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The Area Programs Libraries comprise the Near East, Slavic, South Asia, and Southeast Asia Divisions. Their collections are housed in the Graduate Library. Each division assumes responsibility for the entire range of bibliographic duties to provide readers with access to vernacular and western language resources within their respective geographic and language domains. Accordingly, Area Programs staff select and acquire materials added to the collections in vernacular languages and in Western languages with relevant geographical and topical focus. In addition, all vernacular language materials receive cataloging in the Area Programs Divisions. Staff assist readers in finding materials and using the collections, compile bibliographies, identify print or electronic resources held elsewhere, and offer classes and informal instruction in library use as it applies to the geographical, linguistic, and subject areas covered by the Area Programs Libraries
Area Programs librarians serve a broad faculty and student constituency associated with the Centers for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, Judaic Studies, Russian and East European Studies, and South and Southeast Asian Studies, whose members and affiliates are drawn from numerous campus departments and schools, among them Near East Studies, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Asian Languages and Cultures, Anthropology, History, Linguistics, Political Science, and Sociology. In addition, Area Programs staff serve a national and world-wide constituency which looks to the University of Michigan Library for unique resources and staff expertise in international librarianship.
The Near East Division is responsible for the selection and acquisition of materials from and about the countries of the Near East and North Africa (both ancient and modern) in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, and the European languages, including Yiddish. In addition, the division has responsibility for Judaica and the Ancient Near East (including Assyriology, Egyptology, Northwest Semitic, Hebrew Bible, etc.).
The staff of the division catalogs all monographs, serials, microforms and electronic resources in the vernacular languages. Because the staff of the division is especially trained and has extensive experience in the languages and subjects of the region and in addressing problems unique to Near Eastern and Judaica librarianship, it is well prepared to provide a wide range of specialized reference services. Among these services are providing bibliographic guidance to graduate students beginning dissertation research, assisting in the compilation of course related bibliographies, introduction to and assistance in searching such bibliographic resources as MLA Bibliography, Francis, Linguistic Abstracts Online, RLIN or Eureka (with Hebrew and Arabic alphabet support), FirstSearch databases (OCLC or WorldCat), ProQuest, Periodicals Index Online, Periodicals Archive Online, and many others, among them, Search Tools, which can search of multiple databases simultaneously, introduction to the collections, and the use of MIRLYN library system databases, assistance in non-roman script computing, and locating and acquiring unique or rare antiquarian books and manuscripts in microform.
TOTAL COLLECTION SIZE
GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE
North Africa, Southwest Asia, Asia Minor, and Central Asia.
CHRONOLOGICAL COVERAGE
Ancient Near East, medival Near East, modern Middle East
LINGUISTIC COVERAGE AND COLLECTION SIZE BY LANGUAGE
Arabic (115,796), Hebrew/Yiddish (42,053), Persian (20,228), Turkish/Ottoman (23,393), Kurdish, other Turkic, Iranian languages (2,591), European languages (135,845)
