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Abdelaziz Abid graduated from the University of Tunis in 1970 with a Bachelor Degree from the Faculty of Humanities and the Teachers College (Ecole Normale Supérieure). In 1973 he graduated from the University of Montreal, Canada, with a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science.

He served as Secretary-General of the National Library of Tunisia with teaching assignments at the Ecole nationale d’administration (ENA). Joined UNESCO in 1976 as a UNESCO expert and later as Chief Technical Adviser for the School of Information Science (ESI) project in Rabat, Morocco. This project was funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). He spent 9 years in Morocco as Professor and Head of Department (Directeur des études) within the same institution.

He joined UNESCO Headquarters in Paris in 1985 where he was in charge of library development projects and access to scientific information in developing countries. In 1988 he organized the international architectural competition for the Library of Alexandria, Egypt which was inaugurated officially only in 2002. He is now in charge of the "Memory of the World" Programme, which is a successful preservation and access initiative, as well as projects relating to libraries and access to information, digital heritage preservation, information literacy. He has traveled extensively all over the world, visiting about 70 countries. He co-ordinates joint IFLA/UNESCO library and information projects.

He has contributed many book chapters, conference papers and journal articles in Arabic, English, French and Spanish on library development, information literacy, library education, access to scientific information, and preservation of, and access to, documentary and digital heritage. He has also edited a number of CD-ROMs as part of the "Memory of the World" Programme, especially within the framework of the Slave Trade Archives project.

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