The North Africa and Middle East Science centers network (NAMES) was launched on 30 January 2006 during a meeting initiated and organized by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Planetarium Science Center.

The purpose of creating NAMES is to foster cooperation between existing science centers and museums in North Africa and the Middle East with the aim of benefiting from all available resources and experiences within the region to further enhance the role of all member establishments. The network also aims to help establish new science centers and museums in all countries of the region.
The goal of NAMES is the popularization of science throughout the region by enhancing the public understanding and involvement in science and scientific culture among an increasingly diverse audience.

The purpose and goal of NAMES are to be achieved through excellence and innovation in informal education and by offering hands-on activities where the audience can indulge in participatory learning.

There is a worldwide consensus that a sustainable culture of innovation will depend on more young people being interested in the future of science and technology. This interest must be nurtured and developed at a very early age through formal education in schools as well as informal education.
A Science Center is an informal educational center for promoting science and technology; including science museums, aquariums, planetariums, zoos, botanical gardens, space theaters and natural history museums.

For a science center to really achieve its goal of disseminating science and technology among the public in general and children in particular, it has to grow and change continuously to keep attracting audience. The most effective way to do so is through opening up to the fast developing world and cooperating with similar establishments regionally and internationally.


It is for this reason that science centers networks were established all around the world:

• ASTC: Association of Science and Technology Centers (North America)



• ECSITE: European Collaborative for Science, Industry and Technology Exhibitions (Europe)



• REDPOP: Network for the popularization of Science and Technology of Latin America and the Caribbean



• ASPAC: Asia Pacific networks of Science and Technology Centers (Asia Pacific)



• SAASTEC: Southern African Association of Science and Technology Centers



• NCSM: National Council of Science Museums (28 centers across India)



• China

The World Congress of Science Centers (WCSC) takes place every three years and gathers representatives of science centers from around the world to share their achievements, highlight the problems they are facing, suggest solutions and create new policies and visions for science centers. The next World Congress of Science Centers, the theme of which is “Science Centers as Agents of Change—locally, nationally and internationally”, is the fifth and is to be hosted by the Ontario Science Center in Toronto, Canada, in June 2008.

In 2005, The Bibliotheca Alexandrina Planetarium Science Center (PSC) was selected by the International Program Committee (IPC) of the World Congress of Science Centers to become a member representing North Africa and the Middle East. The role of the IPC is to direct the development of the program for each World Congress and to advise the host institution on all related matters.

For the PSC to really have an active role in the IPC, it took the initiative towards creating a network that represents North Africa and the Middle East (NAMES). The target of NAMES is to provide professional development for the science center field in the North Africa and Middle East region. NAMES aims to promote best practices, to support effective communication and to strengthen the position of science centers within the community at large. NAMES will encourage excellence and innovation in informal science learning by serving and linking its members in the Middle East and North Africa Region and advancing their common goals.

On 30 January 2006, the BA organized a one-day closed meeting to lay the foundation for the new network. The meeting included representatives from:

Some of the topics discussed included:

After the deliberations that continued following the meeting of 30 January 2006, the decision has been made to launch the NAMES network with five founding members:

The Planetarium Science Center, Egypt

Turkey Science Centers Foundation

The Scientific Center of Kuwait

Tunis Science City

Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Science & Technology Center - Scitech

The four founding members agreed to meet in Tunis, in November 2006, to sign the Memorandum of Understanding and launch the network officially. All establishments that participated in the meeting of 30 January 2006, as well as those that had been contacted and showed interest in the network, were extended an invitation to the second meeting organized by Tunis Science City in November 2006.

NAMES welcomes all interested science centers in the region to contact the NAMES Secretariat office, located at the BA, for additional information about the network:

Ms. Maissa Azab
Bibliotheca Alexandrina
P.O. Box 138,
Chatby,
Alexandria 21526,
EGYPT
Tel:    +(203) 4839999                
Ext:    1695
Fax:    +(203) 4820464
Email: namesnetwork@bibalex.org