As the British Council closes down its library in Cairo, Watani looks at how reading fares in Egypt. Page 2 carries a list of new publications in our New Books section, and Page 3 carries two books reviews which commemorate two worthy men.
The British Council in Egypt last August announced that it had decided to close its library, which has been lending books for more than seven decades, citing the weakness of the Egyptian attitude to reading books. The move was met with great sadness by book lovers.
Paul Smith, director of the British Council in Cairo, claimed it was no longer of benefit to keep the library running, because only a limited number of people took advantage of the approximately 5,000 books. He said library membership was currently about 2,800 a year, while the cost of management ran at about three million Egyptian Pounds (USD542,000) annually.
The British Council, the largest educational and cultural organisation in the world, opened its first office outside the United Kingdom in Egypt in 1938. Plans for the library came into being the same year.
Raising the white flag
Dr Smith acknowledged that the abandonment of the managed lending library meant “raising the white flag in front of the Internet.” However Dr Smith, whose role also means he is cultural attaché at the British Embassy in Cairo, said that the closure of the Library Board did not mean giving up its role in supporting British culture, but meant it would expand its activities in other ways “to build a great partnership between the two peoples, the British, and the Egyptian, and not just the promotion of British culture.”
He pointed out that 27,000 people a year studied the English language at the British Council in Cairo.
Internet takeover
Dr Smith said the council would expand to provide educational services through the Internet, and establish a partnership to ‘support educational and vocational skills” and the dissemination of information technology tools in schools, as well as the promotion of dialogue between the two peoples.
The idea that Egyptians do not read has not gone down well. An official at the Egyptian Culture Ministry said that “people read a lot in this country. Every street corner you see someone with a newspaper, reading. This idea that Egyptians don’t read is ridiculous.
“If the British Council wanted to get people reading through its library, they should have promoted it better. How many people didn’t even know it existed? In places like India, they promote reading, but here they just claim ‘Egyptians don’t read’ and close the doors. What is this? It’s laziness,” he argued.
Under threat
Watani wished to know where reading was going in Egypt. Mohamed Hamdi, head of the Cairo Public Library (CPL), said reading was under threat not just in Egypt but all over the world. The reason, in his opinion, lies in the emergence of new means of communication, satellite channels and the Internet, through which people now gain knowledge, especially in that e-books are easily searched.
Mr Hamdi added that the CPL’s readers were mainly university students and researchers who can find references easily and quickly. The CPL contains a large number of books, easily numbered indexes, and air-conditioned rooms. However there is less demand for library services in summer, when most of the visitors are children looking for various activities on computer or in drawing, theatre, music, and craftwork.
Mr Hamdi is upbeat about the joys of reading. “Still, the book is the master. Is it possible to enjoy reading a story by Tawfiq al-Hakim on the Internet with the same pleasure?”
Too expensive
Iman Abdel-Mohsen, manager of the Talaat Harb cultural centre, told Watani that the British Council library was very expensive and, in her opinion, limited. “It doesn’t compare with the great CPL, the American University in Cairo library, or the American cultural centre’s (ACC) library in Cairo, she said.
Doaa’ Abdel-Raheem, who is responsible for the ACC, said that 50 per cent of the library visitors were mainly students or research workers. Ms Abdel-Mohsen says the Talaat Harb Centre is not only for reading but also has various activities: workshops for teaching arts, and also e-books. The centre, she said, attracts people to reading through various activities, especially children during the summer holidays when the daily number reaches 200. The centre also makes CD archives, since people today prefer digital libraries, she says. Although the Internet has affected book reading, she believes it will not eliminate it. Another library which has been speedily gaining popularity since its establishment in 1995 is the Mubarak Public Library in Giza. Hussam Othman, manager of operations and advertising there said the MPL attracts some 135,000 registered members while the actively-participating number amounts to some 22,000. He regretted the closure of the British Council library. “The British Council is a large cultural establishment containing many valuable books,” he said wistfully.