The publication of digital manuscript sets comes in conformity with the BA's mission to adopt modern digital technologies. The Digital Manuscript Library project aims at publishing the manuscript treasures of Arabic heritage in digital form. The year 2007 witnessed the release of the fifth and sixth sets of the Digital Manuscript Library, namely the St. Catherine Monastery and the National Library of Sweden (KB) collections. Each set includes seven rare manuscripts and an introductory booklet.
The National Library of Egypt harbors a gigantic and unique national wealth of rare historical maps and Arabic Papyri. CULTNAT, in collaboration with the National Library of Egypt, successfully initiated and completed the digitization of two archival collections of approximately 10,000 maps and 3500 papyri. The development of databases containing the digitized collections has made it easy for the National Library to better serve the visiting researchers and scholars. A bilingual publication in Arabic and English entitled Egypt in the Cartographic Heritage (1595-1840 CE) about the map collection is currently being printed and is complemented by a CD.
Al-Hilal is considered the oldest cultural journal in the Arab world, and the only journal that has been issued regularly for more than a hundred years. Since its first publication in 1892, Al- Hilal magazine had a marked effect on the history of the Arab world in general and the history of Egypt in particular. It also played a leading role in modernizing Arab intellectual thinking, and opened new collaborations towards the cultural evolution. It reflects the Arab intellectual way of thinking over the discourse of history during the past century, thus providing a valuable tool of interest for researchers, historians as well as common individuals. That’s why, the BA has taken the initiative to digitize the whole collection of the last 114 issues and compile them on 12 DVDs provided with the necessary browsing tools and search facilities in a user-friendly interface. The DVDs are for sale at the BA bookshop.
This ambitious project aims at the acquisition of the largest possible microfilmed and digital copies of manuscript collections worldwide, to provide scientific research resources, establish academic cooperation, and disseminate scientific heritage, especially works pertaining to the history of science and the contributions of the Arab-Islamic civilization to humanity. Initiated in 2005, the project had a primary target of 100,000 manuscripts. During the past year, the Manuscript Center exchanged copies of Arabic manuscripts with the Arab Manuscripts Institute in Cairo, the Juma al-Majid Heritage and Culture Center (United Arab Emirates), and the Central Library of Islamic Manuscripts at the Egyptian Ministry of Endowments. As a result, 5298 manuscripts were added to the Center’s collection, hence, fulfilling 40% of the set target. All collections are made available for the public in the Center’s specialized reading rooms that received in one year a total of 1925 researchers from different parts of the world.