Bibliotheca Alexandrina

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The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Latin, 'Library of Alexandria';<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Template:Langx, Template:IPA) (BA) is a major library and cultural center on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea in Alexandria, Egypt. It is a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria, once one of the largest libraries worldwide, which was lost in antiquity. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina contains books in Egyptian, classical Arabic, English, and French languages.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The idea of reviving the old library dates back to 1974 when a committee set up by Alexandria University selected a plot of land for its new library. Construction work began in 1995, and after some US$220 million had been spent, the complex was officially inaugurated on 16 October 2002. In 2009, the library received a donation of 500,000 books from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF). The gift makes the Bibliotheca Alexandrina the sixth-largest Francophone library in the world.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The library offers shelf space for eight million books, and its main reading room spans 20,000 square meters (220,000 sq ft). The complex also houses a conference center; specialized libraries for maps, multimedia, the blind and visually impaired, and for children; four museums; four art galleries for temporary exhibitions; 15 permanent exhibitions; a planetarium; and a manuscript restoration laboratory.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

History

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Mediterranean Sea side of the architecture of the Biblioteca Alessandrina Library in Alexandria, Egypt, October 2020
Inside the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, built during the 1990s on the Mediterranean Sea coastline near the harbor of Alexandria, Egypt. It was opened in October 2002.

The idea of reviving the Library of Alexandria dates back to 1974, when a committee set up by Alexandria University selected a plot of land for its new library between the campus and the seafront, close to where the ancient library once stood. One leading supporter of the project was former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, along with a partnership with UNESCO.

UNESCO organized an architectural design competition in 1988 to choose the design. The competition was won by Snøhetta, a Norwegian architectural office, among 524 other entries.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> UNESCO also created an International Commission for the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Primary source inline The first pledges were made for funding the project at a conference held in 1990 in Aswan along the upper Nile River with US$65 million, mostly from the MENA states. Construction work began in 1995, and, after some additional US$220 million had been spent, the complex was officially inaugurated on 16 October 2002.<ref>Alexandrina</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Internet Archive donated US$5 million to the BA, including 10 billion web pages from over 16 million sites, 2000 hours of Egyptian and U.S. television broadcasts, 1000 archival films, 100 terabytes of data stored on 200 computers, and a bookscanning facility for local books.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The library also received a supplementary donation of 500,000 books from the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris.

Features

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Bibliotheca Alexandrina pool

The library has shelf space for eight million books,<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> with the main reading room covering Template:Convert on eleven cascading levels. At the time of construction, the reading room was the largest in the world.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite book</ref> The complex also houses a conference center; specialized libraries for maps, multimedia, the blind and visually impaired, young people, and for children; four museums;<ref name=":1" /> four art galleries for temporary exhibitions; 15 permanent exhibitions; a planetarium;<ref name=":1" /> and a manuscript restoration laboratory.

The main reading room stands beneath a 32-meter-high glass-panelled roof, tilted out toward the sea like a sundial, and measuring some 160 m in diameter. The walls are of gray granite, carved with characters from 120 scripts.<ref name=":1" />

Services

The main library can hold up to eight million books.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The library provides access to print on demand books via the Espresso Book Machine.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Taha Hussein Library contains materials for the blind and visually impaired using special software that makes it possible for readers to read books and journals. It is named after Taha Hussein, the Egyptian professor of Arabic and literary critic who was himself blinded at the age of three.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Contains book collections of Nobel Prize Laureates in Literature from 1901.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Nobel Section was inaugurated by Queen Silvia of Sweden and Queen Sonja of Norway on 24 April 2002.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Museums

Antiquities Museum

Established in 2001, the Antiquities Museum is an archeological museum that was situated within a library.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It held approximately 1,316 artifacts. The collection includes underwater antiquities from the Mediterranean seabed near the Eastern Harbour and the Bay of Abukir.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The museum provides descriptions of artifacts in three languages: English, Arabic, and French.

