Middle Eastern Studies

CRL’s collection of Middle Eastern-related material encompasses significant runs of newspapers from every country, dissertations on the Arab world and Islam, monographs and serials acquired through deposit by member libraries, and archival and microform sets of primary source content.  CRL purchases government documents and serials as part in the Library of Congress Acquisitions Program.  CRL continues to acquire current newspapers on microfilm as well as historical backfiles from the region and microform sets prioritized through CRL’s purchase programs.

CRL also supports the Middle East Materials Project (MEMP) in its preservation work and digital activities. Area specialists report that political turmoil jeopardizes the availability of government documentation in any country. CRL now hosts the website Official Gazettes and Civil Society Documentation. This website resulted the collaboration with MEMP.   This effort to preserve and it may be in some cases the only published versions of new laws, legislative debates, and court decisions.  Through the Carnegie-funded effort, CRL harvested nearly 20,000 issues of gazettes from websites of seven countries.  The project “Afghan publications preserved” resulted in materials in Pushto, Persian, and Dari language were microfilmed or digitized.  These materials include holdings from 1924 through 2010 and cover the last years of the monarchy's rule in Afghanistan, civil war, foreign invasion, and the rule of the Taliban.

In addition, MEMP preserved many Arabic and Turkish newspapers such Aljadid, Beirut Times, Habzbuz, al-Dawah, Agos(Akōs), Özgür gündem and others on microfilm.