WITHOUT giving any names, Professor of Library Science and Information at Cairo University, Egypt's most prestigious public university Shaaban Khalifa complained that limitrophe countries have burgled masses of Egypt's priceless manuscripts and documents. He angrily blamed former Minister of Education Hussein Kamel Bahaaeddinfor the decline in the role of libraries in schools. Khalifa, who is also the President of the Egyptian Society of Library Science, Information and Documents, claimed that the former Minister had slashed the budget for school libraries from LE40 million (about $7.3 million) to LE3 million. Khalifa's passions were aroused in a recent interview with the local October weekly magazine in which he said that the nation's invaluable historical documents had been depleted by serious thefts organised by research and heritage centres in neighbouring countries. “The number of manuscripts in the old building of Darul Kotb [the House of Books] downtown fell to 50,000 while they were being transferred to the new building, which overlooks the Nile,” Khalifa. However, he stressed that advanced technology in the form of CDs would help to vividly preserve the nation's memory. “It is unfortunate that officials in Darul Kotob have only just begun torealise that these treasures have been depleted and begun to record what remains on CD,” Khalifa said, suggesting that the Government shouldpay special attention to library sciences by following the example of European countries. He would like each of the major Egyptian universities to have a library faculty, arguing that the current library sections in different Egyptian universities cannot cope with the massive task of classifying all the information we have about the country's history, as well as presenting it in a way that will allow students and researchers to really benefit. “Library sciences should be treated as a separate part of humanities,” he argued. “Libraries and their role in society and beyond should be treated an independent science.” “Humanity will have no future without libraries and their precious titles,” says Khalifa, adding that advanced societies have made good use of their memory to make scientific progress, with the help of information technology. He regrets that the Arab Union of Libraries and Documents has ignored several appeals for help from independent library science faculties in Arab countries. No official from the union was immediately available for comment. Meanwhile, he has also submitted a bill to the People's Assembly (the Lower House of the Parliament) to establish the Association of Egyptian Librarians, which will have more than 120,000 members. Parliament has already given its tentative approval to the bill, which will probably be passed very soon. Prof. Khalifa was recognised in 1999 by the Arab Union of Libraries andInformation. His contribution to this field has also been acknowledged by the Arab Organisation of Education, Culture and Science. He has also been praised by the Saudi University of King Abdul-Aziz in Jeddah and the Egyptian University of el-Menoufia. He has to his name more than 80 books and about 250 studies and research works. He is also the author of a 30-volume encyclopedia of library science and information.
