In 1994, the United Nations announced the designation of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina to be one of the UN publication depository libraries in Egypt. Since then, it has been receiving UN publications in parallel with the other five UN depository libraries in Egypt:
- The Faculty of Law library of the University of Alexandria
- The Dar Al Kutub Al Mesreyah (=National Library of Egypt) in Cairo
- The Faculty of Law library of the Ain Shams University in Cairo
- The Faculty of Law library of the University of Zagazig
- The United Nations Information Centre in Cairo.
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina depository library aims at supporting teaching, learning, and research processes; by acting as an information center providing quality publications from the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), and other government printing agencies and authorities. It is located within the main reading hall on level F2. The primary objectives of this information center is to.
- Acquire, organize, and disseminate the publications of the various governmental bodies represented and their constituent and related organizations.
- Provide reference and information services on the history, activities, structure and publications of the organizations highlighted within the Depository Collection.
The first of these objectives is met through the collection development activities of the depository. The second is met by the depository's public services activities.
The publications in the regional areas provide services to users inside and outside the university community. The depository system is designed to make the documents and publications of the UN more readily available to scholars.
Depositor organizations at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina depository library are:
- The United Nations (UN):
- The UN is made up of a variety of organizational entities (agencies, organizations, commissions, programs, funds, etc). Each entity has a distinct and separate mandate (covering the political, economic, social, scientific and technical fields). From the UN organizational chart, the BA is a deposit for:
- The United Nations main organs: General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, International Court of Justice, Secretariat and trusteeship.
- UN commissions: ESCWA, ECA, ECE, ECLAC, ESCAP.
- UN departments : DDA, OLA, DESA, DPI, DPA, ODC.
- Specialized agencies: FAO, WB, ILO, IMO, UNESCO, WHO, IMF, WIPO, IFAD, WTO.
- UN entities : UNDP, UNEP, UNICEF, UNCTAD, UNIDIR, UNRISD, OHCHR, UNAIDS, UNU, UN-Habitat.
- The European Union
- The Economic Research Forum, the Stock Exchange and the Arab League. We receive also publications from IDSC ( Information & Decision Support Center).
The depository library aims at being the designated recipient of more international organizations’ publications.