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Within the restored Zamalek
villa is the Greater Cairo Library. This library is more
than a hundred years old and it has in its collection a
great number of books in a variety of languages: Arabic,
French, English, and German. It also boasts a wonderful
collection along the lines of the arts and sciences. Its
collection of international periodicals is also quite
impressive. The 1840s hand-drafted location maps of Cairo
are part of its map collection.
The Greater Cairo Library is a baroque-style mansion
overlooking the Nile. Declared an educational library,
millions were spent updating and computerizing. The façade
is impressive, having been the home of the daughter of
Sultan Hussein Kamel, ruler of Egypt from 1914 to 1917.
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In
Giza is the Mubarak Library which was opened in
1995. Containing a substantial collection of reading
materials from books, magazines, CDs, periodicals,
videos, audio cassettes, as well as circulating
materials, the Mubarak Library offers story telling
time as well as puppet shows for kids.
Considered one of the most important projects of the
modern Egyptian cultural scene, the Mubarak Public
Library was a collaboration of Egypt and Germany and
involved 3 groups: the Integrated Care Society
headed by the First Lady of Egypt, Mrs. Suzanne
Mubarak, the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, and the
Bertelsmann Foundation. |
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The Mubarak Public Library is rooted on the philosophy that
the library is an organic thing that changes with the
public, and is the basis for the cultural structure of the
society.
Made up of 3 storeys, covering an area of 600 square meters,
a verdant garden of over 2000 square meters surrounds it.
The building is a distinctive villa of an unusual
architectural type that has been rearranged to fit and
fulfill the function of a library in terms of availability
of appropriate hall areas, efficient ventilation and
air-conditioning, quality of natural lighting sources,
suitable furniture both in style and functionality, as well
as the availability of a dining area, which serves soft
drinks and fast food.
Heliopolis suburb has
two libraries: the Heliopolis Public Library has a
high-tech multimedia auditorium and offers programs
for kids, and the El Mustaqbal Library offers only
non-circulating materials (no borrowing).
The Heliopolis Library gives its services to people
of all age groups. Services are categorized as adult
library, child library, computer center, and cinema
club.
The Cairo University houses a large main library,
several smaller ones for various disciplines or
majors, and over a hundred scientific research
centers.
What’s more, the
library has an authentic collection of minted coins, donated
by Mr Datari. They consist of a collection of archaeological
coins belonging to the Greek and Roman eras. These
collections are as impressive as those at the British
Museum. It is worthwhile mentioning that these gifts granted
by great scholarship
and distinguished figures are still in existence in the
library drawn a lot of investment from the government. Of
all the priceless and important collections of books
possessed by the Central Library of the Cairo University is
the one by Prince Ibrahim Helmi. This collection is very
important for all researchers interested in the history of
Egypt , Sudan, Nile Valley as well as the history of the
East as a whole. This collection includes a number of rare
resources in an elegant binding.
If you’re looking for materials in English, look in the
British Council and the American Cultural Centre.
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