OCR Text |
Show I'ngt V" effectiveness of exchange programs varies but many of them are not working as well as one would hope. There is a need to designate special acquisition responsibilities among libraries. The absence of a union catalog is sorely felt. Approximately one dozen libraries report holdings Lo the Library of Congress but the Near East Section is currently not sufficiently staffed to edit and produce a union catalog. As in other areas, the Library of Congress contributes helpful services. It is currently engaged in expanding its periodical collection in which there are now approximately 25,000 titles in Arabic, 600 in Turkish, and 200 in central Asian languages. The great, value of PL 480 in respect to current acquisitions is complemented by the Library of Congress' effort to acquire retrospective materials. Since 1968 it has been microfilmin 38 newspapers from the Middle East: 26 in Arabic, 12 in Turkish, and one each from Iran and Afghanistan. A number of university libraries purchase copies of these films. • . Until recent years scholarly interest in the Middle East was largely philological, antiquarian, and classical. But here, as in other area studies, drastic changes in interest have occurred. Interest has expanded into most of the disciplines included in the humanities and social sciences and material needed may be in the traditional book format or in a variety of other forms {i.e. microforms or social science data on punched cards or magnetic tape). There is a need for a directory of Middle East library personnel, for a list of Middle Eastern serials available in microform and for a bibliography of vernacular materials for undergraduate collections. There is a need for a more coordinated cooperative effort in the acquisitions and microfilming of Middle Eastern materials and for the compilation of such reference works as an Index Arabicus and a handbook of Middle Eastern Studies. Comprehensive data for Middle East language holdings has been lacking, although a study published by Mohamed Mohamed cl-Hadi in 1964, did give a general indication of the strength of these collections at that time. A study, soon to appear, will provide valuable information on this subject. The attached charts will form part of the statistical information contained in this forthcoming study, which is being prepared by the Committee on the Middle East of the Association of Research Libraries, chaired by Dr. David H. Partington. The aim of this study is to examine the utilization of Arabic materials acquired under PL 480, to see how the recipient libraries have handled and processed these books and serials, and to determine how much actual use these materials are receiving by faculty and students. A draft of this extremely detailed and useful report suggests that, by and large, libraries have responded well to the challenge of PL 480, but it also notes that some of the academic programs are not large enough to justify continuing PL 4S0 support and the report recommends that some shares of PL 4X0 he transferred to other libraries serving large scale programs of Arabic Studies. This report is an excellent example of the type of user study recommended as desirable in this paper for all area programs, the type of study that should be undertaken or encouraged by any agency created to coordinate, on a national level, cooperative activities in the field of international education. |