National library of Egypt to digitize 11,000 books for online access

In order to preserve Egypt’s cultural heritage and make it more accessible, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology will digitise over 11,000 books from the National Library of Egypt.

Approximately 11,300 books are set to be digitised, with the process adhering to technological standards and intellectual property rights. This collaboration aims to enhance Egypt’s digital cultural content and reinforce the country's cultural leadership. Further plans include collaborating to provide the works of prominent Egyptian writers in digital formats at affordable prices.

This initiative is part of a new memorandum signed by the ministries under the ‘Egypt Digital Heritage’ platform. The memorandum will remain in effect for three years and involves a review of metadata to ensure that the digitised books are appropriately formatted for the platform. A recent meeting to discuss the implementation included plans to digitize content from various cultural institutions, such as the Egyptian National Library, the Opera House, the Academy of Arts, and the Fine Arts Sector.

As part of this initiative, a ‘Digital Cultural Palace’ model was proposed, aimed at offering cultural content and services to younger generations and creative professionals. Potential future collaborations were also discussed, including efforts to document the heritage of the Egyptian Opera House, create virtual museums, utilise AI for translation, and develop online platforms for marketing books and audiobooks.