Manuscript Museum

The Manuscript Museum provides visitors and researchers with rare manuscripts and books. Established in 2001, the Manuscript Museum contains the world's largest collection of digital manuscripts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Manuscript Museum operates alongside the Manuscript Center.

Sadat Museum

Template:Main This museum contains many personal belongings of the Egyptian president, Anwar Al Sadat. The collections include some of his military robes, his Nobel Prize medal, his copy of the Qur'an, a few of his handwritten letters, pictures of him and his family, and the blood-stained military robe he wore on the day of his assassination. The museum also contains a recording in his voice of part of the Qur'an and assorted newspaper articles written about him.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Permanent exhibitions

The Our Digital World exhibition displays some of the library's digital projects, including digital archives of former presidents, the Science Supercourse, and the Encyclopedia of Life.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Additionally, digital versions of books, such as Description de l'Égypte and L'Art Arabe, are available.

The World of Shadi Abdel Salam exhibition contains works of Egyptian film director and screenwriter Shadi Abdel Salam. The work was donated by his family.<ref name=":0" /> The Impressions of Alexandria exhibition is divided into two sections: Alexandria as seen by Artists and Travelers and Cosmopolitan Alexandria: a Photographic Memory.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>

The Culturama is a hall that consists of a 180-degree panoramic interactive computer screen with a diameter of 10 meters that is made up of nine separate flat screens arranged in a semicircle and nine video projectors controlled by a single computer.<ref>CULTNAT Celebrated CULTURAMA Patent in the Smart Village Template:Webarchive United Nations. 11 July 2008. Retrieved 5 October 2014.</ref> It was developed by the Egyptian Center for Documentation of Cultural and CULTNAT and holds its patent in 2007.

Panoramic photo for planetarium

Digital Assets Repository

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The Digital Assets Repository (DAR) is a system developed at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina by the International School of Information Science (ISIS) that maintains a digital library collections<ref name="Eberhart2013"> Template:Cite book</ref> as well as providing free public access to the library's digitized collections through web-based search and browsing facilities<ref name="Eberhart2013" /><ref name="SharmaHeadquarters2012"> Template:Cite book</ref> via DAR's website.<ref name=DARBA> Template:Cite web</ref>

Management

Per Presidential Decree No. 76 in 2001, the Bibliotheca Alexandria is managed by a Council of Patrons, a Board of Trustees, and a Director.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The founding director was Ismail Serageldin, who served until May 2017. He was succeeded by manager Moustafa El Feqy.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Board of Trustees shall number no less than fifteen and no more than thirty, of whom five shall be ex-officio members of the Egyptian Government, namely the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Minister of Culture, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Governor of Alexandria and the President of the University of Alexandria.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Post-revolutionary involvement

While the library was shut down during the 2011 Egyptian revolution, young adults were seen in a circle around the building to protect against looters and vandals.<ref name="npr.org">Template:Cite news</ref> Students from neighboring universities make up 80% of Bibliotheca Alexandrina patrons. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina held a variety of symposiums in 2011, emphasizing the 2011 Egyptian revolution. Other topics included in these symposiums were social work. All of these events were freely available to the public.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Criticism

Many allege that the library is a white elephant, which serves little more than a vanity project for the Egyptian government. Furthermore, there are fears that censorship would affect the library's collection.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

The building's architecture (which imitates a rising sun) upset some who believed too much money was being spent on construction rather than the library's actual collection. Due to the lack of available funds, the library had only 500,000 books in 2002; however, in 2010, the library received an additional 500,000 books from the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The library relies on donations to buy books for its collections.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

On its opening day, an exhibition in the library's Manuscript Center drew international criticism for including the anti-Semitic fabricated text, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, alongside the Bible and the Torah in a display of monotheist religion holy books. The director of the Manuscript Center, Youssef Ziedan, initially justified its inclusion in an Egyptian newspaper article. In response to the criticism, the director of the library ordered that The Protocols be removed from the exhibition, prompting a statement from Ziedan on his personal website that the quotes attributed to him in the article were "fabricated groundless lies" and acknowledged that The Protocols was a fabricated and racist work.<ref name=":3" />

See also

References

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Further reading

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