Middle Eastern Librarianship -- Resources, Programs, etc.

Note: This post is part of area studies librarianship. See also: South Asian Studies -- Resources, Programs, etc.

New:
Digital Library of Arabic Manuscripts: a Questionnaire: CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

LIS News: There are Arab books, but most not included in union catalogs

Bottomline: Hence, you will have to digg and digg, not just check the WorldCat, Library of Congress, British Library, etc. The list is long, and includes:

King Fahd National Library Riyadh

KACST Library, Riyadh + online Database

King Saud University Library, Riyadh

SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES London

Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Library Oxford

Copac National, Academic, and Specialist Library Catalogue

bibliotheca alexandrina

biblioislam.net

Microform Academic Publishers, UK

Resources at Amazon.com: A randomly selected list of recent publications

Programs, Resources, etc. @ Middle East Librarians Association's web site, see also: MELA Notes

EThOS: Free Downloads Of UK Dissertations/Theses From The British Library

Info courtesy: Gerry McKiernan @ Reference Notes:

EThOS offers a coherent and consistent interface by implementing a central 'hub' comprising an e-store and a digitisation suite at The British Library site in Boston Spa, Yorkshire. The hub automatically harvests e-theses from Institutional Repositories and digitises paper theses from participating institutions to offer the single point of access. See also: what others say about this new service

The following electronic theses (fulltext, FREE download) are available @ Ethos:

The Wonders of Creation and the singularities of Ilkhanid painting : a study of the Qazwini, British Library Ms. Or. 14140. Carboni, Stefano. 1992 School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London)

An investigation of the barriers to information access: A study among university students with special reference to Saudi Arabia Gharieb, Magdah Ezzat A. 2007 University of Strathclyde, Department of Computer and Information Science

Guidelines for the development of library and information services in developing countries with special reference to Iraq. Al-Werdi, Z.H.K. 1983 Loughborough University of Technology

Painting the stars in a century of change : a thirteenth-century copy of Al-Sufi's treatise on the fixed stars (British Library Or.5323). Carey, Moya Catherine. 2001 School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London)

National bibliography in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Tunisia : analytical and comparative study with a view to planning a Saudi Arabian national bibliography. Samarkandi, Abdullatif Abdulhakeem. 1990 Loughborough University of Technology

Middle Eastern Library Blogs:

Arab Librarians Blog

Arabic Digital Library

Iran in Translation

Kurdish Women Empowered

A New Plan to Develop Saudi Libraries @ LIS NEWS

Many more.... @ Google blog search and here: Middle Eastern Librarians

PS. More to come, or ask what you want, and did not find here.

Dialing for Answers Where Web Can’t Reach

By RON NIXON

Published: September 27, 2009










"Question Box connects operators like Phiona Joyo Tee, left, Lydia Apio and Charlene Rwemereza Abireebe with people who have questions, especially about agriculture.

KAMPALA, Uganda — "The caller was frustrated. A new pest was eating away at his just-planted coffee crop, and he wanted to know what to do. Tyssa Muhima jotted down notes as the caller spoke, and promised to call back in 10 minutes with an answer.

Each day, Ms. Muhima and two other young women at this small call center on the outskirts of Uganda’s capital city answer about 40 such calls. They are operators for Question Box, a free, nonprofit telephone hot line that is meant to get information to people in remote areas who lack access to computers. " continue reading

A tale of two countries' libraries - Canada versus USA

[TARA WALTON/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

Jane Pyper, Toronto's chief librarian, in the stacks; books are "the perfect format," the others are ever-changing.]

