AMEEL Arabic and Middle Eastern Electronic Library Middle East Librarian Association November 17, 2007 Montreal Canada Presentation by Simon Samoeil Project Outreach Director

OACIS: Review of goals To create a freely available, publicly accessible web site featuring a continuously updated union list of Middle Eastern serials –In all formats (including live web links) –From 24 countries (ME as defined by LC) To lay foundations for the future, delivering widest possible information access –Expanded cooperation and participation –Document delivery/ILL –Digitization and preservation To create a Union List of Middle East Serials Interns

Arabic and Middle Eastern Electronic Library (AMEEL ) Project AMEEL is a four-year cost-sharing project funded by the Department of Education and Yale University Library. The project will create a web-based portal and electronic library for Middle Eastern Studies. Project AMEEL plans to be free and accessible to all patrons.

Goals of the project To create an infrastructure for the integration of major Middle Eastern information databases To digitize selected academic journals from and about the Arab world, pending the approval of the copyright holders To develop Interlibrary Loan networks between libraries within the Arab world on a national and regional level To develop Interlibrary Loan networks between American academic libraries and their Arab counterparts

Partners of the Project AMEEL Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Alexandria, Egypt) Universitaets-und-Landesbibliothek of Sachsen- Anhalt (Halle, Germany) JSTOR (New York, USA) Brill Academic Publishers (Leiden, the Netherlands) Oxford University Press (Oxford, United Kingdom) OCAR (American Center of Oriental Research ) Additional Advisory Members: University of Pennsylvania and University of Utah libraries

Challenges of the project Gain permission of copyright holders for digitization of important materials To develop Interlibrary Loan networks between libraries within the Arab world on a national and regional level Reach successful agreements on access to digitized content provided by important commercial publishers Introduce Arabic OCR software and relevant skills into American academic institutions Solve infrastructure and connectivity challenges to: 1.enable the addition of new digital materials to a repository connected to other relevant databases, such as those held by Oxford and Brill 2.make it possible for scholars to search in Arabic and English across many different databases

AMEEL Journal Digitization and Optical Character Recognition Journal TitleCountry 1 al-Abhāth [Researches]. American University of Beirut.Lebanon 2 Dirāsāt. al-‘Ulūm al-Insānīyah wa-al-Ijtimā‘īyah / Research in the Humanities and Social Scienes. University of Jordan. Jordan 3 Études internationals / Dirāsāt Dawlīyah. Association des études internationales Tunisia 4 al-Lughah wa-al-Adab / Language and Literature. Jāmi‘at al-Jazā'ir. Ma‘had al- Lughah al-‘Arabīyah wa-Ādābihā Algeria 5 Majallat Jāmi‘at al-Malik ‘Abd al-‘Azīz / Journal of King ‘Abd al-‘Azīz UniversitySaudi Arabia 6 Majallat Jāmi‘at Dimashq lil-Ādāb wa-al-‘Ulūm al-Insānīyah / Damascus University Journal for the Arts and Human and Educational Sciences Syria

Journal TitleCountry 7Majallat Tārīkh al-‘Ulūm al-‘Arabīyah / Journal for the History of Arabic Science. Institute for the History of Arabic Science, University of Aleppo. Syria 8al-Mu'arrikh al-Misrī / Egyptian Historian. Qism al-Tārīkh, Jāmi‘t al-Qāhirah.Egypt 9 Revue Tunisienne de Sciences Sociales / al-Majallah al-Tu ̄ nisi ̄ yah lil- ʻ Ulum al- Ijtama ̄ʻ i ̄ yah. Centre d’études et de recherches économiques et sociales, Université de Tunis Tunisia 10Research Journal of Aleppo University, Arts and Humanities Sciences Series / Majallat Buḥu ̄ th Ja ̄ mi ʻ at Ḥalab. Silsilat al-Āda ̄ b wa-al- ʻ Ulu ̄ m al-Insa ̄ ni ̄ yah. Syria 11 Awra ̄ q al-Dha ̄ kirah: al-Junu ̄ n wa-al-Mar'ah fi Misr Niha ̄ yat al-Qarn al-Tasi‘ ‘Ashar [Memory Papers Series: Insanity and Woman in Egypt at the End of the Nineteenth Century] / Multaqá al-Mar ʾ ah wa-al-Dha ̄ kirah. Egypt 12 Awra ̄ q al-Dha ̄ kirah: al-Mar'ah wa-al-Haya ̄ h al-Di ̄ ni ̄ yah fi al-‘Usur al-Wusta Bayana al-Isla ̄ m wa-al-Gharb / [Memory Papers Series: Woman and the Religious Life in the Middle Ages] / Multaqá al-Mar ʾ ah wa-al-Dha ̄ kirah. Egypt 13 Awra ̄ q al-Dha ̄ kirah: al-Nisa ̄ ’ wa-Mihnat al-Tibb fi al-Mujtama‘a ̄ t al-Isla ̄ mi ̄ yah / [Memory Papers Series: Women and the Medical Profession in the Islamic Societies] / Multaqá al-Mar ʾ ah wa-al-Dha ̄ kirah. Egypt AMEEL Journal Digitization and Optical Character Recognition (continued)

AMEEL - ILL Interlibrary Loan Workshop University of Jordan Amman, Jordan 5-7 March 2007 Instructors Simon Samoeil Carol L. Jones

Selection Criteria

AMEEL - ILL Develop an ILL framework for Middle East libraries to foster sharing of scholarly information Introduce ILL concepts to Middle Eastern librarians Consider institutional policies and workflows Discuss how to accommodate differing needs of and constraints on libraries in the Middle East Focus on the provision of journal articles

WORKSHOP GOALS DAY 1 Build workshop participant relationships, provide a base level of knowledge for all, and communicate a sense of where the workshop will lead. DAY 2 Participants will understand the basic elements of requesting items through ILL. Participants will understand the basic elements of providing items through ILL. Participants will understand basic ILL workflow. Participants will send a sample ILL request.

WORKSHOP GOALS, continued DAY 3 Participants will understand how ILL tools function and their role in the ILL workflow. Participants will receive a sample ILL item. Participants will understand what ILL activities can be measured and why statistics are important. Participants will understand basic elements of ILL agreements and why such agreements are important. Participants will discuss challenges to developing ILL at institutions in Arab countries and next steps for the AMEEL ILL project. Participants will discuss Document Delivery between American university libraries and Arab university libraries

Following the workshop in Jordan Translating the workflow into Arabic Establishing a listserv between members American University in Cairo and University of Bahrain have been selected as pioneers to test ILL exchanges and processes such as: – ing attachments –faxing –posting digital file online and sending link via –ARIEL and/or Odyssey software

Following the workshop in Jordan Expanding the network of ILL exchanges and including more libraries Should funding permit, a second workshop will be held

Digitization Workshop: Bibliotheca Alexandria December 3-7, trainees from US, European and Middle Eastern libraries will participate. Topics include: basic to advanced training in digitizing, OCR (Optical Character Recognition), and workflow techniques for Arabic materials. Participants expected to contribute digitized content to AMEEL.