The Largest Arabic Digital Repository Online with 100,000 Books
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Alexandria—In a new world record, the BA has recently announced that its Digital Assets Repository (DAR) reached more than 100,000 Arabic books, thus becoming the largest digital library in the whole world. One can access the whole collection of books on dar.bibalex.org/, the digital archive inaugurated by the BA International School of Information Science (ISIS) and encompassing material in different languages digitalized using the state of the art technologies, in compliance with the BA’s mission to make knowledge accessible to all.
Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Library of Alexandria, said that “digitalizing 100,000 books is another digital leap, in keeping with the world’s new concept of libraries”. He pointed out that this repository makes out-of-print books, very specialized books, rare books and non-copyrighted books available to readers. It also addresses the global cultural challenge of relatively poor Arabic online content when compared to other languages.
Dr. Magdy Nagy, Head of Information and Communication Technology Sector (ICT), stated that users of the digital repository could search books using different tools; they can search by keyword, subject, author, title, publisher, date of publishing, among others. He added that the Project team designed a navigation tool and a search tool to facilitate finding data, in addition to a zoom in tool for easier reading. This was done in an aim to document and revive the cultural and intellectual heritage of Egypt and Arab nations as a legacy to future generations.