About this Reading Room | African and Middle Eastern Reading Room | Research Centers | Library of Congress (original) (raw)

African and Middle Eastern Division Reading Room open house with visitors looking at books on desks and talking with librarians.

AMED Reading Room in LJ229 Open House Event

Display of rare African postcards on table with Nigerian National Assembly Library delegation and African Section librarians standing behind.

Nigerian National Assembly Library Delegation views rare African postcards.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib(D-MI) looks at books about and by Arab Americans in a display prepared by Arab Librarian Huda Dayton and Arab Area Specialist Muhannad Salhi, Ph.D. during Arab American Heritage Congressional Event.

Librarian Huda Dayton and Specialist Muhannad Salhi, Ph.D. showcase Arab American books to Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

African and Middle Eastern Division staff stand behind tables with new acquisitions displayed.

AMED staff display rare new materials during New Acquisitions event.

Dungan Community members from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan stand behind a table with Kazak and Kyrgyz flags and books in their language they are donating to the Library.

Dungan Community from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan display gift books written in their language.

Kluge scholar Ali Boozari discusses Iranian and Indian lithographed books he used in his research displayed on table with mahogany bookcases in the background.

Kluge scholar Ali Boozari discusses Iranian and Indian lithographed books he used in his research.

The African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) was created in 1978 as part of a general Library of Congress reorganization. AMED currently consists of three sections - African, Hebraic and Near East - and covers more than 77 countries and regions from Southern Africa to the Maghreb and from the Middle East to Central Asia. Each section plays a vital role in the Library's acquisitions program; offers expert reference and bibliographic services to the Congress and researchers in this country and abroad; develops projects, special events and publications; and cooperates with other institutions and scholarly and professional associations in the US and abroad.

Africana Collections: An Illustrated Guide
Hebraic Collections: An Illustrated Guide
Near East Collections: An Illustrated Guide

As a major world resource center for Africa, the Middle East, Israel, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, AMED has the custody of more than one million physical collection materials in the languages of the region such as Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Baluchi, Chechen, Coptic, Ge’ez, Georgian, Hebrew, Kazakh, Kiswahili, Kurdish, Ladino, Oromo, Ossetian, Pashto, Persian, Somali, Syriac, Tigrinya, Turkish, Turkmen, Uighur, Uzbek, and Yiddish. Included in these collections are books, periodicals, newspapers, microforms, grey literature, and rarities such as cuneiform tablets, manuscripts, incunabula (works printed before 1501), and other early African and Middle Eastern publications. Among the most prized items are also several sizable pamphlet collections on African Studies.

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Location

Library of Congress
10 First St., SE
Thomas Jefferson Building, LJ 229
Washington, DC 20540-4810
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Hours

Public Hours
Monday - Friday
8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Closed Saturdays, Sundays & Federal Holidays