“Through the Embassies we try to deliver knowledge to people's own homes instead of asking them to make the effort to travel to Alexandria,” says professor Yasser Al-Shayeb, director of the Embassies of Knowledge Initiative at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The initiative aims to transfer knowledge from the Bibliotheca to the wider public. “We also concentrate on remote areas far from Alexandria and Cairo,” Al-Shayeb adds. The programme was started in 2010 at Minya University in Upper Egypt and Al-Gouna on the Red Sea, the latter project being subsidised by the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development with the Bibliotheca's support. The 25 January Revolution temporarily halted the initiative, but it was started up again in 2014. In the initial phase, university students were the first concern. “We believe that students are most in need of the knowledge and information sources that the initiative can bring,” Al-Shayeb says. To this end, Embassies of Knowledge centres were established at universities in Fayoum, Zagazig, Mansoura, Benha, Aswan, Suez and Cairo. Steps are being taken to cover universities all over Egypt. Researchers not enrolled in universities have also been included. The initiative has an agreement with the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology and Embassies in seven regional development research centres in Al-Arish in North Sinai, Al-Wadi Al-Gedid, Ismailia, Zagazig, Sohag and Tanta. In the third phase, the initiative reached out to school students, signing an agreement with the Ministry of Education to establish Embassies at six Exploratory Centres and Cities of Science and Technology in different governorates. Typical Embassies are composed of study halls containing computers, monitors and data displays. “You feel you are sitting inside the Bibliotheca when you are sitting at these computers,” Al-Shayeb says. Books from the library are accessible in digital form through the Embassies network, with the agreement of publishers and authors to protect copyright. Egyptian history books from the library and recordings about Egypt before the 1952 Revolution are also available. Al-Shayeb explains that an initiative that started at the Bibliotheca six years ago provides PowerPoint presentations on different subjects, including health, agriculture, the environment and information technology. The presentations were made by Egyptian and foreign scientists, some of them Nobel Prize winners. These are now also accessible through the Embassies, which also provide live broadcasts of different events at the Bibliotheca through video conferencing. “People can follow the events on monitors and through computers,” Al-Shayeb says. An Embassies of Knowledge Photography Club has also been started. The club gives young photographers a chance to meet and discuss their work, and benefit from contact with experienced photographers, according to Haitham Rezk, the Embassies programme coordinator. The club organises trips, competitions, workshops, and exhibitions. It is open to people living in all governorates and is not restricted to the Embassies only, Rezk adds. The Embassies Initiative hosts cultural events, workshops and competitions that are open to all. The events, while offering enrichment for the public, are also a good way to publicise the overall programme. “People attend the cultural events and then they see the Embassies Initiative. This means that the next time they can also visit the Embassy for information sources,” Al-Shayeb says. Another service of the Embassies is its supercomputer, mainly used by scientists and engineers. Al-Shayeb says that this is like having 500 PCs linked together, allowing calculations to be done at some 500 times the usual speed. “To forecast the weather in Egypt for the coming month we used to do the calculations using one computer. Now, through supercomputers, the same calculations can be done in around 30 minutes,” he explains. Al-Shayeb says that the idea is to cover the entire country through the Embassies Initiative, linking regional events with those at the Bibliotheca. Due to copyright issues, a large number of books in the Bibliotheca are not digitalised, and ways are being looked at to make these more widely available. The services provided, though costly, are all free to users. The Bibliotheca has a budget to cover the project's expenses, Al-Shayeb explains. The library is excellent, but people have complained that it is restricted to Alexandria. “This is a way to extend the library's services to the rest of the country in the future,” he adds. The writer is a freelance journalist.
