The role of the new library of Alexandria
A centre for knowledge and the world’s window to
Egypt and Arabic culture
The library in Alexandria was soft opened for the public 1.th October 2001. The architect competition was held
in 1989 and the planning and building period lasted for 6 years. The library has capacity of storing 8 millions
books. The plan is that 55 000 journals and magazines from all over the world shall be stored here.
Postgraduate students can use the 2000 work ing stations under the big roof formed like a solar eclipse. The
costs of the project was 230 million dollar from which 60 millions dollar were donated from the Emirate
Countries. It is a big complex that now opened its doors to new possibilities to back up people's knowledge of
different cultures and to become a centre for dialogue between peoples and nations. The world’s attention has
been upon this new fantastic site despite the dark clouds of terrorism.
By Gunn Kristin Tjoflot
THE IDEA OF A HUGE LIBRARY IN ALEXANDRIA IS OLD
Alexandria is geographically located on the Egyptian coastline by the Mediterranean Sea. Most people have
learned about the ancient library as it stood in the days of the last Egyptian pharaohs. History tells us that the
Great Library of Alexandria was situated here in the Ptolemaic period (305 to 34 BC). This library should grow
up to be a centre for learning, science and culture 2300 years ago. Cleopatra was resident in Alexandria and
entered the throne 47 years BC and in the library she found the worlds largest and finest collection of old letters
and scrolls. The library was and still is one of the greatest and most inspiring creations of the human intellect.
When the Caliph Omar from Byzantz conquered Alexandria in 639 he was afraid of it`s powerful position. He
meant that it was only one true book - the KORAN. It was possible him to blame that the old library was set on
fire and burned down. But this is the history; the present question is what role the new library will get.
A CENTRE FOR DIALOGUE BETWEEN PEOPLES AND NATIONS
The new library is now finished and at the soft opening 1.th October 2001 the library for the youth (14– 18
years) and the music-library where opened to public. President Mubarak`s wife Susan Mubarak which had been
active in the whole planning and building process as a member of the library’s board is central in the
inauguration of the Library. She emphasised in her opening speech four main tasks for the library, which are:
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To be the World’s window on Egypt: The Library of Alexandria will be the world’s window on the
Egyptian civilisation during different eras. This is a big challenge for the library as regards to
collecting, classifying all the relevant cultural and scientific materials in addition to providing a modern
and easy access to these materials. This doesn’t necessarily mean collecting all the books and
manuscripts in one place, but linking it to Dar Elkottob and El-Azhar’s Library through the internet in
the form of digital images of thousands manuscripts. All this in addition to having the necessary
reference material on modern Egypt and all its complexities and challenges.
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Second - Egypt’s window to the world: The Library of Alexandria should be the natural gateway
where Egyptians would go to know about the civilisations of the world, especially the cultures of the
mediterranean region. Hence, it would be among the first priorities of the Board of Trustees to design a
thoughtful and balanced acquisitions and collections strategy to build up the book collection to cover
the needs of the scholars dealing with the library.
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Third - A library for the new digital age: The Library of Alexandria should be the leading cultural
institution in dealing with the information revolution, and linking up with the efforts made by the
leading institutions in the world, such as the Library of Congress, so that we can access efficiently the
almost limitless resources being deployed everywhere in the world. The library should also make its
own contributions so that its material will be available to others in an electronic mode. The new digital
revolution and the new Information and Communication Technology will offer enormous opportunities
for developing countries such as Egypt to both modernise the manner in which investment in human
resources is being made and to open new opportunities for its university students. The role of the library
is also to collaborate with all educational and cultural institutions in Egypt and the entire region. The
library can be also a means for development co-operation between international agencies and other
countries through new projects for the mutual benefit of all parties in fields of education, and research,
such as distance learning, and the use of digital databases.
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Fourth - A centre of learning and dialogue: Last but not least, The Library of Alexandria must
become a vibrant centre of intellectual debate and ferment, a place for dialogue and discussion of
science, art, and culture, and a centre for interaction between the north and the south, the east and the
west. The role of the library is promoting the dialogue of cultures rather than the clash of civilisations.
A challenge for the library is that people have changed ways of getting information and knowledge. Today
knowledge can be reached from everywhere not only from libraries. The library have to as Mubarak`s wife says
make knowledge reachable for most people from everywhere. After a check on Internet I learned more about
their strategy. The planed Alexandria Digital Library link up data sources in geographically referenced materials
(libraries, academic institutions, private companies, government agencies, etc.). This digital project started as
early in 1995. Sure people from Soviet or South Africa can use the library’s planned Internet services.
