Middle Eastern Collection Development: Opportunities and Challenges

فرص وتحديات: تنمية المجموعات الشرق اوسطية

David Hirsch – Librarian for Middle Eastern Studies

Charles E. Young Research Library-UCLA

Abu Dhabi International Book Fair May 7, 2015

The Charles E. Young Research Library at UCLA

Middle Eastern Literature Periodicals

Middle Eastern Women’s publications

Emirati serials at the UCLA Library

English language serials from the

Gulf

English language periodicals from the Arab World

Desert Fish “There are no fish in the desert”

(Published in Dubai)

Khaleejesque (Published in Kuwait)

Recent Kuwaiti Periodicals

Bound Periodicals

UCLA Research Library Open Stacks

(Islamic Studies)

Works on Quranic Commentary in the UCLA Library Stacks

Recent gifts from an individual publisher

Gulf History Section

Graphic Novels

Graphic Novel Journals

My assistant

Receipt receipts from Tunisia and Egypt in our Acquisitions Section

Arabic Language Cataloging

Persian and Armenian Cataloging

Our serials catalogers.. They catalog in all languages

Ottoman Salname for Aleppo, Syria

Ottoman Salname for the Hejaz

Hijaz Newspaper in Ottoman Turkish

Women’s magazine from Pre-

Revolutionary Iran

Recent issues from the same magazine…

Arabic literature

Short stories by a UAE author

And complete works of a well known Egyptian author

http://minasian.library.ucla.edu/

Collection of

Persian

Calligraphic

Samples, ca. 1100-

1899

Collection number:

1123

MS 170/46 : Arabian Nights. Sinbad

the Sailor.

قصة السندباد البحري والهندباد البريcirca 1700

Maghribi Manuscript from

Maghribi Manuscript from Collection 1668

UCLA Library Special Collections

Colophon of same manuscript

Qajar Lacquer Bindings

From the Exhibit collection of

Near Eastern manuscripts, 1492-

1848

Collection 1656

http://mearo.org/

Arab-American Press Project

Periodicals of Middle Eastern Émigré

Groups in Australia

Publications of Middle Eastern Émigré

Groups in Western Europe

One of the UCLA Library’s Digital Ephemera Projects

Capturing websites

• Gezi

• Syria

Unique Opportunities and Challenge

Opportunities:

- To collect difficult-to-find materials

- Old, rare, unique materials

- Develop relationships with scholars

and booksellers – different in the

Middle East

- Provides access to tips on materials

that others might overlook

- Make the university library a

repository for ephemera (bulletins,

posters, calendars, material on local

initiatives) which is critical to scholars

Challenges:

- Determining what is available

- Few websites and searchable catalogs

- Various, inconsistent levels of physical

processing, descriptive cataloging or full

MARC records

- Postage and freight charges can be

prohibitive

- Online capabilities dependent upon the

region

- Payment options : wire transfers. EFT

- Print based, Ebooks not yet major factor

- Language expertise – selector and

processing staff

- Cooperative technical processing to

handle language deficiencies, particularly

related to cataloging. If we’re going to

select something how are we going to

process?

UCLA Library

International

Acquisitions Scope

-An International Team will provide shared

expertise for monographs and serials for

non-mainstream materials received from

Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East,

Eastern Europe, Slavic countries, and Latin

America.-

-Typically these materials are in Arabic,

Persian, Hebrew, Thai, Amharic, Russian,

Ukranian, Spanish, Armenian, Portuguese,

Hungarian, and English

-Team provides shared expertise among

selectors, acquisitions, cataloging, and

vendors

-Develops processes for improvement of

workflows for non-mainstream acquisitions

to achieve maximum productivity and

efficiency in operations to encourage

ongoing process improvement and user

satisfaction

Vendors for Middle Eastern materials used by UCLA

• Egypt-Leila Books

• Syria-Palmyra Books in Lattakia

• Lebanon-Sulaiman’s Bookshop

• Tunisia-Espace Carthage

• Morocco-Center for Cross-Cultural Learning

• Saudi Arabia-Ali al-Ghadban

• Iran-Vardeh Books and others

• Turkey-Libra Books and others

• Sweden-Ferdosi

• West Bank/Palestine

• Jordan Leila Books

• USA-Buraimi Books

• Library of Congress field offices in Cairo, Islamabad and New Delhi

Gift and Exchange Partners

• TCA Abu Dhabi

• Sharjah Dept of Information and Culture

• Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research

• Al-Misbar

• Turk Tarih Kurumu among others!

• Istanbul Sehir Universitesi

• Many others!

Workflows

Once Selections have been made … • Selectors may need to review

materials

• Location decisions

• Subscription decisions –

samples!

• What language is it?

• Who bought it?

• Where does it go now?

• Will cataloging expertise be

adequate or is selector language

expertise needed

• May or may not have an invoice

• Shipment may not be complete

• Shipment may be “stuck” in

customs!

