Youth help protect Bibliotheca Alexandrina

During the current unrest in Egypt, city youth in Alexandria have come together to help protect one of the country's great intellectual treasures--the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina, which opened in 2002 after a long campaign to recreate the lost library of ancient times. The library remains closed during the unrest, but the young people of Alexandria have organized themselves into groups to direct traffic, protect neighborhoods, and guard public buildings, writes library director Ismail Serageldin on the library's website.

The ancient Library of Alexandria was the largest of the ancient world; the modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina has shelf space for 8 million books. To learn more, read the full article from the website of the United Kingdom's Guardian.