Sohair WASTAWY is chief librarian for the new Library of Alexandria, Egypt. Dr. Wastawy has been a practitioner in the library and information field since 1975, and practiced librarianship in a number of countries including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the USA. She began her library career at Cairo University Library in 1975, taught librarianship in the first women’s library program in Saudi Arabia in 1983, and was the dean of libraries at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago from 1988 until 2004. Dr. Wastawy is an expert in library management in academic and research institutions, and her most recent publication “Learning Communities: An Investigative Study into their Impact on Library Services” was published in Science and Technology Libraries in 2004. She earned an M.A. in library and information science from The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA, and a Ph.D. in library and information management from Simmons College, Massachusetts, USA.