Translated by Aisha El-Awady

In 1860, Khedive Ismail issued a decree for the establishment of the Egyptian Khedive caravanserai for books, which is known today as the National Library and Archives. His goal was to bring together the precious manuscripts which had been entailed or endowed by the sultans, scientist and authors to the mosques and scientific institutes of that time.

Ismail allocated the ground floor of his brother Prince Mustafa Fadel’s palace on Al-Gamamez Avenue, to house thousands of manuscripts and official documents such as the endowment records and ministry documents. The library currently houses more than 570,000 manuscripts as well as a rare collection of Arabic coins of which the oldest dates back to 693 Hijri.

Today, and just as the Khedive’s objective behind the establishment of the Khedive caravanserai for books was the documentation of manuscripts, four young Egyptians have launched a new website with the same goal in mind. Their website, daralkotob.net, documents Arabic books on the Internet and provides book cover photos, as well as information, prices, authors, publishers and distributors of these books. In addition, the site also follows book signing events.

This e-library also publishes a list of bestselling books and a monthly report with critics opinions of the books issued that month highlighting the positives and negatives of each book. The site also has an interactive feature in that it allows the visitors to exhibit their writings and discuss their thoughts with each other.

The four young men that manage the site are Mohamed Magdy, a 26 year old accountant, Muhammad Mufeed, a 27 year old accountant, Mustafa Al-Husseini, a 27 year old architect and Ahmad Al-Saati, a 19 year old student at the Institute of Social Work. Their love of knowledge and reading was behind this project, despite the discrepancy between their fields of study and the fields of knowledge and publishing.

Mohamed Magdy, one of the founders of the e-library says, “My friend Mustafa Al-Husseini and I would often be told by the booksellers that they don’t know where we could find a certain book we were looking for. This is what led us to search for a database of books on the Internet.”

“We were surprised to find no such database existed, so we decided to create one to provide a way for bookworms to find what they’re looking for.”

“In the beginning, our goal was to provide a database of books that would serve as a guide to the reader on where the books were being sold, to ensure they received the utmost benefit. That was about two years ago,” explained Magdy.

“My friends Mustafa Al-Husseini and Ahmad Al-Saati liked the idea and joined in so we became a team. We then began going to the various publishing houses where we would collect the information on the books.”

“When we began publishing information on the site, as well as some news from the cultural scene, we received good feedback from the visitors to the site, which encouraged us to keep going,” he said.

“We held our first cultural competition where we asked the readers to send us the names of the authors of the books whose titles we published on the site. We then held an awards ceremony at the French Cultural Center which was attended by the well known novelist Bahaa Taher and Fatima Naaot, the poet."

Magdy went on to say, “From then on we began covering cultural events, such as book signings, book releases and seminars to create a cultural portal through which we could present news and information to our readers.”

“We also received requests for information about certain books from readers who couldn’t find them, and other readers began to offer to sell or trade these books with them. It was here that we came up with the idea of holding the first used book fair, which was held last year in the El-Sawy Culture Wheel."

This led to the appearance of an electronic marketplace for used books, where people could either trade books or sell them at a reduced price, which is especially convenient with today’s high book prices.

The success of their idea and the enthusiasm it was met with by the readers led to an invitation from the Bibliotheca Alexandrina for them to hold the second used book fair which was opened by Dr. Ismail Serageldin, the director of the library. The fair lasted for a total of four days.

Magdy explained that the main problem they have met so far is the lack of understanding on the part of some of the publishing house managers. He says that some managers have even asked for money in order to give them the book information they requested, even though they are the sole financers of the site.

“There are many indicators that the number of people who read in Egypt is on the rise, especially when it comes to young people. These include increased book sales, increased production of literary works, the opening of many new bookshops and the existence of many cultural forums on the Internet,” he said.

Helmi Al-Nimnim, the Vice Chairman of the General Authority for books said, “The Internet is the main source of information for this generation and we, the Authority for books, are improving our website which will include everything related to our published material and news. The website will appear with its new look sometime before next May.”

Al-Nimnim stressed on the importance of having a database on the Internet, especially when it comes to publishing, since it has been discovered recently that some people have been attributing books to themselves that they have not written. He says that the existence of a reliable electronic database that includes all of the information on the books would reduce such intellectual theft.

Regarding electronic publishing, Al-Nimnim says an agreement can be reached on how to best protect the rights of everyone involved. He also said that the freedom created by the Internet has ended the era of confiscation and concealment.

Sayed Mahmud, who is in charge of the cultural pages of Al-Ahram Al-Arabi newspaper, agrees with Al-Nimnim saying, “Without a doubt, the Internet has become an important means of knowledge, which many young people now depend upon for their information and news.”

“I also believe the Internet has benefited printed books as it has helped spread the news about book signing events and has made publishing easier for young writers who can bypass the publishers monopolizing the publishing market," he said.

He went on to say that “The e-library has taken the place of the traditional cultural lounge. The latter simply sells books or publishes articles and poetry, whereas, this website offers a wide range of cultural context from news to selling books to keeping an eye on the cultural society.”