A second challenge for the library is to get a position as dialog keeper and to establish a dialogue between the
nations. It was decided to build the centre for dialogue between nations long before what happened in New York
the fatal date 9/11. The 9/11 just shows us the need for such an institution. In my point of view is this challenge
to obtain a position for being a dialog centre the most important one. To do this it must collect and distribute
information and become a centre for communication and understanding between western society and Arabic
society. This should be a difficult task. The western society wrong picture and maybe ignorance of the modern
Arabic culture is historically based on wrong facts or lack of them. In 1798 to 1801 Napoleon came with his
army to Egypt to take it under Frances sovereignty. With him followed 100 researches which wanted to explore
the Egyptian life and culture. Their work is documented in ” DESCRIPTION DE L`EGYPT ” and is mainly a
description of ancient Egypt, the pharaoh’s graves, mummies, the goods, and the temples. However the
researchers didn’t pay much attention to the present Egyptian people and their high developed culture. This lead
to that they didn’t report to Europe about the splendid culture which was maybe higher than that level Europe
had in those days. They maybe hide these facts because this should be frightening news to them there at home.
Europeans in those days looking for images of the ancient world as lost societies. This sight would not threat the
Europe’s self understanding to be the leading position in the world. A ll what the upper class wanted were some
ruins to visit, maybe an ancient souvenir to the chimney. When the Frenchmen left Egypt they took with them a
lot of old treasurers as seen in Louvre and in wealthy private homes.
In the case of art the ignorance and lack of knowledge of the Arabic culture can be seen a romanticification as
seen in the style called Orientalism. Examples of this style are oil paintings from the Caliphs harems with a lot of
young and beautiful woman just waiting for the Caliphs. The lack of knowledge made the mythical and strange
imagination Europeans had of the Arabic world.
EGYPT - THE MEETING POINT OF THRE CONTINETS
Egypt is the meeting point of three continents, Asia, Africa and Europe, and is that Arabic country with longest
contact with western society. Egypt has a leading role discussing top priority politics in the world. President
Mubarak put the terrorism question on the agenda long before Bush did after 9/11. In fact when Susan Mubarak
holds her opening speech the 1.th October 2001 her husband discussed the question about terrorism with the
presidents in USA and France. The library can use this position to distribute knowledge about Egypt and also the
Arabic culture to the western world and vice versa.
Alexandria is therefore a good place for dialogue between peoples and nations. Alexandria is a well organized
modern town with 4 millions inhabitants. People are relaxed and friendly and here you find Greeks, Germans,
French- and Englishmen. Alex is today a centre for international firms and a lot of business activities. People
feel very welcome in this city which is so nice tempered by the breeze from the sea.
THE LIBRARY AND THE UNIVERSITY OF ALEXANDRIA
The library must also provide the Arabs knowledge about the western society. When I walk around in the library
I meet students from the University of Alexandria, Institute for Commerce. Ingy (20) think that the library will
be much used by the near 50 000 students in Alexandria . The students have a lack of a proper library which
provide both Arabic and English literature. She thinks the better possibilities will attract foreign students to come
to Alexandria and make this a good centre for research activities as it was in the past. Heba (25) also believes
this. She is curious to see the library facilities on this opening day. Also a lot of other students say that they have
a lack of English literature and think that the library is great because it will give them access to books and
magazines from Europe. When I visited the library many students had taken place to study.
AN ARCHITECTURE WONDER - THE SOLAR ECLIPSE BUILDING BESIDE THE COASTLINE
Mona Hammed (30) has worked as an information consultant for the library in 5 years now. She guides me
around; In 1988 the ground stone was laid down, in 1995 the building started, in 2002 it will be in full operation
mode, and in 2003 it will be operational with possibilities to borrow books from here. The amazing main
building is given a shape as a solar disc from the Norwegian architect office Snøhetta. The eclipse symbolising
culture and the fruit of it - knowledge. A water mirror surrounds it, which give moisture to the dry air. The huge
entrance hall has walls of oak donated from USA. The furniture is maid by Norwegian light wood and is very
tasteful and elegant in contrast to the floor made of granite stone from Zimbabwe.
Hammed believes that the library will be a success because the Egyptians like to read and learn. She admits that
it is true that Egypt has a big number of illiterate, but she emphasises that education at university level is next to
nothing just 30 Eg £ every year. With this low costs it should be possible to study for everybody. The big hall
open to public and the working stations for students looks great; blue/green light from the roof will make the
paper not shine working in the late evening. The hall is big but seems not overwhelming huge. Efforts are made
to make it cosier. One detail from Snøhetta is imaginary bookshelves built in the walls to make us feel more
welcome and to prevent noise from people walking in the big hall. It works! Here are no disturbing noises!
Visit the library on Internet:
http://www.bibalex.gov.eg/
http://www.alexandria.ucsb.edu/