In February 2005, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) relocated its Fine Arts and Recreation Collection to create the Arts & Multimedia (AM) Library. Establishing such a new and innovative concept lead the BA on an exciting path of discovery into the world of the arts. The new "library within the library" was transformed into a virtual arts center complete with a display of artwork, interactive work stations, screening rooms for visual and sound recordings, programs coordinated with the Arts Center, and much more. Using the latest technology, the AM Library not only appeals to people's multiple senses, but also enriches their experience, knowledge, and critical awareness of the arts.
What more can a library offer, when a user wants to explore W. A. Mozart's music, than to discover she/he can read about his life, listen to his music through refined selections of live or recorded performances of major world renown artists. She/he can watch one of Mozart's operas produced by a major opera company, such as New York City's Metropolitan Opera, and compare the same opera with other productions. He/she can also sign into a chat room and discuss her/his appreciation of the music with other Mozart admirers. The library user may even try, through a music software program, to compose a piece of her/his own, inspired by Mozart's life and works. And finally she/he can log into an interactive website or read a book on the social, political and economical conditions of Salzburg and Vienna during Mozart's life in the second half of the eighteenth century.
Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.
George Bernard Shaw
Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 - 1950)