The University Libraries (UL) act as the British Library's Endangered Archives Programme (EAP) Regional Hub for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The British Library's Endangered Archives Programme facilitates the digitization of archives around the world that are in danger of destruction, neglect or physical deterioration. It seeks to preserve material that is at risk of loss or decay and is located in countries where resources and opportunities to preserve such material are lacking or limited. Since 2004, thanks to generous funding from Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, EAP has provided grants to 465 projects in 90 countries worldwide, in over 100 languages and scripts and has digitized over eleven million images and 35,000 soundtracks. Archive types digitized so far include rare printed sources, manuscripts, visual materials and audio recordings. This continually expanding online collection is available freely through local archival partners, the
EAP website, as well as via the British Library catalogue. The British Library has recently started to establish a network of institutional hubs as a framework for local training and outreach work, with the aim of EAP receiving more applications coming from the archive's country of origin during its grant-funding cycle.
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UL strives to be a center of excellence in the region for digitizing and preserving its cultural heritage for future generations and aims to excel in the production and dissemination of knowledge with a focus on open access, open publishing and open scholarship. In the last decade, UL successfully digitized and added thousands of freely accessible books, periodicals, archival materials, photos, manuscripts and other primary resources through its
digital collections platform. These initiatives were feasible through different collaborations and by outreach to local and external communities and partners. UL would like to build on these collaborations and digital content to empower and support researchers, scholars and local communities by promoting and adopting new digital skills, digital tools, and digital methodologies.
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