Alexandrian Library opens at last. (Global Briefs).

Dignitaries from around the world gathered in Egypt for the October 17 official opening of the $230-million Bibliotheca Alexandrina, envisioned as a modern counterpart to the andent Alexandrian Library (AL, Apr. 2000, p. 70-74).

"Egypt has exerted all efforts to make the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina a civilized message in its roots, modem in its content, and intemational in its role and reach," Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told French President Jacques Chirac, Greek President Costis Stephanopoulos, and some 300 other world figures, the New York Times reported October 16.

Although the 11-story, …