And we now need to pay for it … 1001 Tunis Account#: UCLA #LA 88

TUNISIE Date: 05-10-2012

Ship to: Pay to:

UCLA University Research Library Espace Carthage

Acquisitions Dept. 24, Rue Saïd Abou Baker, Appt. B-5

BOX 951575 1001 Tunis TUNISIA

Los Angeles, CA 90095 – 1575 Tel. & Fax : 00216 71 333740

USA

Unit

C O S T

1Au nom du temps,Je vous arrête Slaheddine Haddad

42.00 42.00 C1

1Dernier voyage à Kyrannis Ahmed Mahfoudh

18.00 18.00 C1

1Ecrits de femmes collectif

18.00 18.00 C1

1Espace et Enonciation collectif

18.00 18.00 C1

1La Deuxième Fatiha Yadh Bn Achour

22.50 22.50 C1

1La femme chez Voltaire Halima Ouanada

30.00 30.00 C1

1La Valse des Beignets Yesmine Karray

15.00 15.00 C1

1La vie de Muhammad Hichem Djait

25.50 25.50 C1

1Le mur des souvenirs Ouled Kesmi

12.00 12.00 C1

1Orphelins de Bourguiba et héritiers du Prophète Samy Ghorbal

21.00 21.00 C1

1االسم واالسميّة واإلسماء في اللغة العربيّة توفيق قريرة

22.50 22.50 C1

1اإلعالم الجديد النظام و الفوضى عبد هللا الزين الحيدري

14.70 14.70 C1

1اإلنسان و المكان في الثقافة العربية اإلسالمية لطفي دبيش

34.50 34.50 C1

1 بحّارة الساحل التونسيعادل بالكحلة

21.00 21.00 C1

1التبرع باألعضاء بين السائل و الفقيه إبراهيم الشايبي

18.00 18.00 C1

1

تونس في القرن السابع عشر وثائق األوقاف في عهد

الدايات و البايات المراديين

أحمد السعداوي

22.50 22.50 C1

1الجسد و الثقافات نور الدين الشابي / أحمد

المرواني 18.00 18.00 C1

1الجمالية واانقد في فكر هابرماس )الوسيطي( منيرة بن مصطفى حشانة

10.50 10.50 C1

1الحركات اإلجتماعية في العالم العربي اإلسالمي

)9avril(

عمل جماعي27.00 27.00 C1

1

خصائص الشخصية في الرواية الفلسطينية : الوقائع

الغريبة في اختفاء سعيد أبي النحس المتشائل إلميل

حبيبي نموذجا

رضا بن سعيد

12.00 12.00 C1

1الخطيئة الكبرى سالم الزريبي

22.50 22.50 C1

1

ديوان الثورة : مختارات مما قاله الشعراء التونسيون

في ثورة الحرية والكرامة

اتحاد الكتاب التونسيين

12.00 12.00 C1

1ظاهرة اإلنحاء اللغوي في اللغة العربيّة ثريا السكري عامر

12.00 12.00 C1

1 الفاعل و الشاهد محمد الصياح / المولدي

األحمر 22.50 22.50 C1

1الكتابة التاريخية في العصر الوسطي أشغال ملتقى

27.00 27.00 C1

1للصمت معنى... و للحياة بقيّة... محمد الهادي بن صالح

16.50 16.50 C1

1المطولة في الشعر العربي الحديث أحمد الجوة

22.50 22.50 C1

1من ذاكرة مجاهد العربي العكرمي

18.00 18.00 C1

1موعد مع الفجر الجليل البشير العباسي

15.00 15.00 C1

1نفخات من تراثنا العلمي المجيد د.أبو بكر خالد

15.00 15.00 C1

BoxT I T L ES A U T H O RS Total CostQTY

This is an Invoice

Whether mainstream or not, we still strive to following these

guiding principles

• Respond to the needs of various stakeholders (selectors, cataloging, vendors, users, public services, business services, IT)

• Define formal and informal lines of communication

• Commit necessary resources to end workarounds

• Take advantage of existing strengths

• Bring everyone up to the same level of understanding of processes (e.g. technology, new developments in publishing, distribution,

local procedures, etc.)

• Bring old procedures up to date vis-à-vis current technology

• Adequate time and staffing dedicated to problem solving

• Eliminate unnecessary steps & handoffs in workflows

• Define goals for optimal throughput times for process

• Promote better communication with relevant selectors and curators to increase awareness of cataloging and acquisitions options for

these collections in order to work together to expedite faculty, student and researcher discovery, access and use of these resources

• Develop processes for improvement of workflows for non-mainstream international acquisitions and adjust in response to changing

requirements to achieve maximum productivity and efficiency

• Provide a service point for selectors, curators, staff, and faculty in the library and on the campus for issues directly related to foreign

and non-Latin materials

• Provide consultation services related to acquisitions, discovery, description and delivery of non-mainstream international resources,

material and collections including published materials as well as manuscript, special collections and ephemera

• International Team to serve as the UCLA Library’s expert team related to non-mainstream international collections.

Selector contacts in region are extremely important

• These contacts can prove invaluable to

selectors when responding to research needs of

the faculty, graduate students and researchers

Methods of acquiring

materials

• Gift

• Purchase

• Exchange

• LC Cooperative Acquisitions Program

• Selector buying trip

Statistics July 1, 2011 - June 30, 2012

Arabic books - purchased:

2614 approval –$45,233

376 firm order - $16,941

Arabic serials:

559 paid subscriptions -

$99,288

Arabic books – Gifts:

532

Examples of unique materials from

the UCLA Collections

Why Cookbooks …

International Acquisitions yield unique and valuable collections. The process can

be as routine as having choices of vanilla, chocolate or strawberry ice cream. But

from the Middle East it is more like rocky road!

النهاية

!وشكرا على حسن استماعكم

The End

Questions?

David Hirsch

Librarian for Middle Eastern Studies

dhirsch@library.ucla.edu