SN 4 EP 2: Reimagining North Africa’s Knowledge Hubs — Maha Abbas on Open Science, AI, and the Future of Libraries

In this episode host Joy Owango speaks with Maha Abbas, Head of Biblioteca Alexandrina Information for Africa (BAIFA) at Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, and North African representative at the African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA). They explore how libraries in Africa, especially in North Africa, are evolving from historical centers of knowledge into dynamic, digitally empowered institutions driving research visibility, open science, and continental collaboration. The conversation journeys through Africa’s library heritage, the integration of technology like AI, and the human-centered vision that sustains the profession.
Here Are the Key Things to Look Out For:
1. The Evolving Role of Libraries in Africa
Maha describes how North African libraries like the Biblioteca Alexandrina and Al Qarawiyyin in Morocco embody both history and modernity. Despite challenges such as funding shortages and limited legal frameworks, they remain cultural and research anchors. The conversation underscores how libraries preserve heritage while empowering researchers through access to knowledge.

2. Open Access, Data Democratization, and Policy Reform
A central theme is the democratization of data—ensuring equitable access to information across the continent. Abbas highlights policy gaps in copyright and licensing that hinder open access and calls for frameworks to strengthen fair use and research visibility. Through BIFA’s partnerships with publishers and institutions like Elsevier, KIT, and AfLIA, libraries are promoting open science and bridging the data divide.

3. Technology, AI, and Digitization in Libraries
Maha presents a hopeful view of AI and digital tools—not as replacements for librarians but as enablers that automate routine work and free up human expertise. Digitization, she emphasizes, is essential to preserving collections, expanding access, and safeguarding Africa’s intellectual heritage against loss. Libraries must invest in digital literacy and responsible technology use to remain vital in a knowledge-driven economy.

4. Collaboration, Capacity Building, and Future Vision
Libraries are moving from isolation to interconnection. Through resource-sharing networks, joint catalogs, and cross-institutional partnerships, they amplify research impact. Abbas envisions libraries as active “information institutions” rather than static repositories, urging continuous librarian training, partnerships, and use of ICT to sustain their relevance. Her message is deeply humanistic—libraries are not just systems, but services rooted in compassion and public good.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Intro:
Welcome to Mazungumzo – African scholarly conversations, a podcast that highlights the perspectives of various stakeholders in academia, and research fields across Africa through open dialogue on mazungumzo on scholarly communication in Africa.

Joy Owango
Welcome to Mazungumzo – African Scholarly Conversations, where we are joined by an expansive list of African policymakers, science communication specialists, innovators, and tertiary institution leads who contribute to this realm of science communication.

I’m your host Joy Owango, the Executive Director of the Training Centre in Communication (TCC Africa), a capacity-building trust based at the University of Nairobi, Faculty of Science and Technology in Nairobi, Kenya. Let’s take a trip to Northern Africa and explore the evolving world of libraries, research, and knowledge-sharing in the region. From historic institutions to modern digital transformations, libraries play a critical role in shaping access to information and supporting African researchers. Our guest today is Maha Abbas, Head of BAIFA – Bibliotheca Alexandrina Information for Africa, from Alexandria, Egypt. With over a decade at Bibliotheca Alexandrina, she has been instrumental in building partnerships, strengthening research networks, and advocating for open access to knowledge. She also serves as the North African representative on the Governing Council of the African Library and Information Association and Institution (AFLIA), where she continues to champion the role of libraries in Africa’s development.

It’s a pleasure to have you on Mazungumzo Maha, welcome to the podcast!

Maha Abbas
Thank you very much for this introduction, and thank you very much for this opportunity that allowing me to participate in your very interesting podcast, it’s my pleasure to be with you today.

