New York University Abu Dhabi digitises Arabic books for worldwide access

The world will soon have free online access to 15,000 Arabic books ranging from 12th-century collections of the hadith to Sulayman Al Bustani’s translation of Homer’s Iliad, thanks to a project funded by New York University Abu Dhabi.

Arabic Collections Online (dlib.nyu.edu/aco) has been set up to address the fundamental problem of a lack of freely available Arab academic literature, says Virginia Danielson, NYU Abu Dhabi’s library director.

“Foreign libraries have been collecting Arabic books for as long as there has been publishing in the Arab world. But, foreigners have been taking books outside of the Arab world and there is no really strong history of reprinting books [locally].”

Many institutions are somewhat inaccessible – a library such as the Dar Al Kutub national library in Cairo has to be visited in person with a letter of introduction. Arabic Collections Online hopes to tackle this knowledge gap – there are no login screens or paywalls; all that is required is an internet connection.

“High-school kids in the Sudan can use these books – and from that perspective it’s almost a repatriation project of bringing the books back to the communities from where they originate.”

Original article by Hareth Al Bustani

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New York University Abu Dhabi digitises Arabic books for worldwide access