Since the creation of Bibliotheca Alexandrina, two libraries dedicated to children aged 6 to 12 and young aged 12 to 16 have been established.
They try to develop reading, research and creation adapted to publics and try to be an instrument for rising to the challenges of the digital age. Above all, they propose a cultural window on Egypt and on the world in order to open Egyptian youths to other cultures all over the world. With adapted access, the two libraries try to give a response for people in the situation of handicap: especially children. Also two teams develop know-how in event organisation and cultural activities in the book and multimedia environment. They are convinced that complete school programs with other resources as ITC, by developing reading, by increasing competences in research, are the key to building an open-minded generation motivated by collective research and team work.
The two Libraries dispose of:
• 200 m² dedicated to youth readers with lots of books covering different thematics, and several languages such as Arabic, English, Spanish and French languages. Young people can also consult digital documents with computers put in the room.
• 400 m² dedicated to children with more than 10 000 books published in the three main languages.
The two libraries received benefits thanks to youth reading partnerships in the European program framework, like the S.I.D.A. (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency)
Since 2004, the libraries are linked by a multimedia program, with ZINC Association. They have organized together artistic workshops, training, seminars. The last one being lead by youth volunteers coming from the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur Regional Instance.
The will is to develop more partnerships with general and bilingual schools. Bibliotheca Alexandrina Youth Libraries wish to be a cornerstone of the Egypt national public reading network and also be identified as a youth resource center based on cultural books and multimedia.
Websites :
Children library: http://www.bibalex.org/Libraries/Presentation/Static/13810.aspx?d=0
Youth library : http://www.bibalex.org/libraries/presentation/static/16110.aspx
http://digital.creations.over-blog.com/
http://mybook.bibalex.org/
http://www.lafriche.org/animanet/realisations/atelier_tomy.html
http://www.lafriche.org/animanet/realisations/atelier_shadi.html
Contact :
Sherine Said, Youth Library Director
