Study visit to Egypt:
Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA)
& National Library and
Archives, 18-21 February 2008
Ria Groenewald, Ina Smith & dr Heila Pienaar
Library Services, University of Pretoria
BA mission: To be a center of excellence in the production
and dissemination of knowledge, and to be a place of dialogue
and understanding between cultures and peoples
BA goals:
The world’s window on Egypt
Egypt’s window on the world
An instrument for rising to the
challenges of the digital age
A center for dialogue between peoples
and civilizations
GENERAL COUNSEL
Director
SPECIAL ADVISORS
LIBRARY SERVICES
Library Depart
ACADEMIC
& CULT AFF.
INTERNAL AUDIT
FAP
Internal Art
Program
Financial
Department
Arts Center
Administrative
Department
Antiquities
Museum
Manuscripts
Museum
Nat. Cent. For
Manuscripts
Planetarium &
Sc. Museum
CORPORATE
SECRETARIAT
Personnel
Department
Internal Security
Department
INFO & COMM
TECHNOLOGY
EXTERNAL
RELATIONS
ICT
Department
Pub. Relations
ISIS
Media
Tours
Engineering
Department
Cent. For Writing
&Calligraphy
CULTNAT
Cent For Res.
&Spec Prog.
Cent For Alex &
Med Studies.
Massive international
funding and partnerships
Dr Sohair Wastawy (chief librarian BA),
dr Heila Pienaar, Ina Smith, Ria Groenewald
Dr Wastaway did not appoint any librarians;
she appointed B graduates and trained them
in librarianship
Omnia: Director Public Services
Lamia: Director Special Libraries
Subject librarians are starting
to experiment with Library 2
BA complete tour: Antiquities & Manuscript
museums, Rare books, Culturama, special libraries …
Manuscripts in BA are copies?
Originals in National archives?
Taha Hussein Library for the
blind and visually impaired
UP on same standard but
with less facilities
Culturama: 9 screens & 9
projectors; no sound?
ALEXploratorium
www.bibalex.org/isis
Functions in a similar manner as the e-Information
Service, but separate from the library section
Ria Groenewald, dr Magdy Nagi
(Director ISIS), dr Heila Pienaar,
Ina Smith, secretary
ISIS projects (funding, funding funding!!!!)
 Million book project (75,000 Arabic Books)
 DigiArab - Large Scale Digitization of
Arabic Books (20,000 - 30,000 Arabic
Books)
 Nasser Collection
 Sadat Collection
 Description De L’Egypte Collection
 AMEEL - Arabic and Middle Eastern
Electronic Library etc
Internet Archive (copy of the
Internet) mirror site - funding
Marketing tip: all their big
machines are situated in the
library for all to see
Print on demand (POD):
Espresso book
machine (prototype)
The future of publishing,
libraries & bookshops?
Big screens to view manuscripts etc
Description de l’ Egypt
(screen can be paged – BL)
Digital workflow software is
available as open software;
we must implement
http://wiki.bibalex.org/DAFWiki/index.php/Main_Page
Digital Lab
24 / 7 operations; international
funding and projects e.g. Million book
project
Publishing Interface & Viewer
http://dar.bibalex.org
(own software)
Egypt National Library and Archives, Cairo
Howayda: Foreign Cultural Affairs
Prof Hilal: Vice Chairman
Nat Library & Archives
Preservation of damaged manuscripts
before digitisation
Italian government responsible for training & equipment
Digitisation office uses the same
hardware and software as Ria;
but they do have more staff
Unesco and Library of Congress are
taking leadership with this project; both
the Bibliotheca Alexandrina & Egypt
National Archives & Library are partners.
No partners from Southern Africa – we
must investigate this possibility
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/17/business/library.php
This very nice lady of the National Library
saved Heila’s life by taking her to a KFC –
will show you a pamphlet of the new library
building. She also gave us a tour of the
museum in the Library.
Lessons learned
 The digitisation office of the Library of UP is functioning




on an international standard, but with less facilities and
staff and without dedicated office space
We are not making use of the international funding and
partnerships that are available for digitisation
Results of digitisation must be more visible
The electronic digitisation workflow must be
implemented
Should sophisticated preservation be the library’s role,
or should we partner with other institutions e.g. the
National Library of SA