The press release below announces an interesting project at Yale
University:
--------------------------------------------
YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
NEW HAVEN, CT 06520-8240
YALE LIBRARY NEWS RELEASE
July 31, 2002: US Department of Education Funds Library's
Middle East Database Project
New Haven, CT. The Yale Library announced that its proposal to
lead and coordinate a collaborative database project that will make
available important Middle Eastern resources has been awarded a U. S.
Department of Education Title VI grant under the "Technological
Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access"
program. Project OACIS (Online Access to Consolidated Information
on Serials) will be funded for three years, at a level of $145,000 in the
first year and comparable amounts thereafter. The Library is adding
its own staff and technology resources to this significant cost-sharing
arrangement.
Associate University Librarian Ann Okerson described the project as one
that will create a publicly and freely accessible, continuously updated
listing of Middle East journals and serials, including those available in
print, microform, and online. The listing, which will be available
on the Web, will identify libraries that own the materials as well as
exact holdings, initially for Arabic and English language titles and then
for an ever-expanding group of Middle Eastern languages. As it
develops, Project OACIS will also serve as a gateway to those serials by
enhancing content delivery of those titles.
Project OACIS is international in scope. While initial titles
reports will be contributed by US partner libraries, the database will
expand to include titles and holdings of targeted partner institutions in
Europe and the Middle East. The project design includes
interactions with teachers of foreign languages and with librarians in
Middle Eastern countries who will offer input on design and
functionality. The records will be searchable in non-Roman
alphabets.
Yale Library staff, along with faculty of the Middle East Studies Council
of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, have been
developing Project OACIS over several years, in a commitment to provide
access to the literature of this increasingly important region of the
world for a wide range of educational, government, and commercial
institutions. The aim is to develop a better understanding of the
varied economies, politics, languages, and cultures of the Middle
East.
Yale University was one of the earliest higher education institutions
formally to study the Middle East, and its Library collections and other
educational resources -- and faculty -- are among the strongest in the
world.
The leadership of the project will be shared by AUL Ann Okerson as
Principal Investigator, Kimberly Parker as Co-PI and Technical Director,
and Simon Simon Samoeil, Near East Curator, as Project Manager and
Director of Networking and Relationships. The US libraries
committed to participating in the project include: Cornell,
University of Michigan, Ohio State, University of Pennsylvania,
University of Texas, and University of Washington. The principal
European partner is the Universitäts-und Landesbibliothek
Sachsen-Anhalt. Middle Eastern partners have been identified in
Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria.
Information about the OACIS project will be available at
<http://www.library.yale.edu/oacis/>
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Ann Okerson, Associate University Librarian
203-432-1764, [log in to unmask]
or
Kimberly Parker, Head of Electronic Collections
203-432-0067, [log in to unmask] or
Simon Samoeil, Near East Curator
203-432-1799,
[log in to unmask]
