The Middle East Microform Project (MEMP) was founded in 1987 by members of the Middle East Librarians Association (MELA). Its founding was the culmination of a long-perceived need for cooperative preservation of research materials from the Middle East, discussed as early as 1975 in a MELA workshop entitled “Cooperation Among Middle East Libraries of North America”.
For more information on MEMP, see also: “The Middle East Microform Project: Past, Present, and Future” in FOCUS, Volume XXIII, Number 3, Spring 2004.