WATANI International
9 May 2010
People’s music
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s Arts Centre has held its second Peoples’ Music Festival with groups taking part from six countries: Egypt, Greece, Romania, Italy, Cyprus and France. The main theme of the festival, which took place from 23 to 26 April, was the diverse musical and dance heritage of European and Mediterranean countries.
Maps library
Bibliotheca Alexandrina director Ismail Serageddin has opened the new Maps Library, which includes a large collection of maps and atlases now available for public through specially-equipped showcases.
The Map Library is the most recent specialist section in the BA and has been realised in cooperation with authorities in Egypt, who were keen to provide the library with various materials totalling some 7,000 historical and modern maps and charts, 420 atlases and 11 globes. Among the maps is a copy of a rare ‘Earth photo’ by Sherif al-Idrissi and a copy of a 17th-century map of the Arab Gulf and Mesopotamia
The library also contains a collection of political and demographic maps as well as specialist maps for agricultural, industrial or touristic use.
Soheir Wastawi, head of the libraries sector, said the BA was cooperating with several authorities and institutions in Egypt and the Arab world to obtain the most recent editions of maps and atlases. Countries helping with the project include Oman, Syria, Saudi Arabia and some countries of the European Mediterranean.