Joy Owango
You’re most welcome. So as we begin, can you share a bit about your professional journey and what led you to your current role at Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

Maha Abbas
I started my professional journey since 2009 after being graduated from faculty of arts, French Language and Literature Department, and since then, I started working in bibloteca Alexandrina till now, however, I didn’t start as a librarian. I worked for more than two years as a French translator, and then in 2012 I joined and a division in the Alexandrina called the Francophone library. And at this time, I started my journey as a librarian, and in the Francophone library, I learned what is the meaning of being a librarian, and I started to perform some many tasks allowing me to learn more about this very interesting, human and noble profession. I did tasks related to the public service, public and reference services. I used to work in the book selection for many and for many years I was a based reading activity specialist. And finally, I joined, by far in 2016 and became head of it in 2017, my current role in managing this service, created by bit Alexandrina, mainly to serve Africa librarians and researchers and help boosting Africa research and consequent, consequently contribute in our continent development. So I’ve been working in this actually, like nine years ago, almost half of my journey in this service that I love very much and that I believe in its mission, very much.

Joy Owango
Okay, so how could you describe the current landscape of libraries in Northern Africa, and what are the main challenges and opportunities they face?

Maha Abbas
Okay, the current landscape of libraries in North Africa, it’s very rich, in my opinion, and very interesting to be studied. And before talking particularly about libraries, I should mention that this region is characterized by its cultural and linguistic variety. Actually, we have Arabic as our mother tongue. However, we can find English speaking countries. We can find French speaking countries with different backgrounds and cultural backgrounds. So this diversity and this variety make it a very rich region regarding libraries, particularly, we can a very large number of libraries are located in North African countries, and among them, some are very important and internationally ranked in the world, such as the beauty Alexandrina, for example, which appears in any international ranking of libraries. We have also in Egypt, the St Catherine Monastery library in Egypt. We have in Morocco, a library like Al karain library, that is a very ancient library in Morocco. These libraries are not only playing a vital role in the development and advancement of knowledge in their countries, but they have also a very important historical value. And talking about North Africa, I should mention UNESCO’s decision in December 2020, 24 to designate Rabat in Morocco as World Book capital for the year 2026, with a strong national library, a wider library sector, and there are rich possibilities for the year to support engagement in reading and creativity and the city that was before about it was in France. So also this shows the very important role played by these countries in the Library and Information Service fields. And it is worth mentioning also that libraries exist in North Africa from the down of history the theater of science and culture during the Greco Roman era, for example, witnessed many cultural institution, especially libraries, which indicated the existence of archeological research. And here I should mention my institution, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, which is the new one, is here to revive the old one, which was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and it was tragically destroyed in a fire. However, the historical value is still here. Also the libraries existed in the ancient magire. It is the Morocco Algeria Tunisia, since the reign of Cartage and King during this time, used to have private libraries to deposit books and the writings, knowing that most of them are intellectual and that they have many writings in addition to acquired books. So it is very important to know the history and to know how we became here. Libraries in North Africa are very important since the very beginning. So this is about the history, about the present. But like all libraries in all the world, and like all libraries in Africa, we are facing challenges. And if we can summarize these challenges, we can talk about the lack of financial resources, human capacity, technology shortage, lack of legal frameworks and national and at the national and international level to support the library efforts and to document and communicate knowledge. So like all libraries in all the world and in Africa particularly, we are facing this kind of challenges. However, we are making everyday efforts, action, activities, initiatives to be able to face these challenges and transform them into opportunities.

Joy Owango
As you say, Bibliotheca Alexandrina is there is a revival of the ancient library of Alexandria. And it is nice to see Africa leading in such conversations whereby history intersects with modern day technology in preserving knowledge. So this is quite exciting to see. And it’s a very powerful message to the rest of the world in our contribution in storing knowledge despite some of the challenges that the continent faces. And that leads me to the next question. Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a key institution in the region, as we’ve just shared, also from a historical perspective. But how has it contributed to advancing research, scholarly communication and information access across Africa?

