BA Receives the First Shipment of the French Donation
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Alexandria—Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Library of Alexandria, and General Adel Labib, Governor of Alexandria, received the first shipment of the half million French books, sent as a gift from France to the BA, on Tuesday, 29 December 2009.
This valuable donation comes as part of the Mediterranean cooperation between the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The books tackle a wide range of subjects including science, history, geography and anthropology, and are recently published, during the period from 1996 to 2006.
Thanks to this donation, the BA will be the sixth largest francophone library in the world with the biggest collection of French books outside France. The BA will also become the main depository of French books in the Arab world, surpassing Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, in addition to also being the main French Library in Asia and Africa.
A grand celebration will be held at the BA, attended by dignitaries and intellectuals, once the half million books are received.
