Mrs Rania Kalawy

Head of General Collections and Services Department, Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Rania Kalawy is currently the Head of General Collections and Services Department affiliated to the Library Sector at Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA). She is managing the main library in providing collection and services to meet information needs of the  community, and to serve as a gateway to knowledge and information. In addition she is working on  developing the BA collection through enriching and updating  its printed resources.

Kalawy obtained her Bachelor degree from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Alexandria University in 1997. She worked in several international companies before joining the BA in 2010 as Head of Arts and Multimedia Library (AM).

Having faith that Library role is not only about information resources but they are also channels to raise awareness and enrich cultural experience within the society, Kalawy studied the community needs and culture and reformulated the AM Library programs, accordingly. She tailored the Library outreach strategy to attract new audience and engage new categories of target users.

Kalawy has always been keen to take the BA work to the international arena, she presented the newly developed programs to the international Library community in a poster session in IFLA WLIC, Lyon in 2014 under the theme “The Role of the Libraries in Enriching the Cultural Experience within the Community”.

In recognition of her community oriented efforts in raising art appreciation, she was nominated for two consecutive years (2015-2016) as a member of the board of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Faros University to help develop the university educational system.

Presentations:

In the past, the great Libraries of the world were known for being the main repositories of heritage, today Libraries continue be the key cultural institutions that work to not only provide universal access to information and knowledge, but also to preserve cultural heritage and identity of the communities they serve. In the emerging digital era, Libraries face a greater challenge which is to make knowledge move beyond boundaries and enable access to information internationally. Preserved information is the way the generations to come will be able to get connected to their identity. Information also serve as a foundation to build upon. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina strives to preserve heritage for future generations in its digital form, provide universal access to human knowledge, and promote research and development of activities and cultural heritage and history related projects. My presentation will highlight the most important projects of the BA and the importance of these projects in regard to the preservation of the heritage ,the dissemination of knowledge on the local and international level.