Plain Talk
By
Mursi Saad El-Din
I have had the honour of being appointed a member of one of eight committees newly formed by Dr Ismail Serageddin, head of the Alexandria Library. The aims of the committees, as stipulated in the papers we received prior to meeting are: to collect material from different sources relating to the subject of each committee; to propose experts from both Egypt and abroad who might be invited to lecture at the library; to undertake research in their respective fields. To promote continuity a permanent secretary for the committees will be appointed, attached to the library staff.
I was selected for the Children and Youth Committee and like its other members I have worked for and with children.
The eight committees boast upwards of 150 members, described by one of the speakers at the inaugural meeting as "la crème de la crème of Egyptian intellectual life". Writers, journalists, university professors and scientists, they met to discuss how to promote the noble objectives of the Alexandria Library.
Listening to the comprehensive speech of Ismail Serageddin one could not help but admire how he is struggling, against many odds, to get the library on its feet. His words were a plea to others to pool their valuable proposals. And they did. It was a brain- storming session that resulted in a number of practical proposals.
Due to the large number of speakers I did not have the opportunity to air my views on the future task of the committees or of the Alexandria Library itself.
One reason for the high expectations to which mention of the library gives rise is the inevitable comparison with the ancient institution. But what we often forget in extolling the virtues of the ancient institution is that contemporaneously there was only one other library in existence, that of Athens.
Now, however, the Alexandria Library has to compete with institutions such as the British Library, the Library of Congress and the French Bibliothèque Nationale which is why the Alexandria Library must offer what these other libraries cannot.
Of course the first service is to provide information about Alexandria, which the library is already doing. It should also focus on the Mediterranean, the sea to which the city is wedded. Egypt is also part of Africa, and there should be extensive collections pertaining to African history and culture. It is significant that Queen Hatshepsut realised the importance of Africa to Egypt, sending not an invading army but experts to Punt. They brought back a fund of information in a project reminiscent of Napoleon's Description de L'Egypte.
One last remark I would like to make is that we are sometimes tempted to look upon the Alexandria Library as a kind of modern monument. Some writers have called it the fourth pyramid, and groups of school children are often taken around the complex and encouraged to view it as they might the Graeco- Roman Museum. But the library, rather than be presented as such, should be a hub of activities in which each and every visitor can in some way participate.
I don't know how this can be achieved; it is clearly a job for the experts. But on the Children and Youth Committee the leading writer for children, Abdel-Tawwab Youssef, proposed the founding of a centre the aim of which would be to foster a more pro-active relationship with the institution on the part of its youngest visitors.
For some reason the library gives the impression, wrongly I am sure, that it is a high- brow institution. This erroneous impression could be removed by more popular participation.
On final point should be noted -- the efficiency of the arrangements for the meeting. From the moment we received the invitation, followed by telephone calls to confirm, until we returned to Cairo everything went according to plan. It was a pleasure to watch the young women and men taking care of every step, every move. They, and Ismail Serageddin, are to be commended.