Maha Abbas
Actually, the new goal set by Bibliotheca Alexandrina, besides, its main mission, which is dedicated to recapture the spirit of openness and scholarship of the original one, is to connect those with common interests and expertise to host in the development of knowledge and enable immediate sharing of knowledge and contributions. So actually, it’s a very large institution, and. It’s not just a library. We can talk about a cultural complex, cultural building and institution. It comprises eight sectors with different specialties, six special, specialized libraries, museums, a copy of the internet, archive, 12 academic centers and other division so it’s so difficult to talk about all what is political Alexandrina is doing in this field. However, I’ll talk particularly about the library sector to which belongs, by far the service I’m managing. And I should mention that BIFA is affiliated to a section entitled international cooperation, which is part of the information institution and professional skills department, and the beauty Alexandrina’s library sector is playing a vital role in advancing research and information access across Africa through this section. And this section, it includes two units the Francophone network. And by these two units are serving the whole African countries, whether English speaking or French speaking countries, and the Francophone network is providing a wide range of services to French speaking target audience. And among these services, I would like to mention particularly two services that are with great benefit to African librarian and researcher and to the academic community in Africa, particularly the French speaking countries. So first of all, this service is providing, among the other services, a university diploma, an academic diploma entitled The diploma, university. So it is a university diploma specialized in the science of information and libraries. It is internationally recognized as one year Distance Learning diploma taught in French in the field of Library and Information Sciences, and it is equivalent to the first year of a master’s degree we have. And it is based on a very interesting partnership, including two universities, sangoora University is one of the most important universities in Africa, because it is an African French speaking University receiving African postgraduate students to make masters and PhD in Alexandria And another specialized faculty in the science of Information Sciences in France called NCB. And together, these two universities are providing librarian in Africa with an academic content in this field, allowing them to enhance their knowledge, to learn more about the new trends in in their field. And there is a practical side, the academic part should be followed by a practical training. And here comes the role of the British Alexandrina in Africa and the National tech, National de France in Europe. And within the framework of this diploma, we receive Africa librarian to make their practical training or internship in our institution right and learn a lot about what we are doing in our field. The other service that the Francophone network is also provided providing is the Francophone international summer school for Information and Library Sciences. It is organized annually by the International Francophone association of librarian and documentalist ifbd, and since two years, the Francophone network joined this important event as a strategic partner. So also, it is an opportunity allowing librarian to learn more, to enhance their knowledge, to travel, to network together, and by consequences, they can enhance the quality of the services that they are providing to the end users and help them to take advantage More of the services that their libraries are providing. So this is regarding the Francophone network serving the French speaking countries for BIFA, we are committed to advanced knowledge and research and education across Africa, whether from English or French, by providing diverse range of services for students, for researchers, for professionals, through different partnerships. So we have partnership, for example, with a publisher like Elsevier, and through wifa, we grant access to some of the databases provided by Elsevier freely for Africa researchers upon certain eligibility criteria. And we have a large number of researchers in different countries in Africa who are taking the best at the best of this service, and it is very useful for their for their work. Also, we are providing something like the article service from EPSCoR. And here it is another partnership enabling researchers and librarians to request freely academic articles from the databases provided by EPSCoR. We are offering also e learning services through the BA e learning e learning platform the BA Moodle, actually we have among the services that bibliotheca Alexandrina is providing an online, an E learning service. It is provided through another division, but we have an internal cooperation together to allow our users to follow some online courses, capacity building courses and programs, some training sessions also to upskill themselves, to learn more about their job. So beyond this, the resources also, we are engaged with our network through diverse programs, activities and events that foster knowledge exchange. And within this framework, we organize we organize workshops, roundtable discussions, international conferences to allow this sort of exchanging and of networking that we believe it is very important as a source of knowledge. Finally, for BIFA, we are we provide also open access to open access resources through our website. So we have a large collection of open access resources provided through our website that are open for researchers and users anyway, in anywhere in Africa, particularly So, this is how we are contributing in advancing research and Providing access to the more to a wide range of resources with different types.

