Professionals in
Information and Documentation

Dr. Sohair Wastawy is Chief Librarian for the New Library of Alexandria, Egypt.

Dr. Wastawy, you have a privileged position as Chief librarian at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, could you tell us a little about yourself?

First, no matter what position I have and which library I work at, I think of myself as a librarian through and through. I began my library career in 1975 at Cairo University, Central Library. I was then a new college graduate and was working on my Master’s degree in African languages. After I was done, I began my Doctorate in Comparative Linguistics and when I completed my thesis, I could not find a job that suits my skills as a linguist. I decided to stay in the library world as I was intrigued by the technology which had begun to infiltrate the field. In 1980, I decided to begin my formal studies in librarianship and went to the USA where I enrolled at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. After I completed my master’s degree, I continued with my studies at Simmons College in Boston, MA and obtained my Doctorate in Library and Information Management in 1987. I began my professional career at Illinois Institute of Technology in 1988 as a researcher and in 1991, I was selected to be the Dean of Libraries at the Institute. In 2004, I was invited to come back to Egypt, my home country, and become the first Chief Librarian of the Library of Alexandria. Though, I had built a family and career in the US, it was difficult to turn this offer down. For one, to serve my old country and second to be associated with the legacy of the new heir of the Ancient Library.

The New Bibliotheca Alexandrina is committed to evoking the spirit of openness and scholarship of the original Bibliotheca Alexandrina. It is much more than a library... What does it contain? What are the most important activities? What is your role as Chief Librarian?

The Library is a center of learning. Because people learn in different ways, the Library is designed to include all means of learning, be it for a child, a young person, an adult or a special-needs person.

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) has a Main Library that can hold millions of books: Six Specialized libraries for Arts & Multimedia, the Blind and Visually Impaired, Children; Young Adults, Rare Books and Special Collections, and Digital Library. It also has the Internet Archive; Four Museums for Antiquities, Manuscripts, the History of Science, and President Sadat; a Planetarium, an Exploratorium for children’s, a Culturama (a cultural panorama over nine screens, the first ever patented 9-projector interactive system), VISTA (The Virtual Immersive Science and Technology Applications system which is an interactive Virtual Reality environment, allowing researchers to transform two-dimensional data sets into 3-D simulations); Seven academic research centers: The Alexandria and Mediterranean Research Center (Alex-Med), the Arts Center, the Calligraphy Center, the Center for Special Studies and Programs (CSSP), the International School of Information Studies (ISIS), the Manuscript Center, and the Center for the Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CultNat, located in Cairo); Nine permanent exhibitions covering impressions of Alexandria: The Awad Collection, The World of Shadi Abdel Salam, Arabic Calligraphy, History of Printing, Artist’s Book, Arab-Muslim Medieval Instruments of Astronomy and Science, Mohie El Din Hussein: A Creative Journey, Abdel Salam Eid, and Raaya El-Nimr and Abdel-Ghani Abou El-Enein; Four art galleries for temporary exhibitions; a Conference Center, and a Dialogue Forum which provides opportunities for the meeting of, and discussions of various salient issues affecting modern societies. The Library also hosts 11 international and regional institutions.

As the Chief Librarian, I have complete oversight on the activities, programs, services, human and fiscal resources of the Main Library and Special Libraries.

What was the most difficult part in the reconstruction of the Library of Alexandria? And What are the challenges faced by the New Bibliotheca Alexandrina?

You cannot actually reconstruct an organization that existed 2 centuries ago. You do that in spirit more than a system. The Ancient Library was a place of science, arts and dialogue and it is that environment we are trying to recreate.
As for the challenges, the BA like any organization is facing the current economic challenges, in addition to the challenges that developing countries face where education is to some extent compromised and where poverty keeps people busy trying to find their next meal instead of advancing their skills and learning.

Is the BA, as a public library prepared for dealing with the global financial crisis that we are currently going through?

Public libraries, more than many other organizations, are used to financial crises. You can never depend on one source of funding and for that reason we learned to diversify our resources as businessmen do when they diversify their portfolios. You try to weather the storm and cut whatever fat you built in good times and run lean without cutting major services. You must prioritize to keep your doors open for the good of the society.

What do you see the future of mass digitization projects and their implication for libraries?

Every age has its tools. We live in the midst of an information revolution and the digitization of a nation’s literary and scientific works, as well as its tangible and intangible heritage, is very important. Because libraries offer more than books, they will continue to be needed. Not everyone owns a computer or has access to the internet. For those who don’t have access to these technologies, libraries will remain an important source of information. Also, for those who do, libraries offer a great deal of services. Chief among them is helping people find good and authorized sources of information. It is hard to search the deep web without a librarian’s help and it is difficult to get multi million hits for every search query you do on the web and be able to sort the wheat from the shaft without a deep understanding of the information structure and research methodology. Librarians are trained and understand how to and carry out these tasks, thus, their skills are more needed now than ever before. I personally think that libraries will be with us for a long time to come and like Borges, I too, have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.

Based on your experience, what skills does a person need to become a librarian?

A person who is looking for a career in librarianship must be an inquisitive person, someone who believes in freedom of expression, freedom of access to information and freedom of speech. He or she must believe that learning is the savior of nations and people and that the library is the real platform for learning, democracy and equity. A librarian must have a skill set that range from being a bibliophile, an information technologist, a literary critic, a community leader, to a fundraiser. These are skills that can be acquired but passion for service must be inbred for a librarian to succeed.

Let’s talk about the formation for information professionals. Are librarians well-trained in your country?

Though Egypt had libraries for ages, the number of libraries in our cities is still limited and almost non-existent in some villages and remote poor areas. Not growing with libraries made the library profession less attractive and for that, library education suffered in terms of the capacity of its graduates to practice what they have been taught. However, libraries are increasing in a very healthy rate and library education is improving. The library profession in Egypt and MENA region still have a long way to go.

What impression do you have of Spanish information professionals? How do they compare with Egyptian professionals?

I have been to a few of the Spanish libraries in Barcelona, Madrid, and Seville. I can truly say that your libraries and librarians are more advanced compared to ours though the Library of Alexandria seems to have by passed some of the best in the world, but the BA is an exception and not the rule.

Today, everybody is talking of e-books and how these can replace traditional books. In your opinion, what is the future of books and libraries?

E-books are great but not for everyone. New technologies don’t always replace older ones. We must remember that e-book readers and the books you read on them are never free. Though TV and Radio are good examples for technologies that had effect on one another, both continued in its own way. But there are some technologies and tools that are almost irreplaceable such as scissors, forks and knives. I feel books fall in the same category. I feel that books will be with us for a long time to come and so will libraries. Also, remember that there are three billion people live in squalor and misery without access to proper sanitation. One billion of them have no access to safe water at all, let alone electricity and computers.

But how is digitization affecting physical library space?

Definitely digitization creates additional space in any library and that gives librarians the opportunity to use this space in ways that are creative to serves our communities better. If we take the Ancient Library of Alexandria’s concept of learning, we will realize that having big halls with book shelves and tables is a far cry from what a library should be. A library is a place that caters for all modes of learning and all types of material. People learn differently and have different cogitative learning styles. Creating a space for the arts, meetings, and experimentation for example is as important as creating a space for reading. So, new technology has given us the opportunity to rethink the library’s mission and form its space to fit its function.

By the way, What book are you reading?

I am reading an excellent hard-bound book on President John Adams by David McCullough.

What do you hope for as a librarian?

To touch someone’s life through reading, learning, and knowledge. In short to make a difference in the world.

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