Click here to read the news story:

A tale of two countries' libraries - Canada vs USA

Indian Contributions @ IFLA 2008

World Library and Information Congress: 74th IFLA General Conference and Council

"Libraries without borders: Navigating towards global understanding"10-14 August 2008, Québec, Canada

• Access to information by the rural communities in Indian villages: the role of Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation (RRRLF)
  M. SANKARA REDDY (Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation, Kolkata, India)
• Course choice and equipage of the professionals: implications for restructuring LIS programmes in developing countries with special reference to India
  M. BAVAKUTTY (Pondicherry University, Pondicherry, India), T.P.O. NASIRUDHEEN and K. C. ABDUL MAJEED (Farook College, Calicut, India)
• Creating reading environments: our initiatives in West Bengal, India
  RATNA BANDYOPADHYAY (University of Calcutta, The LIS Department, Calcutta, India)
• Designing of cultural knowledge portal: a South East Asian experiment
  AJAY PRATAP SINGH (Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India)
• Development and use of humanities collection in hospital libraries in Hyderabad: a survey
  V. VISHWA MOHAN and VAHIDEH ZAREA GAVGANI (Dept. of Library & Information Science, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India
• From Asian Federation of Library Associations (AFLA) to Regional Federation of South Asian Library Associations (REFSALA) and beyond: a journey incomplete
  TRISHANKIT KAUR (Punjabi University, India)
• Knowledge Sharing and Practice. RATNA BANDYOPADHYAY (University of Calcutta, India)
• Medical humanities collection development: policy guidelines for Indian hospital libraries
  MEDHA V. JOSHI (Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, India)
• The memories of Chinese Buddhist scholars in connection with Nalanda Monastic International University in India in the 7^th century AD
  R.H.I.S. RANASINGHE (University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka)
• Supportive staff in libraries of Visakhapatnam City: an evaluative study
  R.S.R. VARALAKSHMI (Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, India)
• The tele-cottage approach to the community development in the rural Karnataka, India
  S.L. SANGAM (Karnatak University, Dharwad, India)

Obituary of Dr. George N. Atiyeh

Dr. George Atiyeh's books at Amazon.

Dr. and Mrs. George Atiyeh at the 1999 Awards Ceremony:

The African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) of the Library of Congress mourns the death of Dr. George Atiyeh who passed away on April 21st, 2008, at the Virginian Nursing Home in suburban Fairfax County, VA. Until 1995, and for almost three decades, he headed AMED's Near East Section, retiring from the Library when he became incapacitated by a stroke. His wife Daisy took care of him at home assisted by their three children. Throughout those years, AMED staff visited him regularly, and on occasions Daisy wheeled him to his beloved Library to visit with friends and former staff.

"George" as he was known to all in the Library of Congress, was born in Amyun, Lebanon, in 1923. He graduated from the American University in Beirut in 1950 with an M.A. in history, and in 1954 received a doctorate in the history of philosophy from the University of Chicago. That year he was hired at the University of Puerto Rico, where he became a professor and administrator, and later met his wife Daisy. He joined the Library of Congress in 1967, and became head of the Near East section, helping make its collections world renowned by acquiring rare materials, and ensuring that all current publications from the region were purchased for the Library. He organized major conferences, bringing the best scholars on the region to participate, and producing books based on their presentations including The Book in the Islamic World, in 1995, which he edited. He also wrote widely on Arab philosophy, Christian-Muslim relations, and Arab intellectual history.

Atiyeh played an important role serving on various boards including on a Department of State Commission on U.S.- Egyptian relations, and on a White House advisory committee on Islamic Affairs. He also served on the board of The Middle East Journal, the Arab-American Affairs Council, and the international board of al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation in London. A lifelong member of the Middle East Studies Association, he was also a founding member of the Middle East Librarian Association (MELA).

A funeral service was held at Saints Peter & Paul Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church, on Monday April 28, that was attended by many Library of Congress staff, friends and family. Survivors include his wife Daisy Roper, his three children Nicholas, Rose Marie, and Lancelot, his three sisters Jamal, Eugenie and Najla, and four brothers, Naim, Atiyeh, Maurice, and Michel, and two grandchildren.

