Egyptian-American Project to Preserve Manuscripts and Rare Documents at the National Library

14-11-2006 (al-Ahram)

Dr. Md. Sabar Arab, Pres of the Admin Council of the General Organization for the National Library and Archives, along with Dr. [sic] Michael Albin director of the Library of Congress Office in Cairo will inaugurate tomorrow the Digital Scanning Laboratory. The Lab, provided by the Library of Congress to the Organization on the basis of a long term loan, implements the agreement of cooperation signed by the two institutions.

In attendance at the inauguration will be American Ambassador Francis Ricciardone and distinguished delegations from the Library of Congress, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, executives of the National Library and Archives, and selected experts in librarianship and information science.

Dr. Arab explained that the goal of the Lab is the digitization of the venerable holdings of the National Library, including manuscripts, early periodicals and first printed books. The aim is to preserve the materials for reseachers the world over and to make them accessible via the Global Digital Gateway and the World Digital Library by means of the Internet.

This is one of the projects taken under wing by the Library of Congress. Participating in it are the world's largest national libraries such as those of the Netherlands, France, Russia, Spain and Brazil. Egypt will join these countries through the dedicated , independent gateway of the Organization.

Dr. Arab added that there will be agreement on training the staff of this project by experts from the Library of Congress.