AUC Libraries and Learning Technologies

• Gamal ed-Din Hafaz Awad - Librarian, 1922-1923
• Helen Flinn - Librarian, 1928-1931
• Hughes Gibbons - Librarian, 1932-1937
• Worth C. Howard - University Librarian, 1940-1955
• George Henry Gardner - University Librarian, 1955-1959
• Sayed Mahmoud Sheniti - University Librarian, 1957-1962
• Florence Ljunggren - University Librarian, 1962-1966
• Frederick Arnold - University Librarian, 1966-1967
• James Van Luik - Library Director, 1967-1970
• Grace Larudee - Library Director, 1969-1971
• Everett Moore - Library Director, 1971-1973
• Jesse Duggan - Library Director, 1973-1985
• Smith Richardson - Library Director, 1986-1989
• Kenneth Oberembt - Director of Library and Media Services, 1990-1995
• Shahira El Sawy - Director of Library and Media Services, 1995-1998; Dean, Libraries and Learning Technologies, 1998-

The Main Library consists of the following units:

• Automated Systems (Library IT support and development)
• Collections (management physical, and electronic collections)
• Public Services (user education and patron services)

AUC’s Rare Books and Special Collections Library (RBSCL)[14] was created in 1992, the combination of the Main Library’s Special Collections unit which maintained university archives and assorted rare books and maps, and the library of the university’s Center for Arabic Studies, focused on Islamic art and architecture. These libraries had been brought together in a restored 19th-century villa at the downtown Tahrir Square campus, but the RBSCL moved with most of the university to a new campus in the suburbs of Cairo after 2009. During the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the Library's staff and preservation experts helped save some of the contents of the Library of the nearby Institut d'Égypte.[15]

This unit of LLT comprises several sections. It maintains the Digital Archive and Research Repository,[16] and RBSCL Digital Library,[17] where some of its holdings are made available to the public.[18] It also archives websites through the ArchiveIt we archiving subscription service by the Internet Archive.

The Rare Books and Special Collections Library’s collections were built largely through the acquisition or donation of the private libraries of several collectors, among them K.A.C. Creswell, Max Debbane, Labib Habachi, and Selim Hassan. Their chief areas of interest - Islamic art and architecture, Egyptology, and travel literature - make up the core of the Library's collections.

In addition to the collectors above, the Library has acquired works from scholars and bibliophiles like Mahmoud Saba, Esmat Allouba, Constant DeWitt, Charles Issawi, and Charles Hedlund, Charles Faltas, Muhammad Shawqi Mustafa, and Fr. Pierre Riches. In recent years, the Library has received the libraries of public figures, such as Anis Mansour[19] and Boutros Boutros-Ghali[20][21] (2013).

Among the library's rare book holdings are the monumental Description de l'Égypte and multiple volumes of the lithographs of artist David Roberts' paintings of Egypt and the Levant.

In the mid-1990s, the library began to acquire collections of personal papers, like those of Egypt’s leading 20th century architect Hassan Fathy. From that time the library made steady acquisitions of archival resources documenting the artistic, cultural, intellectual, political, and social life of modern Egypt. Holdings include the private papers of pioneering Egyptian feminist Huda Sha'arawi, the writings of Egyptian journalist Anis Mansour, the papers of Coptic musicologist Ragheb Moftah.

Photography, including numerous images of the architecture and landscape of Egypt dating to the late 19th century, represents another core holdings area. Key collections of photographs include the prints depicting Islamic architecture produced and collected by K.A.C. Creswell, and the photographic archive of Egypt’s most prominent 20th century studio and art photographer, Van Leo.

The University Archives document the AUC’s history, mission, and activities, through materials in a variety of formats, dating to the early 20th century. AUC Records Management assists University offices in handling their inactive records. The unit also maintains an online archive of web content from Egypt.[22]

The Rare Books and Special Collections Library began collecting architectural archives with the acquisition of the corpus of the work of Hassan Fathy, Egypt’s leading 20th century architect, in 1994. In subsequent years the library acquired the collections of other leading Egyptian architects like Hassan Fathy,[23] Ramses Wissa Wassef, Sayed Karim, Ahmad Hamid, and Gamal Bakry. Preservation and processing of collections like these were supported by grants from the Getty Grant Foundation and U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Center supports advanced scholarly research by building on strengths of the outstanding existing collections in Arabic and Middle Eastern studies.

The Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT) promotes excellence in teaching, including the effective application of technology to the teaching/learning process. Together with other institutional partners, CLT promotes open access to scholarship.[24]