By Rich Fisher
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kwgs/local-kwgs-861097.mp3
Tulsa, Oklahoma – The University of Tulsa's 2009-10 Presidential Lecture Series kicks off on Friday night of this week (the 18th) with a free-to-the-public lecture by Ismail Serageldin, director of the famous Library of Alexandria in Egypt. Serageldin will speak at 7:30pm in the Allen Chapman Activity Center at TU --- and he's our guest today on StudioTulsa. As he tells our host Rich Fisher, much like its storied, long-vanished counterpart --- the original Library of Alexandria was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, after all --- the newly resurrected Bibliotheca Alexandrina functions not just as a vast storage-place for books and knowledge but also as a multi-facted (and state-of-the-art) academy, museum, research institute, scientific outpost, and cultural facility. And Serageldin himself, as we learn on today's show, has had an active and wide-ranging career in both the academic and economic realms. He was a Vice President at the World Bank from 1992 till 1998, for example, and has published more than 50 books and monographs along with more than 200 papers. (The Presidential Lecture Series at TU is presented by the Darcy O'Brien Endowed Chair. For more information: utulsa.edu.)