Culture Ministry Launches Excellence
Competition for Libraries, Cultural Centres

Muscat, 10 Mar 2026 (ONA) — The
Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth today launched the 2026 Excellence Competition
for Libraries and Private Cultural Centers 2026. The contest, themed
“Digital Innovation Award for Libraries and Private Cultural
Centers”, coincides with the celebration of Arab Library Day, which falls
on 10 March every year.

The competition seeks to attract
ideas for developing an integrated vision of future digital innovation in a
manner that upgrades library services and improves modern technologies’ user
experience.

The competition focuses on proposed
or “unimplemented” ideas or initiatives aimed at developing services,
activities or methods of communication with users or digital solutions
applicable in the environment of libraries and cultural centres. Rather than
having the idea implemented, the competition welcomes ideas that are presented in
a documented manner defining goals and envisaged impact.

Subscription to the competition must
be done through the electronic form available via a link on the Ministry’s
website, between 10 and 20 March 2026. The deadline for receiving entries will
be 1 August 2026.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and
Youth has allocated monetary prizes for the winners: RO 3,000 is set for first
place winner, while second and third place winners get RO 2,000 and RO 1,000 respectively.

— Ends/Bishara