Bibliotheca Alexandrina

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Latin, 'Library of Alexandria'; Egyptian Arabic: مكتبة الإسكندريه, romanized: Maktabat al-’Iskandariyya) (BA) is a large library on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea in Alexandria, Egypt. The library was opened in 1995. It is a commemoration of the ancient Library of Alexandria, which was once one of the largest libraries in the world. It was inaugurated (officially opened) in 2002. At the time of its construction, the reading room was the largest in the world. The library has enough shelf space for eight million books, having books in the Egyptian, Arabic, English, and French languages. In 2009, the library was granted a donation of 500,000 books from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), making the Bibliotheca Alexandrina the sixth-largest Francophone (french-speaking) library in the world. History The idea of reviving the Library of Alexandria goes back to the 70s. In 1974, a committee set up by Alexandria University chose land for its new library between its campus and the seafront, close to where the ancient library stood. The project was supported by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the United Nations' UNESCO. In 1988, UNESCO set up an architectural design competition to help choose a design for the new library. There were 524 entries. Snøhetta, a Norwegian architectural company won the competition. UNESCO also created an International Commission for the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. In 1990, countries (mostly) from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) met at a conference in Aswan, Egypt. They promised US$65 million to help pay for the new library. Workers began building the library in 1995. After spending an additional US$220 million, the library was officially opened on 16 October 2002. The Internet Archive donated $5 million to the BA, donating 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. The library also got a donation of 500,000 books from the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. When 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. Students from neighboring universities make up 80% of Bibliotheca Alexandrina patrons. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina held a variety of symposiums (academic conferences) in 2011 about the 2011 Egyptian revolution. Other topics in these symposiums were social work. All of these events were freely available to the public. Services The library can hold up to eight million books. The library has print on demand books via the Espresso Book Machine. The Taha Hussein Library has special software for blind and visually impaired people that lets those readers read books and journals. It is named after Taha Hussein, the Egyptian Arabic professor and book critic who was blind since he was three years old. It contains book collections of Nobel Prize Laureates in Literature from 1901. The Nobel Section was inaugurated by Queen Silvia of Sweden and Queen Sonja of Norway on 24 April 2002. Museums The library contains a variety of museums inside it, such as the Antiquities Museum, created in 1992 to hold antiquities found underwater, and the Manuscript Museum, created in 2001, which contains the world's largest collection of digital manuscripts. The Sadat Museum has many of the personal belongings of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. The collections include military robes, his Nobel Peace Prize medal, his holy Qur'an, some of his handwritten letters, pictures of him and his family, and the blood-stained military robe he wore on the day of his assassination. In 2023, the museum also recovered Sadat's passport from an online auction in the United States. The museum also contains a recording of him reading part of the Qur'an and newspaper articles written about him. Management The library is managed by a "Council of Patrons", a "Board of Trustees", and a director. The Board of Trustees is made up of 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. Criticism On the opening day of the museum, an exhibition in the Manuscript Center led to disapproval for including the anti-semitic fake hoax The Protocols of the Elders of Zion alongside the Bible and the Torah in a display of monotheistic holy books. The director of the Manuscript Center, Youssef Ziedan, first defended its inclusion, however later the director of the library ordered that The Protocols be removed from the exhibition, which led to Ziedan claiming that the quotes attributed to him in the article were "fabricated groundless lies" and acknowledging that The Protocols was a fabricated and racist work. Some people have said that the library is a white elephant, (something that cannot be removed without difficulty) which is only a vanity project for Mubarak's government (made for promoting his rule instead of for the people). There were also fears that censorship would affect the library's collection. References Other websites Media related to Bibliotheca Alexandrina at Wikimedia Commons Official website Bibliotheca Alexandrina video