Mary-Jane Deeb, Ph.D.Chief, African and Middle Eastern DivisionLibrary of Congress

email: mdee@loc.govphone: 202-707-1221 fax: 202-252-3180

• George Atiyeh, 84, librarian, scholar - The Boston Globe
• Obituary: Dr. George Atiyeh, Scholar of the Middle East and the Arab World
• Dr. George Atiyeh: A Legacy of Scholarship, Excellence and Resilience
• George N. Atiyeh; Librarian, Scholar - washingtonpost.com
• Dr. George Atiyeh: A Legacy of Scholarship, Excellence and Resilience

Pioneering library sparks volunteerism

Launched after a successful international pledge campaign in 2007, the Bakul children's library in Bhubaneshwar is slowly turning into a node for various kinds of volunteering. Professors, young artists, students, organisers and others have started chipping in. Sailen Routray has more. @ India Together: 25 January 2008


To view a slideshow @ flickr click here!

See also on the same shelf and aisle:

• Official Blog of Bakul Foundation


• Our Idea of the Library @ Bakul Foundation's Website
  
• Much more @ Google


• Yahoo Group for Bakul Foundation members
  
• [Ornet] Bakul Foundation - The library movement.
  

NB. There is a postal address
Bakul Foundation
16 Satyanagar
Bhubaneswar- 751007
Delhi Contact: Ayusman- 9810133010
contact@bakulfoundation.org

Hope for British Library, Thiruvananthapuram

The widespread concern over the plan to close down the British Library in Thiruvananthapuram seems to be paying off. Since no one is ready to let the library go, the idea now is for the Kerala government to take over its management. The BL has agreed to hand over the books and other facilities to the government. That's a significant breakthrough, since the earlier decision was to distribute the books to other British Libraries. The government chief secretary is preparing a report on the plan of action. (Report in The Hindu.)

continue reading @ Time and Tide [info courtesy: Mysore Blog Park]

Reading now: International and Comparative Studies in Information and Library Science

A Focus on the United States and Asian Countries

Series: Libraries and Librarianship: An International Perspective #3. Edited by Yan Quan Liu and Xiaojun Cheng

Introduction by Dr. Yan Quan Liu.

Contents:
NB. To read the following, point mouse over and scrolling stops!!!

'
Part 1: Research Methodologies
1. Comparative Librarianship Lalitha K. Sami
2. International Library and Information Science Research: A Comparison of National Trends Maxine Rochester and Pertti Vakkari
3. Comparison between the People's Republic of China and the United States in the Field of Library and Information Science Weina Hua
4. Introducing an International Cooperative Research Method Employed in Cross-Country Studies in Information and Library Science Yan Quan Liu
Part 2: Information Policy
5. The Impact of National Policy on Developing Information Infrastructure Nationwide: Issues in the People's Republic of China and the United States Yan Quan Liu
Part 3: Professional Education
6. Is the Education on Digital Libraries Adequate? Yan Quan Liu
7. An Investigation of LIS Qualifications throughout the World Pete Dalton and Kate Levinson
8. A Comparative Study of Library and Information Science Education: China and the United States Ziming Liu
9. A Comparison Study on the Confusion and Threat of the United States and Chinese Library Education Xudong Jin
10. Motivation to Manage: A Comparative Study of Male and Female Library and Information Science Students in the United States of America, India, Singapore, and Japan Sarla R. Murgai
Part 4: Information Organization and Services
11. Digital Library Infrastructure: A Case Study on Sharing Information Resources in China Yan Quan Liu and Jin Zhang
12. Cataloging Nonprint Resources in the United States and China: A Comparative Study of Organization and Access for Selected Electronic and Audiovisual Resources Yan Ma, Steve J. Miller, and Yan Quan Liu
Part 5: Academic Libraries
13. A Comparative Study of the Use of the Academic Libraries by Undergraduates in the United States and Taiwan Ting-Ming Lai
Part 6: Public Libraries
14. International Public Library Trends Nerida Clifford
15. The Use of the National Library Statistics by Public Library Directors Yan Quan Liu and Douglas L. Zweizig
16. National Public Library Statistics and Management: A Comparison between the United States and People's Republic of China Yan Quan Liu
Part 7: School Libraries
17. Teachers' Perceptions of School Libraries: Comparisons between Tokyo and Honolulu Yuriko Nakamura
18. An International Study on Principal Influence and Information Services in Schools: Synergy in Themes and Methods James Henri, Lyn Hay, and Dianne Oberg
Appendix A: Schools Offering International and Comparative Librarianship Related Courses
Appendix B: Journals Pertaining to International and Comparative Studies in ILS
Appendix C: International Conferences on Information and Library Science
Appendix D: Web Resources Relating to Information and Library Science Worldwide
Bibliography
Index

