Middle East Microfilm Project Executive Meeting
15 Nov. 2007
Montréal, Canada

Attendance: David Hirsch, Michael Hopper, Robin Dougherty, Jonathan Rodgers, Christopher Murphy, Peter Magierski

D. Hirsch (UCLA): Waqa'i' Iraqiyah: Lesley Wilkins was working on this; there was a standing order; issued in CD-ROM
M. Hopper (Harvard): Harvard has an acting librarian for Islamic law; Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review (HMEIR) has resumed publication, and the latest issue includes an article on Ottoman manuscripts in the Houghton Library: "Ottoman Turkish Manuscripts and Documents at Harvard's Houghton Library" by Hakan T. Karateke.
D. Hirsch (UCLA): Appointment of the nominating committee (J. Rodgers, William Kopycki[??])

News and Reports from the members of the Committee:
R. Dougherty (Texas): U. Texas is now a participant in the Google Books project; human rights documentation project at U. Texas
J. Rodgers (Michigan): position vacancies: Arabic and Hebrew cataloguers have retired, and positions will be posted shortly; Google Books reaches 1 million mark
M. Hopper (Harvard): Digitization project in connection with the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard: the project create digital images of selections of Islamic materials from Harvard's historical collections of published works and manuscript materials; a graduate student will catalogue the titles included in the project; the project will be completed in summer 2008, and another cataloguer will likely be hired; the new Islamic Studies program is beginning and the first of four new faculty will be recruited by next summer; Harvard is sending about 1,000 item to TechPro for cataloguing.
P. Magierski (NYU): NYU will open a campus in Abu Dhabi; the library is sending about 2,000 Arabic items to TechPro; the library is moving to the Aleph system by next summer; Institute for the Study of the Ancient World will hire a librarians; the Afghanistan Digital Library continues to progress, and three staff, including P. Magierski, traveled to Kabul for training in digitization.
D. Hirsch (UCLA): Kristen Wilson, Arabic cataloguer, resigned in July; the has been no Arabic cataloguing since, although she continues to work in the manuscript project, an Islamic manuscripts digitization project funded by NEH, in which graduate students create "core" records which Kristin upgrades and completes to full standards; DH mentions that he has found digital copies of Zirikli, al-A`lam, qamus tarajim li-ashhar al-rijal... and Kahhalah, Mu`jam al-mu'allifin... on the web [URL's?] through the Iranian National Library; UCLA Library has mounted an exhibit "Middle Eastern Americans" in the Powell Library Rotunda <http://www.international.ucla.edu/cnes/home/article.asp?parentid=74218>
UCLA is now part of OACIS.
C. Murphy: By year's end some 40K volumes will have been shipped to off-site storage; Suggestion in response to D. Hirsch's request concerning access to inventory of LC microfilmed newspaper titles that MEMP create a listing of these titles from the LC catalogue and mount on the MEMP website [this can easily be accomplished by searching for the titles by "other" call number: Voyager Bib record no. or LCCN; newspapers use call number instead, e.g., 17000, but one needs to upper-case LC Call; browse: other AMED/Nes space Microfilm space number --- yields holdings, e.g., Call Number (other)=AMED/Nes 17001).
LC digital projects update: Islamic Manuscripts from Mali <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/intldl/malihtml/malihome.html> includes full text display of 32 manuscripts, searchable by keyword, subject, and title
In the World Digital Library project, "Islamic Civilization and Science: A History in the Manuscripts of the Library of Congress and the National Library of Egypt," <http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0703/egypt.html> each participant is digitizing 60 manuscripts. Training is complete, and equipment has been purchased and installed.
The Library of Congress will provide training (to take place in the UAE) and equipment to the National Library of Iraq to assist it in recovering from the disaster of war.
The LC http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html website has been updated <http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html> for among other the countries of the Arab world.