Like, Link, Share:

How cultural institutions are embracing digital technology
Commissioned by the Wyncote Foundation
  • Screen Shot 2014-11-26 at 1.55.10 PM

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) builds on the ancient legacy of a major library at Alexandria, Egypt, dating from the third century B.C. until the Roman Conquest. The new BA building opened in 2002 and today houses active archives, research centers, specialized libraries, antiquities, and other scholarly resources. On-site, the simulator VISTA allows researchers to create walk-in 3-D virtual environments to visualize architectural, socio-economic and natural phenomena. CULTURAMA provides a 180-degree interactive panorama incorporating nine screens for displaying multiple layers of visual media and information. The Library is also fostering multiple digitization initiatives to expand and share collections online. As a back-up provider for the global Internet Archive, the BA designs and manufactures systems for web archiving and currently has the capacity to store 3.7 petabytes of data on 1,636 computers. Youth of Egypt surrounded Bibliotheca Alexandrina to protect it from harm during the 2011 Arab Spring protests.