Over 1,000 years ago, the ancient library of Alexandria in Egypt was destroyed.Two years ago, its modern counterpart seemed under threat again as an angry mob marched towards it during the Arab Spring.
But protesters themselves stepped forward to protect it, recalls Dr Ismail Serageldin, director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

In early 2011, protests against then-President Hosni Mubarak - with whom the library was associated - were sweeping Egypt. In Alexandria, Dr Serageldin watched one such protest approach.

"Standing there with a few of my colleagues, and watching 200,000 people coming and chanting... I think, 'What am I going to try to tell them, will they listen?'

"Then out of the crowd, young people... start making a human chain, holding hands and saying, 'This is the library! Nobody touches the library!'"

He and other library experts see a bright future for libraries even in the digital age: as archives, a means of connecting people with knowledge, and important community spaces people will protect.

Dr Serageldin and other experts are among 3,000 delegates from 150 countries in Singapore for two library-related conferences, the Second International Summit of the Book and the 79th International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions' World Library and Information Congress.

The summit was held last Friday, with experts discussing the historical role of the book and the future of books and libraries. The Congress began on Saturday and runs till Friday. It includes an industry fair and free public talks. The congress theme is Future Libraries: Infinite Possibilities, and technology's enabling role is a major topic.

To some, the rise of e-books may seem to sound the death knell for libraries, or even printed books. But librarians see no cause for alarm.

As Dr Serageldin says, classic texts of the ancient world were written and read on scrolls, before the codex - today's book - arrived. "We don't really care that, 'My god, people have been reading scrolls for millennia, now they're going to be reading codexes'."

To librarians, it is content that matters, says Shanghai Library director Wu Jianzhong. "Printed books and digital books, they are all carriers of content."

Mr Bill Macnaught, who heads the National Library of New Zealand, says that even if print gives way to e-books, libraries need not lose relevance. After all, many now lend e-books and even electronic devices to read them, making these available in the same way that they have long made available more books than anyone could buy.

Libraries are also archives, and technology aids this role in the digitisation and hence preservation of historical material, converting old documents into image files. This means someone elsewhere in the country need not go to the National Library in Wellington for research, but can look at a digital copy from their local library, says Mr Macnaught. "We're making it easier to provide equity of access."

So the digital age is not something for libraries to fear. But it does mean they have to go beyond being collections of books.

"In the past, we were just transactional," says National Library Board chief executive Elaine Ng.You went in, borrowed a book, and that was it. "Today, the library space is about what people want, which is an experience."

Before, when information was far less accessible, libraries were a source of knowledge. But with the rise of the Internet, libraries now have to reach out and work harder to get readers in, Mrs Ng adds.

Architecture and design, for instance, have become more important in creating a "customer experience".
Dr Serageldin lists four spaces which libraries should provide: "Noisy, messy, dirty, creative places" with a coffee bar, say, and whiteboards, where young people can let their imagination run wild; smaller rooms for group study; conventional quiet reading spaces; and a space which "reaffirms the role of the library as a centre of the community", for events and exhibitions.

At Shanghai Library, creative space takes the form of a room with 3-D printers and a digital sandbox in which visitors can play with ideas. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina aims to recapture the spirit of its ancient predecessor, which was part academy, part archive. It now has research institutes, museums and art galleries, and a planetarium.

The library's useful services and cultural vibrancy may have helped it earn a place in local hearts. But Dr Serageldin thinks there was more which spurred those young Egyptians to join hands to protect it. "The other aspect is the values we defended." After all, the 700-odd lectures and debates at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina each year are not just interesting public events. They represent the library opening its doors to pluralism and discussion, and it is such values for which the library stands, he adds.

Freedom of expression, intellectualism, pluralism, rationality, science, debate, the arts - "We defend all of that," he says.