Middle East Information Processing Van Pelt Library 3420 Walnut Street Philadelphia, Pa. 19104-6206 Dept. phone: 215/898-2196 Fax number: 215/898-0559

Functions:

Created in 1986 as the Middle East Section, this is a semiautonomous unit within Van Pelt Library Information Processing Center that exists to receive and catalog materials in languages that use the Arabic script. More than 4,000 volumes are received and processed each year. In 1994 this unit began to place direct orders for selected materials in Arabic and Persian. About 75 percent of the unit's processing workload comes from Arabic-language materials in print format, while Persian makes up about 10 percent. Urdu cataloging and processing became part of Middle East Technical Services' responsibility in 1988. At that time the unit also began to handle cataloging and processing of Indian languages that use Arabic script, such as Pushto, Brahwi, etc. This work also comprises about 10 percent of the unit's workload.

The program serves the teaching and research needs of faculty and the research needs of students at the Ph.D. level. Constituents come from more than 17 different university departments, including Asian and Middle East Studies, History, History of Art, Religious Studies, Anthropology, Folklore and Folklife, Linguistics, International Studies, Legal Studies, Linguistics, Regional Science, Political Science, Sociology, the Graduate School of Fine Arts, and Comparative Literature.

Staff:

William Kopycki, Middle East Bibliographer

Phone: 215/898-2196
Email: kopycki@pobox.upenn.edu

Shelton Henderson, Bibliographic Specialist

Phone: 215/898-3795
Email: lykes@pobox.upenn.edu