Picturing the Global Library: A Call for Photos of Libraries Around the World

Calling all globetrotting librarians!

Super Conference 2008 is lookingat the library experience around the world. Do you have pictures ofphotos of libraries you've snapped in your travels? If you’ve got somehidden away on your hard drive or in a photo album please help us bysubmitting them to OLA. Photos of any kinds of libraries (or librarians)in any location are good: modern, classic, grand, humble, old, new,familiar, exotic, famous, obscure...all are good!Photos will be used in a gallery on the OLA Super Conference Web site,at plenary sessions throughout the conference and, most particularly, atthe closing plenary on Saturday, Feb. 2nd during the luncheon in whichincoming IFLA President Ellen Tise from South Africa will be speaking.Photos can be submitted in any of the following ways:

* Send digital photos to superconference@accessola.com (in any format but as high a resolution as possible).

* If you are a Flickr (http://www.flickr.com) member, you may submit photos to the “Libraries of the World – OLA Super Conference Pool” Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/ola_worldlibraries//.

Again, as high a resolution as possible.

* Send print photos to OLA, 50 Wellington St. East, Suite 201, Toronto M5E 1C8.

Photos can be picked up at Super Conference from the Information Desk in the Registration Lobby. Any photos not picked up will be mailed to their owners following the Conference.For each photo, please provide your name, e-mail, the location of thelibrary, its name if appropriate and a sentence or two about anythingyou want to point out, either about the library or about what is in thephoto.----------------------------------------

Mark Robertson, OLA Super Conference 2008 Coordinator

Those who said libraries dead should eat their words

A CITY OF READERS
Toronto Star, Jan 17, 2008. Philip Marchand Entertainment Reporter
Like `everybody's living room,' libraries are vital to civic life, their supporters say.

Toronto culture has its ups and downs, but the city's libraries have always remained solid.

We seem to be, relatively speaking, a city of readers and our library system is supreme in North America – far overshadowing in total circulation, number of branches and number of visits, the library systems of such cities as Chicago and Los Angeles. continue reading

On the same shelf:

• Why We Absolutely Need To Care More About Library Funding
• So what do we lose when we lose libraries? -- Thought for the day
• Five Myths About the 'Information Age'

Orient loses Longman

Mumbai, Jan. 14: Orient Longman — the Hyderabad-based publisher of educational books — is losing its suffix. The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata),

Pearson Education group of the UK has reclaimed the rights to the Longman brand in India in an out-of-court settlement with Orient Longman.
In 2006, Pearson Education, the owner of the Longman name worldwide, had filed a suit against Orient Longman in a British court to assert its right to the Longman brand. Under the terms of the settlement, Orient Longman has agreed to stop using the Longman brand by November 2008. But it will be able to use the expression “formerly known as Orient Longman” for another year until November 2009. Continue reading

Report: Reagan library can't find items

Thu Nov 8, 7:59 AM ET
LOS ANGELES - The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum can't locate or account for tens of thousands of valuable mementos of Reagan's White House years according to a published report.

An audit by the National Archives inspector general concluded that the library in Simi Valley was unable to properly account for more than 80,000 objects out of its collection of some 100,000 artifacts, the Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site Wednesday night. continue reading

• see also: Thousands Of Items Missing From Reagan Library CBS 2 / KCAL 9 Los Angeles

Library behind bars gets forced into closet

Oct 24, 2007 04:30 AM Joe Fiorito, Toronto Star
Darlene Soares helped a lot of guys escape from jail. Oh, relax. She put no files in cakes. She ran the library at the Toronto Jail. She gave out books.

