The BA Participates in the “Electronic Documentation of Arab Heritage” Conference in Syria
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Alexandria—
The BA Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT), and the General Secretariat of “Damascus Capital of Arab Culture 2008”, are co-organizing a Conference entitled “Electronic Documentation of Arab Heritage”, and the second meeting of the Executive Committee of the "Memory of the Arab World Project", held in Damascus, Syria, 26-28 May 2008.
Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Library of Alexandria, stated that this event is part of the BA’s efforts to preserve Arabic tangible and intangible heritage, using modern scientific and digital techniques. The Conference will be attended by a group of scientists and specialists, in addition to representatives from the UNESCO, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) and the Arab Union for Electronic Publishing in Egypt.
Dr. Serageldin added that the Conference will discuss several themes including: digital documentation, Arab efforts in the documentation of heritage, countries’ experiences in documentation of Arabic heritage, the role of libraries and information technology in this respect.
The second meeting of the Executive Committee of the "Memory of the Arab World Project" will discuss joint efforts between Arab centers and institutions specialized in the field of heritage. The meeting will also tackle the achievements of the past six months since the signing of the Sharjah Declaration, which is the official document governing the Project. The Sharjah Declaration was the product of the first meeting held in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, in October 2007.
Egypt will participate in the proceedings of the Conference and the meeting with a senior delegation, co-chaired by Dr. Hoda Baraka, First Deputy to Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Dr. Fathy Saleh, Director of CULTNAT, along with Dr. Reem Bahgat, Deputy Director of CULTNAT, Dr. Heba Barakat, Manager of "Memory of the Arab World Project", Dr. Sohair Wastawy, BA Chief Librarian, Dr. Saber Arab, Chairman of the Chairman of the General Organization for Dar Al -Kutub and National Documents, and Dr. Ahmed Morsi, President of the Egyptian Association of Folklore (NGO).
The "Memory of the Arab World Project" aims at publishing Arabic heritage and effectuating the role of digital heritage on the public level, where each country assembles and documents its cultural, tangible and intangible heritage. The role of CULTNAT is to prepare basic specifications for the training of specialists from all the Arab countries, in addition to the development of the portal in Arabic and English.
The Project is one of the most important projects documenting tangible and intangible heritage on the Arab arena. It is an Arab regional project documenting the heritage of the Arab World and preserving its memory for future generations with the use of the state- of- art technologies.