1. Study visit to Egypt: Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) & National Library and Archives, February 2008
Ria Groenewald, Ina Smith & dr Heila Pienaar
Library Services, University of Pretoria

2. 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

3. Cent For Alex & Med Studies.
Director
GENERAL COUNSEL
CORPORATE
SECRETARIAT
SPECIAL ADVISORS
INTERNAL AUDIT
LIBRARY SERVICES
ACADEMIC
& CULT AFF.
FAP
INFO & COMM
TECHNOLOGY
EXTERNAL
RELATIONS
Internal Art
Program
Financial
Department
ICT
Department
Pub. Relations
Arts Center
Library Depart
Administrative
Department
Antiquities
Museum
ISIS
Media
Personnel
Department
Manuscripts
Museum
Tours
Internal Security
Department
Nat. Cent. For
Manuscripts
Engineering
Department
Planetarium &
Sc. Museum
CULTNAT
Cent. For Writing
&Calligraphy
Cent For Res.
&Spec Prog.
Cent For Alex & Med Studies.
Massive international funding and partnerships

4. 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

5. Omnia: Director Public Services
Lamia: Director Special Libraries
Subject librarians are starting to experiment with Library 2

6. BA complete tour: Antiquities & Manuscript museums, Rare books, Culturama, special libraries …

7. Manuscripts in BA are copies? Originals in National archives?

9. Taha Hussein Library for the blind and visually impaired
UP on same standard but with less facilities

10. Culturama: 9 screens & 9 projectors; no sound?

11. ALEXploratorium

12.
Functions in a similar manner as the e-Information Service, but separate from the library section

13. Ria Groenewald, dr Magdy Nagi (Director ISIS), dr Heila Pienaar, Ina Smith, secretary

14. ISIS projects (funding, funding funding!!!!)
Million book project (75,000 Arabic Books)
DigiArab - Large Scale Digitization of Arabic Books (20, ,000 Arabic Books)
Nasser Collection
Sadat Collection
Description De L’Egypte Collection
AMEEL - Arabic and Middle Eastern Electronic Library etc

15. Internet Archive (copy of the Internet) mirror site - funding

16. Print on demand (POD): Espresso book machine (prototype)
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?

17. Description de l’ Egypt (screen can be paged – BL)
Big screens to view manuscripts etc
Description de l’ Egypt (screen can be paged – BL)

18. Digital workflow software is available as open software; we must implement

19. Digital Lab
24 / 7 operations; international funding and projects e.g. Million book project

20. Publishing Interface & Viewer (own software)

21. Egypt National Library and Archives, Cairo
Howayda: Foreign Cultural Affairs
Prof Hilal: Vice Chairman Nat Library & Archives

22. Italian government responsible for training & equipment
Preservation of damaged manuscripts before digitisation
Italian government responsible for training & equipment

23. Digitisation office uses the same hardware and software as Ria; but they do have more staff

25. 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

27. 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.

28. 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