On Wednesday morning, December 17, 2025, at 11:30 AM, the Center for the Revival of Arab Scientific Heritage at the University of Baghdad organized a seminar entitled “Cataloging and Classifying Book Collections Between Heritage and Modernity.” In the presence of a number of the center’s faculty members, and in the hall of Professor Nabila Abdul-Munim Dawood, Dr. Liqa’ Amer Ashour, a faculty member at our center, delivered the lecture, speaking about Islamic civilization, which is considered a pioneering starting point in the science of library organization. The interest of Muslims was not limited to collecting books and manuscripts, but extended to cataloging and classifying them in a precise scientific manner that facilitates access to them. The libraries of Baghdad, Damascus, and Cairo relied on dividing books according to sciences, preparing cataloging books, and using symbols for shelves. This experience was transferred to the West through Andalusia and the translation movement, influencing European cataloging systems, including the Dewey Decimal System, which reflects philosophical roots inherent in Islamic heritage. The researcher added examples of books and considered Ibn al-Nadim's "Al-Fihrist" a pioneering model in cataloging methodology, as he divided knowledge into ten main sections and linked authors and content in a progressive, scientific manner. She emphasized that this experience demonstrated that Muslims were not merely collectors of books, but rather founders of a comprehensive methodology for organizing knowledge and establishing the foundations of library science, which later developed into the global cataloging and classification systems used to this day.

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