Not any more.

We met in her apartment building the other day. She took me back to the beginning. "I was a legal secretary for 20 years. After I retired, I started working as a volunteer for the St. Vincent de Paul Society, at Old City Hall. One day we went over to the jail for a visit and I found myself filling out an application as a volunteer."

And then, almost just-like-that, the woman who had been running the library went on vacation and never came back, and Darlene had a library on her hands.
She said, "It was a mess in the beginning. There were empty shelves. There was no budget. I went to the Riverdale Library and asked for any books they were throwing out. I'd bring them home, clean them up, glue them, tape them, and bring them to jail in my bundle buggy." She became an expert at finding good used books for free; and in time – a nice touch, this – she began to get an annual donation of books from the Criminal Lawyers' Association. continue reading

Info courtesy [Found by Bookninja] @ Slow Reading

RANGANATHAN REVISITED: FACETS FOR THE FUTURE

ISKO UK meeting: Connecting communities: Content, knowledge, information: Same Difference?

Event Details:
5th November 2007
14:00 - 18:00
Venue
University College London
Sir David Davies Lecture Theatre (G08), Ground Floor, Engineering Faculty
Roberts Building, Torrington Place, WC1E 7JE

Programme

14:00	Vanda Broughton	Facet analysis as a fundamental theory of knowledge organization
14:40	Claudio Gnoli	‘Classic’ vs. 'freely' faceted classification
15:20	Jan Wyllie Simon Eaton	Faceted classification as an intelligence analysis tool
16:00	Tea/coffee
16:30	Factiva	Faceted Categorisation for the corporate desktop Visualisation and interaction using metadata to enhance user experience
17:15	Aduna	AutoFocus: An Open-source Facet-Driven Enterprise Search Solution
18:00	Networking, wine & nibbles

Click here for more Info

The BOBs - BEST OF THE BLOGS - My Electronic Library 2.0

PS. If you see it deserves, vote this blog [request to circulate this message by Blogmaster Heyam Hayek, a Kids Librarian.]

Rare manuscript, textile from Northeast holed up in museums abroad

Times of India, 25 Sep 2007

GUWAHATI: A number of objects from Northeast India, much more ancient than Mahatma Gandhi's handwritten letter recently recovered from a British auction, are preserved in museums and private possessions in Europe and Southeast Asian countries, researchers have claimed.

Samiran Baruah, a researcher in the Assam State Museum says manuscripts of Brahmabaibhatta Purana belonging to the 18th century is in the British Museum.

" Vrindavani Vastra -- the figured silks from Assam -- from the 16th-18th century are found preserved in the British Museum, Chepstow museum in UK and Gemau Museum in France," he told reporters.

Sachipath Puthi (manuscript book) is occupying a place in British Museum.

Vrindavani Vastra are rare silk textile fragments depicting scenes from the life of Lord Krishna in a floral, naturalistic and preciously elegant style. They were used in the worship of Vishnu in the ancient Assamese monasteries.

Baruah had earlier documented 33 manuscripts including 3,000 paintings scattered in many satras (Vaishnavite monasteries) in Assam.

"Probably during the British rule, researchers found these objects and took them to their country," claims Baruah.

On the Vrindavani Vastra , belonging to the times of Assamese Vaishnavite saint Srimanta Sankaradeva, Baruah cited the findings by Rosemary Crill, author and a curator in the Indian Department at London's Victoria and Albert Museum.

South Asian Literary Recordings Project

Launched in April 2000, to record the voices of South Asian authors for the Library of Congress' Archive of Recorded World Literature, the project has captured the readings of prominent South Asian poets, novelists, and playwrights. The authors recorded so far represent more than fifteen of the languages of India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Google goes desi, starts online Hindi software

Click here for this Google Hindi page

अब तो हिन्दी मैं लिखना असान हो गया है.
मगर सब को क्या मालूम के यह कैसे कम करता है?