Joy Owango
Okay, so you’ve mentioned quite a bit that you that the bibliotheca Alexandrina is doing to contribute to the continent, and also some of the key partnerships that are aided in enhancing scholarly communication. In your role as a peer, let’s just take segue bit in your role as affiliates North Africa representative. What policy changes or investments do you believe are necessary to enhance library services and research visibility,

Maha Abbas
To talk about policy changes needed, we should identify, firstly, the challenges, and in my opinion, getting access to data remains a significant challenge for all libraries in Africa, many data sets are copyright protected. Fair use rights could be limited by license. So we can summarize this challenge in three key challenges, copyright barriers, budget restriction, collection policies and libraries and libraries in many African countries are also facing other difficulties, like the rapid erosion of funding for books and journals, stuffing difficulties, loss of the perception of library As the Center of Academic Scholarship. And out of this perspective, I think our main concern should be data democratization, which means giving everyone in an organization the ability to access data appropriately, along with the tools the training necessary to understand it and. From my experience, also, I’m facing this in by far, to acquire high quality collection, to acquire resources and make it available for researchers to learn, to take the advantage of it for their studies, for their job, which is very important and very essential for the development of the whole country, the old continent. I mean, so the policies that we need to work on it are all related to the copyright barriers, the fair use, having the information accessible for everyone. So I think this is very important.

Joy Owango
okay, and I can see how it’s shifting into adopting open science. And how is BIFA pushing or advocating for the adoption of open science, not only with its users, but also the stakeholders in North Africa.

Maha Abbas
Actually, we are advocating for this all the time. We are trying all the time to have different partnerships allowing us to get more open access resources access to open access sciences to be able to serve best our users actually one of the main partnership that we are having in BIFA, for example, is a partnership with an institute called Royal tropical Institute, known as kit Institute in Netherlands. So we have here a partnership allowing us to get their master documents, their thesis and publish them on our website and make that, make it available to our users, of free access and free access. We have also partnership with something like the association of African universities, which is a very important partnership for us. And we are working together on this, on having, on enhancing the access to the African universities, to resources and to the Open Access science. So it is really very important. We doing this all the time. We are trying to enhance the quality of the collection that we are making available for our users having new documents. But it is a challenge. It is a challenge. We are also trying to work closely with the publishers, so working with Elsevier, working with EPSCoR, working with emerald, and trying to find ways to take to take advantage of their open access ports, and to also help our user to have access to their content within some framework. So with Elsevier, we are providing access upon eligibility criteria. With emerald, for example, we are doing capacity building workshops, and during the period of the workshop, we are providing institutional access to these libraries, to the content of the database of emerald and so on.

Joy Owango
Okay, you’re talking about collecting data, storing data. And one of the things that has happened in the library is its evolution in adapting technology. So with emerging technologies such as AI or digital archiving, how are they shaping the future of library services in Africa and how can they be leveraged effectively?

Maha Abbas
Well, actually, I think the answer of this question made me think of the five key trends identified by IFLA change on information environments, and particularly the first one, the first one which is the new technologies will both expand and limit who has access to information, and the last one, which is the global information economy, it will be transformed, transformed by new technologies. And we have to admit that an ever expanding digital universe will bring a higher value to. Information literacy skills. So in Africa, the impact of information literacy can show its importance in community development. Librarian needs skills in data literacy, social intelligence, compute computational thinking, and also we should think of implementing robotic process automation RPA for routine tasks, automate tasks like data entry and inventory management for efficiency, access and retrieve books in high density storage. Actually, I think it’s time to really take the advantage of such technologies and allow librarian to have more time for the tasks that can never be performed by AI. AI should be here to help, not to replace. Some tasks will never be replaced by AI. Librarian can never be replaced by AI. Is there is a human dimension in this profession that will make it always here. So we need librarian to have more time for the tasks requiring human dimension, and we can take advantage of the AI tools, of the robotics, of the new technologies to really do this, routine tasks that consume large time, and we are facing difficulties in stuff. We are facing shortage in human capacity. Actually, we need to reallocate our resources. We need to allow yes so Libraries also can support the skill development through professional training and online courses, and we should encourage integration of AI in libraries and media departments with a focus on teaching students how to use them responsibly for research and information. So we should upskill ourselves, and we should help our use users to gain these skills too. And finally, digitization, digitization should be implemented widely in our libraries. We should convert all physical resources into digital format, implementing additional management system, making resources accessible online. It will enhance user access, support digital literacy, keep libraries relevant in a technology driven world, and it is also very important to preserve our collection, especially with what we have seen with Ukraine, for example, and the library that have been destroyed through at the beginning of our conversation, we talked about the political Alexandrina that was destroyed, and we lost Very valuable documents. So digitization should be one of our top priorities in our libraries, and we should implement it widely and enhance it all the time, to have to preserve our collection, to allow more users to access our collection, and so on.

