The Middle East Materials Project (MEMP) preserves collections in digital and microform format of unique, rare, hard to obtain, and often expensive research material for Middle East studies. It also preserves deteriorating printed and manuscript scholarly materials. The geographic scope of MEMP coverage includes Arab countries, Israel, Turkey, Iran, and related areas not covered by other cooperative materials projects.

MEMP is made possible through the support of the Center for Research Libraries, which serves as its administrative, fiscal, and legal agent.

Since its inception in 1987, MEMP has acquired more than 100 newspaper titles in Arabic, Turkish, and English, including a large collection of Sudanese and Turkish papers. Other projects include the microfilming of a large pamphlet file of materials on the Middle East at the Library of Congress and the microfilming of the Cosro Chaqeri Collection of Iranian Left-wing Materials. In cooperation with MEMP, Fawzy W. Khoury and Michelle Bates compiled the "Middle East in Microform: a Union List of Middle Eastern Microforms in North American Libraries" (University of Washington Libraries, 1992), a revised and expanded version of "National Union Catalog of Middle Eastern Microforms" (University of Washington Libraries, 1989).

Some MEMP microfilm is available for purchase. For more information, see Microform Sales.

Meeting Minutes and other information related to the ongoing work of MEMP may be found in the MEMP Workspace. The MEMP Workspace is an enterprise wiki that members can access to share, review and edit documentation and other content. It is open only to MEMP Members.

For questions or information about MEMP, contact Marlies Bauhofer.