I went to find them. I knew they were somewhere near Mathaf Museum and when I got to the end of the area just past the Museum there was a parking lot with a bunch of what looked like temporary buildings. I walked into one just to ask for directions and by sheer luck was in the right building!

The temporary offices of the QNL are located in the QMDI building, and there are signs around pointing you to that building. Look for “QMDI”, I don't think there any signs mentioning the Library.

As for a map QMDI’s website has their location (click on the link that says “map” at the bottom of their page)

http://www.qmdi.com.qa/QMDI/contact-us

When I asked for the Qatar National Library the front desk receptionist immediately contacted the QNL staff. A gentleman came to the lobby and once he knew I was here to register he apologized for people having to come to the office in person. Apparently some of the materials are age-restricted so the QNL has to have people register in person to ensure only adults are registered, otherwise kids could just go online and use their parents ID to register.

I gave him my Qatar ID so he could copy it and he went back to the office to get a PIN code for me. I had my passport with me just in case because the website seemed to indicate that you needed to show your RP but he only needed my Qatar ID. I waited in the lobby maybe five minutes and then I was given a PIN code. That was it, I can now log on to QNL’s e-book and periodicals collection. Your access is timed to the expiry date of your Qatar ID.

Browsing the collection I've discovered that some of the sections can only be accessed by researchers and Education City students but there appeared to be a huge amount of material for general registrants covering sciences, business, social sciences like anthropology, and so forth.

I am looking forward to some interesting reading.