Joy Owango
That is good. That is a really positive outlook to adapting technology. Because whenever we mention AI, there’s always that inherent fear, and I always say, make use of the strengths of the technology and be wary, and also be aware of its weaknesses and seeing how you can mitigate those weaknesses. So that’s a very good outlook to how we can use AI and also the capacity building of the users as well, to how they can adopt AI when they are working in library services. That is really important. I like that. It’s a different view on how we can look at AI and its positive sides in supporting information sciences. So how do you see libraries playing a much more significant role in strengthening African research networks and fostering collaboration among institutions?

Maha Abbas
And go back to the trends, the five key trends identified by the ishna and I mentioned one of the these trends that was that hyper connected societies will listen to and empower new voices and groups libraries can play a key role through their existing connection As gateway between the local crowd sourced infrastructure and the global Internet, a source of locally relevant material and a physical trust space to carry out discussions and training. And we should admit that networking became, lately, a new trend in libraries as an advanced form of the old. Traditional one of sharing resources, the cooperation between libraries, resource sharing networking are used now as terms for collaborative efforts of information exchange among libraries. We cannot operate alone. No actually, to face the challenge that that we have mentioned, regarding the copyright barriers, the budget restrictions, all of this, I think that the answer is the collaboration, the cooperation between libraries and the networking, if we gather our efforts together, in a very simple way, I have a user who need a document, this document is not available among my collection. It is available in another Library’s collection, I can direct this, this user, to this collection. And actually it will be a win, win situation for everybody, for the libraries, for the user, for everybody, there is no library who can own everything in the world. However, we can have a common collection, a very common, large collection but by having this cooperation, by implementing the networking concept between us. Librarians cannot be competitive. We should be operative.

Joy Owango
That is true. They have to be operative and collaborative.

Maha Abbas
Yes, we are all here as librarian to serve users at the end of the day. What I really love about this profession is this human mission, and we can see successful examples of library networking, like worded cat, for example, which is a union catalog, including the collection of around 72,000 libraries in 170 countries. So all of these libraries that are cooperating together to have one catalog. This is for me, something is amazing. So if we can have this, this will be great. In BIFA, we are having a resource sharing service, and it is we have a very successful cooperation with the Library of Congress, so our users can request articles from the Library of Congress through resource sharing service implemented by both of our libraries together. It’s very important, actually, this is what I dream of, is to having, is to have this kind of collaboration. Is when I don’t have a certain document or article or book, I can easily say, well, it is available in this library. You can request it, and as it is a BA user, he can have access to other libraries collection.

Joy Owango
That’s good, that is very good, that is very good. And that connectivity means that you have uniform access to knowledge. You can improve on your services. Can improve on the in the information that you have and that is something even users need to know that we have universal access to knowledge, and you’re making it as accessible as possible. And you know, with the library’s job of trying to negotiate with partners to make sure that we have access to these resources, resources either free of charge or at really reduced prices, so that we are able to have access to that information that’s building a knowledge economy. You know, we used to walk into libraries. All we need to do these days is log into the library, and it is something that we should take advantage of. And when we look at the library, we look at a library we need to look at not even the current resources that they have, but the historical value you know, like your library and its connections, even with the Smithsonian, the historical value that a library collates is an something worth preserving, but it can only be preserved also by digitizing, so that we don’t have issues like what we have seen in Sudan, also issues that what you’re seeing in Ukraine as well. If the information is digitized, it is not lost, because it means that generations to come will still have access to that information as well as we wind up. This has been a very interesting conversation, and I like listening to your passion about libraries and its historical significance, with its intersection with modern technology and what we need to do to preserve our information. Um, as we look at, as you look ahead, what is your vision for the future of libraries in Africa and what steps should be taken to ensure that they remain vital to research education and development?

