LibGuides: University Archives: Links

Regional Archives and Libraries

This page lists links to archives and related agencies in the United Arab Emirates, the Arabian Gulf region, and other nearby countries.

National Center for Documentation and Research
The NCDR, based in Abu Dhabi, is the United Arab Emirates central government document and archives repository. This site is also available in Arabic.
American University of Sharjah - Archives
AUS Archives: "The American University of Sharjah (AUS) Archives is a department within the AUS library. It is the repository for the institutional records that are created by the various academic and administrative departments of the university."
Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research
The UAE Federation Library at ECSSR maintains holdings in economic, political and social sciences, primarily focused on acquiring materials relevant to the UAE in particular and the Gulf region in general.
American University of Beirut
Web site for Lebanon's National Archives, in Arabic, French and English.
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The Jafet Library at the American University of Beirut's Digitized Arabic Manuscripts website contains a number of fully digitized manuscripts available for public use.
Bibliotheca Alexandrina
The new Library of Alexandria (Egypt), which incorporates an Internet archive, six specialized libraries, eight academic research centers, museums, a planetarium, art galleries and conference facilities. The Library was designed with space for up to eight million books.
UAE National Libraries Index
"The UAE National Libraries Index Project ... supports and facilitates librarians’ works and addresses the needs of all the libraries in the Country. This project also helps, supports and saves the time and effort of all those who are interested in research or reference works and offers participation membership to government and educational libraries by listing them in a combined electronic network."

International Resources

AMEEL Arabic and Middle Eastern Electronic Library - Yale University
"AMEEL is a Web-based portal for the study of the Middle East, including its history, culture, development, and contemporary face, and within this portal, will integrate existing scholarly digital content to make such material easier to find and use efficiently and freely."
Digital Library Majaliss - UNESCO
"Majaliss, the Digital Library of classical Arabic literature..., offers free access to hundreds of books in the public domain. The Majaliss project is a result of regional cooperation between experts and academics in Arabic literature, IT researchers and local associations. It is sponsored by the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO)."
Digitized Arabic Materials - Royal Danish Library
"The Danish Royal Library's website provides a link to digitized Arabic materials and manuscripts from its extensive collections."
E-Corpus
"E-Corpus is a collective digital library that catalogs and disseminates numerous documents: manuscripts, archives, books, journals, prints, audio recordings, video, etc. This diverse platform presents cultural diversity worldwide and specifically in the Euro-Mediterranean region. e-corpus proposes a variety of themes and a large quantity of digital documents presented by numerous organizations and countries."
Islamic Heritage Project - Harvard University
"Through the Islamic Heritage Project (IHP), Harvard University has cataloged, conserved, and digitized hundreds of Islamic manuscripts, maps, and published texts from Harvard’s renowned library and museum collections. These rare-and frequently unique-materials are now freely available to Internet users worldwide. IHP is made possible with the generous support of Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal."
Islamic Manuscripts Collection - Princeton University
"Princeton University Library holds approximately 9,500 Islamic manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish and other languages of the Muslim world written in Arabic script. The manuscripts date from the 9th to the 19th centuries. 200 of these manuscripts are being digitized for the digital library."
MANUMED Virtual Library of the Mediterranean Sea
"A shared library in many languages, many scripts, with written, image and audio resources. It encompasses our common heritage of written and graphical documents, currently preserved in Mediterranean countries. The Virtual Library aims at establishing a corpus of digital documents, free of copyright, resulting from libraries, archives and museums, public or private collections relative to the Mediterranean countries."
Memory of Modern Egypt
More than 20,000 digitized documents, audio and video materials, books, photographs, and other materials related to the history of modern Egypt from 1805 to the present.
Moroccan Digital Library
Books, manuscripts, maps, and other unique and rare heritage collections from the National Library of Morocco, digitized in Arabic and in French.
World Digital Library - UNESCO
"The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world."

Professional Resources

The following are links to online resources of use to archives and records managers. Links include authority databases, thesauri (subject term lists), archival collection cataloging tools, ... etc.

UNESCO Thesaurus
UNESCO Thesaurus: "A controlled and structured list of terms used in subject analysis and retrieval of documents and publications in the fields of education, culture, natural sciences, social and human sciences, communication and information. Continuously enriched and updated, its multidisciplinary terminology reflects the evolution of the Organization's programmes and activities."
Library of Congress Authorities
Library of Congress Authorities: "Using Library of Congress Authorities, you can browse and view authority headings for Subject, Name, Title and Name/Title combinations; and download authority records in MARC format for use in a local library system."
Dublin Core Metadata Terms
"This document is an up-to-date specification of all metadata terms maintained by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, including properties, vocabulary encoding schemes, syntax encoding schemes, and classes."

Featured Resources

Web 2.0 tools and strategies for archives and local history collections by Kate Theimer
Call Number: CD973.D3T54 2010
ISBN: 9781555706791
Publication Date: 2011
This guide aimed at those working in archives, special collections departments, historical societies, public libraries, and museums explains how these organizations can use social media to share their activities and archival and manuscript collections on the internet. Using nontechnical language, Theimer first introduces the key concepts of Web 2.0, how to transition from Web 1.0 to 2.0, and technical and administrative planning issues, then discusses the major Web 2.0 services, including blogs, podcasts, Flickr and other image-sharing sites, YouTube and other video-sharing sites, micro-blogging and Twitter, wikis, and social networking sites like Facebook, with discussion of the functionalities, implementation requirements, and current uses by archives and historical organizations. She also covers lesser-used mashups, widgets, online chat, and Second Life; measuring outcomes; and management and policy issues; as well as the experiences of archivists from institutions in the US, UK, and Australia. Theimer, the author of an archives blog and a speaker on issues related to Web 2.0 technologies by archives and historical organizations, has held positions at the National Archives and Records Administration and the Smithsonian Institution. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Managing Electronic Records by William Saffady
Call Number: HF5736.S19 2009
ISBN: 9781555706869
Publication Date: 2009
This practical textbook offers a discussion of records management concepts and methods as they apply to electronic records. Coverage encompasses special records management issues and problems associated with electronic records, and physical and application characteristics of electronic storage media used by computer, audio, and video systems, including magnetic and optical storage as well as solid-state and obsolete storage that may be uncovered during inventory procedures. Also covered are principles and procedures for inventorying electronic records, factors that influence the stability and durability of electronic records, and methods for protecting records against damage and destruction. Guidelines for daily management of electronic records are also included. A glossary of terms and acronyms is included. The book is intended for records managers, computer systems professionals, office systems analysts, archivists, data center managers, librarians, and others responsible for the creation, maintenance, and use of electronic records created by computer, audio, and video systems. Saffady teaches information management at the Palmer School of Library and Information Science. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)