Ronald LaPorte, Professor Emeritus and Director of a WHO Collaborating Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Ismail Serageldin, director of the Library of Alexandria, Egypt, and I are concerned about the limited scientific publications from Arabic and African countries. A primary reason for “stataphobia”—the fear of statistics—is not having experts available to answer questions. Therefore, we have established the Research Methods Library of Alexandria (RMLA).

The RMLA—to our knowledge—is the largest library dedicated to research methods and statistics, thus the “Big Tent” library. In addition, we have a network of 50,000 faculty members from most of the African and Arabic universities, as well as 30 regional academic centers throughout Africa.

Besides our virtual collection, we are establishing perhaps the largest research methods library collection of books. Ninety-five statistical experts are contributing more than 6,000 books to the library. The books will be shipped to Egypt and be in a collection with the donors’ names on each.

Please look up at your bookshelf. Are there any books you have not opened in five years? Wouldn’t they be of far more benefit teaching young researchers in Arabic and African countries than collecting dust?

We would most appreciate if you could share what you think are the most important virtual links to your statistical treasures. We have found only five statistics books online, and we are especially interested in top-quality YouTube presentations.

Please write to me at ronaldlaporte@gmail.com to identify the best virtual materials, as well as to donate your little-used statistics books and lectures to improve statistical literacy in developing countries.