Turkey's largest library to be disabled-friendly

Turkey's largest library, set to be inaugurated in the capital Ankara on Feb. 20, will feature 4 million printed books and offer disabled-friendly services starting right from the carpark to the library.

The Nation's Library project was spearheaded by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and realized through intense efforts by leading Turkish intellectuals, librarians, NGOs and groups representing the disadvantaged working in harmony.

"A technology room for visually impaired users was prepared by [Turkey's leading cellphone operator] Turkcell. Also, another technology room by Turk Telecom for both visually impaired and hearing-impaired users is in the works," Ayhan Tuğlu, head of the presidential library department, told Anadolu Agency.

"Our library is disabled-friendly starting from the very first entry to the inside of the library. Carts to carry disabled users will be available. A user with a wheelchair will be able to reach the library easily," Tuğlu said.

"Turkey's largest library was the National Library, which was built on 45,000 square meters [of land]. The new library is 125,000 square meters [1.35 million square feet]."

4 mln printed books

Tuğlu said the library is Turkey's largest not only in terms of its physical capacity, but also the number of books.

"It features 4 million printed books, over 120 million electronic editions and 550,000 e-books and rare collections," he said, adding that national broadcaster TRT's audio archive, boasting 1.2 million audio files, will also be accessible to users.

Notably, books published in 134 different languages and 120 million articles and reports are lined up on the shelves, spanning some 201 kilometers of shelves.

Located inside the...