#Archive #KIT saved by #Library of #Alexandria

When governments cut spending, the results are often disastrous. The subsidies of the Royal Institute for the Tropics were slashed and, consequently its activities and its archive were no longer funded. The archive is enormous; 7 kilometres of books, magazines and more.

If it was not for the Library of Alexandria, it would all go into the shredder. Much of the information in this archive is unique and it contains information that is relevant for the Netherlands and for many countries in the tropics as well.

The contract for the transfer has been signed and on the one hand it is a relief that all this information is kept on the other hand it is a disgrace that an archive of such prominence is only saved at the very last moment.

The Library of Alexandria is well known for its ability to digitise books. With a little bit of luck they will decide to digitise the KIT archive. In this way the information that is in this archive is not completely lost to people doing research in the Netherlands.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Maybe an #eol and #translatewiki.net collaboration?

The Encyclopedia of Live has long been an English only project. As it became more prominent, the call for multi-lingual support became louder and louder. The Library of Alexandria became involved and its task is to make the EOL available in Arabic.

The trouble with the current software is that it is not only big, the idea of internationalisation has never been considered. Internationalisation is an architecture and consequently there will be a need for a continuous effort to slowly but surely enable more and more of the software for localisation.

Chromis abyssus Pyle, Earle & Greene, 2008

In a big project like this, there will be a steady stream of new messages and changed messages and while the primary interest of the Library of Alexandria is Arabic, the process of internationalisation done right will enable localisation for all languages.

At translatewiki.net we are used to dynamic projects like this and our community is adept at asking for clarification of messages. When developers are eager to get the internationalisation right, they will find in translatewiki an effective partner.

When localisations find their way quickly into production, the Library of Alexandria will find that they bring the Encyclopedia of Life not only to the Arab world.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Good news from our friends

Welcome to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina E-Newsletter

Issue # 36 / February 2011

Director’s Statement to Our friends Around the World: The Events in Egypt
The world has witnessed an unprecedented popular action in the streets of Egypt, led by Egypt’s youth with their justified demands for more freedom, more democracy, lower prices for necessities and more employment opportunities. Youth demanded immediate and far-reaching changes.
This was met by violent conflicts with the police, who were routed. The army was called in and was welcomed by the demonstrators, but initially their presence was more symbolic than active. Events deteriorated as lawless bands of thugs, and maybe agents provocateurs, appeared and looting began. The young people organized themselves into groups that directed traffic, protected neighborhoods and guarded public buildings of value such as the Egyptian Museum and the Library of Alexandria. They are collaborating with the army. This makeshift arrangement is in place until full public order returns.
The library is safe thanks to Egypt’s youth, whether they be the staff of the Library or the representatives of the demonstrators, who are joining us in guarding the building from potential vandals and looters. I am there daily within the bounds of the curfew hours. However, the Library will be closed to the public for the next few days until the curfew is lifted and events unfold towards an end to the lawlessness and a move towards the resolution of the political issues that triggered the demonstrations.

Ismail Serageldin
Librarian of Alexandria
Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Bibliotheca Alexandrina 2011.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina, P.O. Box 138, Chatby 21526, Alexandria, Egypt. Phone: +(203) 4839999; Ext.: 2271, Fax: +(203) 4820463

Website: www.bibalex.org, E-mail: Ayman.Elsherbiny@bibalex.org

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Wikimania Alexandria

Wikimania has come and gone. For me it was as good as I could expect. There were many really nice people, I stayed at the dorms, they were cheap and cheerful, I met really nice people there and we had a great impromptu party on the balcony with music blaring from the internal speakers of a laptop allowing for great conversation. 

This Wikimania was different in several ways.

• The Bibliotheca Alexandrina co-hosted with the Wikimedia Foundation.
• There were no hacker days; I missed them and the folks that come for them
  
• Egypt is in Africa, but there were no black Africans at all this time.
• The organisation of the WMF is more mature, it showed
• The keynote speeches were streamed there and then and are now available for your enjoyment.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina was a revelation to me. Its building is beautiful. Its director Dr Ismail Serageldin gave two inspiring speeches. It is developing Open Source software. It is digitising Arabic documents in two shifts and it has the only copy of the Internet Archive. All in all it provides inspriation what we can do when we have the money to realise our dreams.

This was the first Wikimania without what used to be the traditional "hacker days". I do not know why they were not there, probably because nobody organised them. I missed them. It is not only that the "hackers" did not come, with them many of the people managing wiki organisations did not come as well.

I was asked what did this Wikimania bring for Africa. I had to answer nothing. There were no people from countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast or Uganda. This was the first Wikimania without any people from black Africa. For the Arabic world however, this Wikimania was really important a lot of publicity has been given to our projects and ideals. The early indications are that we can anticipate an increased interest resulting in many new editors.

Most if not all of the WMF staff was at Wikimania. Much of the work of the WMF is reaching out to people and other organisations, where better to do this then at our own conference. Last year the emphasis was very much only on the board, I can imagine that next year Sue will be part of what is currently the board panel Q&A.

The Bibilotheca Alexandrina proved itself as well by streaming some of the key speeches on the Internet and making them available online. This is awesome. Many more presentations have been recorded, among them the one that I gave (these are my slides). I would really appreciate to be able to see the presentations I missed.

All in all this Wikimania was for me a great success, I am ever so happy that I went, I loved what I saw. The Egyptian people I met were genuinely nice people .. It is again a tough act to follow :)

PS I promissed myself to write about Wikimania once I got home. I did get home but I fell sick. This is my first opportunity to write.