At the harbour of Alexandria, Serageldin and General Adel Labib, Governor of Alexandria, together received the first shipment of the half million French books, sent as a gift from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) to the BA. Last November Serageldin had been guest of honor at a ceremony that took place at Marseille, celebrating the departure of this shipment at the gare du Canet.
The books tackle a wide range of subjects including science, history, geography and anthropology, and are recently published, during the period from 1996 to 2006.
Thanks to this donation, the BA will be the sixth largest francophone library in the world with the biggest collection of French books outside France. The BA will also become the main depository of French books in the Arab world, surpassing Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, in addition to also being the main French Library in Asia and Africa.
A grand celebration will be held at the BA, attended by dignitaries and intellectuals, once the half million books are received.