Maha Abbas
Well, actually, talking again about passion and about, I think it’s all about believing, yes, librarian should believe in what he’s doing, because talking very honestly, librarians are not very well paid. However, we love our job. We believe in it. We know that we are doing something that is important for humanity. That’s true. Yes, there is a daily work, a routine work, all of this is here. However, if we really believe in our what we are doing, that our main concern is to serve this user, is to find a way to help him to get access to the information. I think that will excel in what we are doing. This is why I talked at some time about the perception of the library that people should have in their mind. We should change this idea of that the library is a storehouse for books or for knowledge. And this is why, actually, the term of library has been replaced by information institution. We are not just limited in our institutions to have some shelves and have some books on it. We are provider of information, right? If we believe on in this, and we believe in our mission, will really do the most great job in this for the humanity. That is true regarding my vision, actually, in the era of AI. And as I mentioned, if everybody is afraid of being replaced by AI at some point. Personally, I feel very optimistic regarding the future of libraries in Africa, I don’t believe that AI will replace us. People will need libraries and librarian people need this human communication. Yes, we can refer to some AI tools in something, but people love to come to the public service desks love to talk with libraries, even if there is an automated the tool, they would love to ask and yes, this is why we will not be replaced. Actually, libraries are essential in a process of giving citizens access, access to knowledge, and in digital times, they are needed more than ever. That is true. And there is a code that I love very much, that according to Neil Gaiman, Google can bring you 100,000 answers, but I librarian can bring you back to the right one. Make a search on Google, we can have millions of answers, but if you ask a librarian, He will direct you really to the right answer. But to remain vital, we need to focus, in my opinion, on the three areas training librarians should be up to date with all new trends in library and information science fields, should work on being upskilled, and should work on the capacity building of their user partnership and collaboration, which will help us to gain more power and diversify our services and the best usage and implementation of ICT and IEA AI tools to best serve, serve our user, and change the old concept of libraries considered as storehouse of books. Actually, in my opinion, I think this is very important to remain vital. And I’ll take also what you have said to take the positive side of the technology, right? Actually, if we talk about union catalog, if we talk about networking, if we talk about collaboration, this cannot be done without technology now. So we need technology, not just to enhance our services, but also to enhance the collaboration between us.

Joy Owango
That is very cool, and I like the way you’ve just wound up. It’s about adopting technology, building our skills so that we can manage the evolution. Of the library, and also for we as users, knowing how best to take advantage of these resources that are availed to us, this has been really exciting. I really enjoyed this. I love your passion. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a beacon of libraries, not only for the continent, but also historically and globally, historically and also globally. And seeing your passion in how we can protect this information and also make it accessible, is something I hope and pray most information library service managers will also have, because we need this information, and yes, it really comes out very powerfully that being a librarian is as good as being a doctor. It’s a humanity service. It’s a humane service, even though the economic dynamics to it, it’s as good as being a teacher, it’s as good as being a nurse. There are certain services that we need, and being a librarian is one of those. You’re a preserver of knowledge, especially now that you are in a historically planned library. I really thank you so much. Maha I enjoyed this conversation. I love your passion about what you’re doing. Bibliotheca Alexandrina, thank you so much for being in our podcast.

Maha Abbas
I really love the conversation. I loved all the dimensions that we have treated. I think I had something to say that came spontaneously now while talking. It was very inspiring. And I look to other chances to exchange together. Maybe one day we can say you remember that when we talked about it happened? We initiated this together?

Joy Owango
All right, then thank you so much. And do have a lovely day. Goodbye.

Maha Abbas
Thank you very much. Bye.

Outro:

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