ABOUT THE MIDDLE EASTERN LIBRARY PROGRAM
The General Libraries Middle Eastern holdings -- in English and European languages as well as Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Tajiki and Kurdish -- include more than 300,000 monographs and bound periodicals, and over 900 subscriptions housed in the Perry-Castañeda Library (PCL) and in special collections and branch libraries throughout the campus. Rare books and manuscripts are kept at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. Periodicals and newspapers are located in the Periodicals Room on the second floor of PCL, where Arabic and Persian titles are shelved alphabetically by title in two disparate sequences. Microforms are intershelved and maintained in the general microforms shelving and reading area on the first floor. Some specialized periodicals are located in branch libraries and special collections, such as Architecture, Geology and Fine Arts, as appropriate.
Since the establishment of the Middle East Collection in the General Libraries at the University of Texas, the Middle Eastern Library Program has been supported enthusiastically by the University's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. The combined institutional and grant fundings have enabled the program to build a collection ranked among the top ten Middle East collections in the country. Covering a wide variety of subjects, the collection is particularly strong in Arabic and Persian literature, history, Shiism, Islamic philosophy and jurisprudence. By a special support from the Department of Education, Title VI, Section 607, Foreign Periodicals Program, the collection has acquired and cataloged 350 Turkish and 90 Azerbaijani periodical titles to be available to scholars across the country.