Samiran Saha, Hindustan Times

New Delhi, August 20, 2007

The world’s hottest search engine has gone desi. Now you can type in English and get the script in Hindi on Google. You can also search for local content in Hindi and 13 other Indic languages. Engineers at Google have developed software that helps online usage of "Indic" language scripts.

The term "Indic" refers to the Indo-Aryan languages that form a sub-group of the Indo-Iranian languages.

"Indic" is used in the context of the Indo-European linguistics, and is not strictly a geographical term.

Hindi transliteration was launched on the blogger service earlier this year, and the latest service http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic/ is a standalone offering of the same technology.

By launching its search in Hindi Google is looking at the wide base of Indian Net users, a large section of which comprises of those proficient in Hindi.

Google’s new products come from its Bangalore based research and development centre and its other laboratories based in different parts of the world. The two products -- Google Local Search and Google Business Centre -- launched by Google on Monday are specifically designed for those proficient in Hindi.

The Local Search is a tool for Indian users looking for relevant information on the web. With the launch of these products users will now be able to search for information on local businesses like restaurants, shops and hotels by simply searching on http: //local.google.co.in and its Local Business Centre is available at www. google.co. in/local/add.

To switch to Hindi, the users will be aided by the Indic on-screen keyboard software which can be installed by users on their personalised iGoogle pages. Typically, when a user types in English and hits ‘enter’, the script appears in the Indic script through transliteration. Google's Indic transliteration allows the user to type in Hindi using phonetically equivalent English text entered through an English keyboard. Users can create Hindi content and use it in any of the applications including mails and documents.

See also

Google Trends: The Great Desi Survey May 23, 2006, Mayank Austen Soofi

Google News Goes Desi - Launches Hindi News Service
March 16, 2007, Aaman Lamba

Google unveils India Labs, local search
INDIATIMES NEWS NETWORK[ MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 2007 03:12:44 PM]

Certificate Course on "Modern Library Practices"

- Call for Participation from Developing Countries
PS. Info courtesy: Rachel @ Beyond the Job

The Resource Centre, NITTTR, is organising a Certificate course on "Modern Library Practices", which will be held on 15th October 2007 to 7th December 2007 at National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR) (Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India) Taramani, Chennai 600 113, Tamil Nadu, India. continue reading

What do you do when the internet is down?

Annecdote posted by Ivy Lee @ Asian Libraries:

An elderly man queried me why he couldn't access hotmail yesterday. I explained to him that it's a nationwide situation.

Old man: "Oh dear, then what should I do now that I can't access hotmail?"
Me: "How about going back to the days before internet was invented? Like maybe....use the snail mail?"

Dear old uncle has a good sense of humour too and we burst into laughter.

If an old uncle is so reliant on hotmail and has almost forgotten the art of mailing a letter using stamps, well, this just shows how the world has grown "connected" over the years.

It was a test on us librarians' skills to answer quick reference questions without the internet. For example, someone asked what is the national flower of Myanmar. We tried all the encyclopedias, almanacks and factbooks but were unable to find. This morning, I was happy to see my best friend Mr Google greet me on my PC. The first thing I did was look for the national flower. Within seconds, Mr Google tells me that Myanmar's national flower is "The Paduak (Pterocarpus Indicus) blossoms in tiny fragrant yellow-gold flowers" with a colour picture to match. Source: http://www.aseansec.org/18203.htm
God, I admire librarians in the old days before internet. I wonder if there is a documentary somewhere that shows us how librarians handle enquiries before the computer or the internet was invented, and how accurate were their responses compared to us today. It would be interesting to learn, methink.
See also

Go to the library - ways to survive life without the Internet

The Ubiquitous Reference Service & Return On Investment

Case Studies from India: Evidence-based Librarianship

Actual Telephone Conversations Heard in Actual Libraries #83 @ Tales from the "Liberry"