Conditional knowledge
Youssef Rakha enters the peculiar world of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina's Manuscripts and Rare Books Centre
The administrative sections of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina are a little too insular for comfort. A friend of the present writer's once remarked that it was like walking into NASA; such is the futuristic, high-risk busyness with which the place is infused. Seldom do you see the vaguest sign of what lies beyond the metallic walls. The intertwining, apparently endless corridors are labyrinthine. An airport-announcement-like voice echoes every time the elevator stops. Often there is no sign of books -- those could be the administrative offices of any institution.
And people, the few people you encounter as you move from one place to the next, are predominantly silent, behaving for the most part as if they were in the process of conceiving a new theory of the universe. It is therefore profoundly disorienting to realise that, notwithstanding the self-importance they exude, Bibliotheca Alexandrina employees are at heart indistinguishable from the average Mugammaa' Al-Tahrir civil servant: the hierarchical order is such that the subordinates' obsequiousness to their generally older superiors is embarrassing; explanation of the way things work generally refers to "the order, the convention, the instructions", barring creative thinking; and the all-too-busy atmosphere conceals a propensity for professional disinterest on the part of those who undertake the work, leading in all likelihood to further manifestations of the Egyptian bureaucracy's trademark disorganisation and dire mismanagement. So much for personal impressions.
For an institution whose raison d'être is to be a reincarnation of the ancient Bibliotheca Alexandrina, manuscripts and rare books are of the essence. And it is to the Manuscripts and Rare Books Centre that the present writer eventually found his way full of questions about the library's acquisitions policy and what is being done to develop the range of thus far discontinuous holdings. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina incorporates Alexandria's existing collections: the Abul-Abbas Al-Mursi Mosque, the Alexandria Municipal Library and the Sumuha Religious Institute Library collections, which amount to approximately 6,000 manuscripts. Besides that, it has received significant gifts- donations from independent figures and renowned institutions including three copies of the illustrations of the Description de l'Egypte and a facsimile of the Johannes Gutenberg Bible (the vast majority of gifts from libraries are microfilm reproductions). Undoubtedly Alexandria's own manuscripts and books are kept in far better condition than they were in their original homes, they are being properly catalogued -- the process may be slower than necessary, but it is effective -- and ultimately they will be available to researchers under one roof. Yet an acquisitions policy proper storage conditions do not make. And questions concerning the library's role in this context remain to be answered.
The presidential decree that sanctioned the establishment of the centre states that its first aim is "the collection of manuscripts, their cataloguing and scientific restoration". Yet, aside from overseeing the transportation of the items in question and providing the bureaucratic sanctions necessary for keeping them in the library, what has the administration contributed towards the first, and most essential, of these three tasks? The issue is compounded further by the fact that the process of acquisition is divided among several sub-departments, each of which might have different priorities. And in the absence of an all- embracing system -- a specific aim like acquiring all those copies of the Qur'an printed in South Asia, for example -- the holdings remain bafflingly eclectic. In one office replicas of Greek busts, Farsi trinkets and old Indian book covers are placed on shelves opposite the director's desk. Everything the library receives arrives here first; only then is it transferred onto the relevant department for safekeeping. Before it reaches the department in question, which in turn has its own acquisitions policy, the item must go through a process of review -- to assess whether it is worth keeping at all.
Despite protestations to the contrary centre director Youssef Zeidan was too busy to answer questions even by e-mail -- a reflection of organisational failure, perhaps? Like that of many Egyptian officials, Zeidan's office would seem to be secretarially overstaffed. Yet here as elsewhere there is little going on apart from the reluctant carrying out of short-term instructions -- posting a letter, answering a phone call, having a document signed. On the official inauguration of the Bibliotheca exactly a year ago, there was evidence of neither a clear-cut acquisitions policy nor intentions of collaborating with relevant national institutions like Dar Al-Kotob. Today the second shortcoming too remains to be addressed. Swathed in an atmosphere of self- importance, Bibliotheca Alexandrina officials are working in isolation -- something to which the fact that Bibliotheca print and multimedia publications (another, separate department oversees the latter activities) are still not widely available; they are not even stocked by General Egyptian Book Organisation Bookshops. High- quality, produced to exacting standards, the virtual museum CD or the second instalment of seven-CD sets of digital reproductions of the manuscripts are among those things the library has to show for itself. Yet nobody seemed to have a clue where they might be found and how much they might cost.
With the Manuscript Museum shut for refurbishment, visiting the microfilm and restoration departments was the most interactive experience of the day. The former has facilities for storage and display, not production, of microfilm. Library officials explained that there are plans to acquire the equipment and personnel necessary to transfer the library's own holdings onto microfilm, but they added that such plans have not been finalised and no steps would be taken before another year passes. However with a wealth of material available to researchers (including all back issues of the daily Al-Ahram), one can only be grateful. The restoration department is likewise adequately staffed. One restorer explained the various procedures employed to bring damaged manuscripts back to their original form -- or as close to it as possible. Books and maps receive different, less meticulous treatment. On being restored the items are returned to their respective departments -- to be kept in controlled conditions to ensure longevity and a minimum of damage resulting from wear and tear -- the most effective part of the endeavour.
With the microfilm and specialised libraries available only to researchers holding written proof from national institutions of their need to view this particular item for a particular research topic -- and notwithstanding all one's concerns about acquisition and management -- there is a feeling that, in line with the exclusive and hierarchical atmosphere of the library, the knowledge it makes available too is conditional.
