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Near East Section

Near East Section of the University of Washington Libraries

University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA 98195-2900

Denny Slides Handlist

Near Eastern Resources (reference help)

Staff

The Office, located in Room 122 on the first floor of Suzzallo Library (ask at the main Reference Desk for directions if you don't spot the corridor leading to the offices of the Reference librarians-- we're at the very end), is open for reference service Monday through Thursday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., or by appointment. Phone: (206) 543-9517. Fax: (206)-685-8049. The Section Head, Mary St. Germain, provides reference service and responds to purchase requests from the students and faculty of the University of Washington. E-mail: marys@u.washington.edu

General Description

The Near Eastern Collection at the University of Washington Libraries is nationally recognized as one of the major collections in North America. The collection consists of over 250,000 volumes of books and serials housed in the Suzzallo and Allen Libraries. Political Science, Art, Music, Architecture and Urban Planing and Odegaard Undergraduate Libraries also house Near Eastern Materials published in English and other European languages.

The Near East Section which administers the collections, was formally established in 1974, following the acquisition of a major collection from the University of Southern California. Later, the Libraries participated in the Library of Congress' PL480 Program until its conversion into the Middle East Cooperative Acquisitions Program in 1981. Presently, the Libraries participates in the Cairo and Karachi programs for acquiring Arabic and Persian serials.

Collection Scope

The collection contains materials in history, geography, culture, arts, languages, education, economics, and religions of countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. The collections support courses taught in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization and the Middle East Center of the Jackson School of International Studies.

The strength of the collection is in Islamic law, Arabic and Ottoman Turkish literature and a unique Islamic art collection housed in the Art Library. In 1973, the Libraries acquired a significant portion of the collection of the late Franz Babinger, a well-known Ottomanist. The Near East Collection also contains rare Shi`ite books obtained in 1979 from Najaf, Iraq during a site visit.

An Eighteenth Century Qur'an manuscript one of several in the Special Collections Division of the Libraries

Kalam: Calligraphic design by the Algerian French Artist AKAR Abdalla

neareast@lib.washington.edu
Last modified: Monday August 30 2004