Bibliotheca Alexandrina hoped to revive the cultural glamour of the ancient city
Egypt, Local, 4/23/2001

The count down has already started for the inauguration of the Alexandria Library, scheduled this summer.

If the old Alexandria library, the oldest of ancient times, had turned the city into a flourishing cultural centre, hope is revived that the Mediterranean city will assume again its role as a centre of enlightenment in the modern age to become an exporter of Arab culture and recipient of foreign ones.

As Mohamed Zakaria Enani, professor of Arab literature said, "Alexandria has never been so much in need of such a library as it is today."

This is much so, he continued, because the municipality library, which was once a great attraction had deteriorated in quality and quantity.

The same applies to the main library of Alexandria University.

"There is reason to believe that the new library is born a giant as far as its architecture and its aspired function are concerned.

Yet there remains several points which men of culture hope for," said Enani.

"We do hope that the library would not be confined to researchers and cultured elite but that the ordinary public would be allowed access to it," he elaborated.

He said that he personally wished that the library would take special interest in the literary and scientific accomplishments of the Mediterranean countries that embrace Arab, Greek, Latin and Phoenician heritage in addition to European and north African cultures.

He, moreover, said that he would be looking forward to reading all about Alexandria, its past and present with details about social, political, historical, economic and cultural aspects.

As novelist Said Bakr puts it "Alexandria was Egypt's cultural facade since hundreds of years, thanks to the old Alexandria Library."

The revival of the library in a modern form with its advanced research and data devices would certainly enhance the role of the city.

He added that the presence of a huge cultural amenity as such would be of much help to research work in general.

The poet Ahmed Fadl Shablul told an Arabic daily that the unique location of the library, the very same of the old library, and the unique architecture of the premises were a source of pride for any Egyptian.

"But we do require a great deal of good administration with respect to the quality of services to be offered," he stressed.

"The technological facilities that would be available are bound to increase the number of those frequenting it.

Much hope is therefore pinned on the library to attract young people who have substantially turned their back to refined culture to focus on football and degraded forms of culture," he pointed out.

Fawzi Khedr, Secretary of the Conference of Provincial Men of Letters says the library is accredited for having the largest reading hall ever in the world.

Yet a plan should be devised to publicise for it in such a way as to attract the attention of the ordinary public as part of an overall plan to raise the cultural standard of the wide base of potential readers.

Such an approach, he said, would hopefully establish a link "so far missed" between the cultured elite and the popular base.

"In fact men of creativity do suffer from this deficiency since their writings seem to be addressed to a category of a certain cultural degree," he noted.

Having the opportunity to visit the library site before official opening, Khedr was impressed, among many other things, by the debate hall, which is other than the seminar hall where a certain issue is raised for discussion to reach a specific outcome.

"It takes us back to the philosophical debates that used to take place in the libraries of Athens and Alexandria," said the poet.

"The library also provides access to "cells" hired for a certain period of time for the accomplishment of a certain research topic.

Each of these rooms is provided with a computer set connected to world libraries," explained Khedr.

Consisting of a conferences centre, a calligraphy institute, a museum of manuscripts, a restoration centre and several other facilities the library is actually expected to promote conference tourism and cultural festivals. And having a repertoire of 8 million titles, intellectuals are on their feet for the day when Alexandria would be a crucible for different cultures.

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