About the Collection

The Middle East Studies (MES) collection at the Ohio State University Library contains over 100,000 books on the history and culture of the Middle East and North Africa from the 7th century A.D. to the present; on the religion of Islam throughout the world; and on Arabic, Persian and Turkish languages and literatures. The bulk of this collection is at Thompson library but we are responsible for the Middle East portion of collections in Fine Arts, Business and other libraries on campus.   Many other books on the Middle East particularly in Western languages, are available through OhioLink.

MES is also responsible for the small Hindi and Urdu Collections at OSU Libraries.  We do not actively collect in these languages but are building a small reading collection to aid in language instruction.

MES has a non-circulating reference collection in the Grand Reading Room at the Thompson Library. This is just a small part of the total Middle East collection. This collection contains the specialized encyclopedias, dictionaries and bibliographic tools, in Western and vernacular languages, necessary for the study of the Middle East, its languages and cultures and Islamic Studies.

We also subscribe to academic and popular journals from and about the Middle East as well as newspapers from the region. Current issues are in the Periodical section of the Thompson Library. Consult OSCAR for the location of older issues.

The MES office (Room 355 Thompson Library) manages the Middle East collection. We provide bibliographic assistance for researchers in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish as well as sources in western languages.