A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by Ismail Serageldin as Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and Derk Vermeer as President of the Royal Tropical Institute— Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen (KIT) in Amsterdam, whereby the majority of the KIT library collection, almost 400,000 books and 20,000 journals, will be reallocated at the BA.
A decision by the Dutch Government to stop subsidizing KIT as of the beginning of 2014, resulted in closing the KIT Department of Information and Library Services and the KIT Library that has housed over 1.000.000 documents for 230 years. The KIT Director immediately sent a call for action to different institutions worldwide, and the BA instantly responded to save the invaluable collection.
The collection covers different fields, and is especially important because it is Europe's largest library pertaining to development issues. Most of the collection is in English, some of it in German, French and other languages. All material written in Dutch will be kept by the Dutch Government. KIT will make available to the BA the digital files of relevance including the electronic catalogue of the materials concerned.
The BA has agreed to safeguard this library collection and keep it publicly accessible. It will make special efforts to bring it to the attention of other institutions and interested parties, including Egyptian and regional universities, academies, and research institutions.
Dutch media and cultural circles have greatly commended the BA and its Director for the initiative and prompt response.