ARABIC 241
Culture of the Contemporary
Arab World
OSU Libraries home page:
http://library.osu.edu/
Middle East Studies Reading Room
550 Ackerman Library
Open same hours as Ackerman Library (M-F 7.30-10.00; Sa 8-8; Su 11-10)
5711 D
Staffed M-F 9-5 and by appointment
Dona Straley,
247-8229
Patrick Visel,
688-8796
Note: The location(s) and call no. of printed books is given in parentheses after the title.
(MES DS80C54 1998) means that the book is in the Middle East Studies Reading Room on the 1st floor of the Ackerman Library, and is shelved in call no. order.
Books in MES (Middle East Studies Reading Room), SUL Ref, etc., that are mentioned in this handout are non-circulating; they may not be checked out and taken home but must be used in the library. Books listed as Ackerman Stacks may be borrowed. If you aren’t sure, take the book to the Circulation Desk in the library and ask if you can borrow it.
When using one of these books, remember that some of your classmates may wish to use it as well. So after using it, put it on a table near the shelf where you found it. Please don’t leave it in another room or on another floor, as it may take a couple of days to find its way home.
So you’ve Googled the name
of a country or topic and gotten back lots of hits. How do you know which Web sites have good,
accurate information which can be used for your paper and presentation?
First, take an online course which
helps you learn to recognize quality Web sites.
OSU Libraries has developed such a course, which you can access at http://gateway.lib.ohio-state.edu/tutor/
(choose the tutorial “Evaluating Web Sites” listed under Research
Techniques). It won’t take you long to
work your way through this tutorial – less than an hour.
Remember that a good Web site is
like a good book – it will tell you about the author or producer, it will
present information that does not use emotionally-charged or pejorative words
to sway your opinion, it will tell you where the information has come from
(just like the bibliography in a book tells you where the author got
information), and it will tell you when the information was gathered and when
the Web site was last updated.
If you’re not sure about a Web site,
ask your teacher or librarian to have a look at it and help you decide whether
or not it’s a stable site containing reliable information.
And remember – when you use
information from the Web, you must document it, just like you document the
information you take from books and magazines, by using footnotes, references
or a bibliography (or Webography!). If
you’re not sure how to do this, check out the examples on the OSU Libraries Web
site: Go to http://library.osu.edu/sites/guides/,
then scroll down to the section “Citation Style Guides.” Each of the styles includes examples of
different types of electronic sources.
Wikipedia or Not Wikipedia?
Should you use Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/) for classroom
assignments? There is a lot of
discussion about this among librarians, teachers, faculty members and others as
to how accurate and objective a source Wikipedia is, when it is constructed by
many different people.
I suggest that you use Wikipedia as background,
but always find another source to confirm what you read at Wikipedia. This is especially true of any topic that is
controversial or about which people hold very strong opinions, whether it is a
topic related to religion, politics, or social issues. Think of how difficult it is to portray a
balanced and objective viewpoint on topics such as Democrats vs. Republicans,
abortion, and homosexuality in our own culture – so what about the Arab-Israeli
situation, veiling of women, and terrorism in the context of the
A program recently developed by a
graduate student, Wikiscanner (http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/)
allows you to see the ip address and corporation name where that ip address is
located of changes to Wikipedia articles.
If you click on the number in the column “diff”, you can see what
changes were made.
One of the people who originally
designed Wikipedia is now involved in Citizendium (http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Main_Page),
which is similar to Wikipedia but which requires contributors to use their real
names and which subjects contributions to “gentle oversight” in order to ensure
accuracy and avoid some of the problems that have plagued Wikipedia. It is still in beta test, and the number of
articles is small. They are added
randomly, as contributors write them.
For example, there is an article on
Web Portal
Sites
Al-Bab.com
http://www.al-bab.com/Default.htm
Country
guides, news, architecture, history, literature, minority groups.
Excellent
short essays on a variety of topics, as well as links to other sites.
Al
Bawaba (The
http://www.albawaba.com/main/index.ie.php3?lang=e
Links
by country to sites on news & the media, business & economy, education,
government, tourism, culture, sports & recreation, and the arts. Good for
current events as well as general information; links to newspapers and
magazines in English covering news and cultural events.
Choose
from the list of countries. Includes
links to other sites on the arts, the economy, education, government, health
& medicine, news and media, science and technology, society and culture.
Middle
East & Islamic Studies Collections,
http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/home.htm
This
site is particularly good if you are looking for current documents and information
on politics; for example, there are links to al-Qaida documents.
MERIA
(
“Research
Guides” includes links to Web sites by topic; “links” serves as a portal by
country and topic
Other Web Resources
To find
radio stations, use Radio Locator (http://www.radio-locator.com/)
or
You will also want to check major Western newspapers to see what they print about current events in the Arab world:
Christian Science Monitor (http://www.csmonitor.com/)
New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/)
Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/)
The Times (
Government Websites
Some countries have very good Web sites and can be used to gather excellent information. Just remember that these sites are meant as marketing tools and represent a “best foot forward” strategy.
You can
locate government Web sites by going to Governments on the WWW (http://www.gksoft.com/govt/en/) and
choosing either Africa or
Some of these Web sites are simple, straightforward, and not hard to browse through quickly; others can be very large and complex. They are all worth looking through. As an example, look at:
http://www.us.sis.gov.eg/En/Default.htm
A massive site run by the Ministry of Information,
includes live TV and radio feeds; virtual tours of the Egyptian Museum and the
Islamic Museum; an atlas with climate, demographic, agricultural, historical
and other maps; biographies of politicians, literary and scientific figures;
Cairo Press Review, which gives the headlines (in English) from several daily
and weekly publications, with links to the full text of the articles in some
cases; and much, much more. Be sure to
spend some time exploring this site.
Other
Web Sites
Country Studies (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html)
A
series of books which were originally sponsored by the U.S. Army, to keep
personnel up-to-date on the political and economic trends in various countries
of the world. They are irregularly
updated, so be sure to check the first page to see what date the research was
completed. For example, the research on
Lebanon was completed in Dec. 1987, thus this study does not contain much
information about the tumultuous political situation since that time; it does
however, give excellent background for the colonial and post-colonial period in
general.
Economist Country Briefings (http://www.economist.com/countries/)
The Economist Magazine publishes this series for each country of the world annually, with census and economic data. An abridged version is available on-line by country with statistical, political and economic data.
Note: free information not available for all countries. To find info on other countries, and to find the most complete information on all countries, search OSCAR by keyword: country profile and economist, and country report and economist. Be sure to do both searches as there are two separate publications for each country that contains different information.
The World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/)
By country, info &
statistics on geography & environment, demographics (including ethnic
& religious groups, languages, literacy, social indicators), government
(including membership
in international organizations), economy (imports, exports, reserves, debts), communications,
transportation, military, transnational issues (drugs, boundary disputes, refugees).
Can view all these topics by
country, or can view all countries by a single topic (click on
2nd icon beside the
topic within one country, will give you a list of info on this topic for
all countries).
LookLex (http://www.i-cias.com/e.o/)
Includes all the regular stuff you’d expect to find
in an encyclopedia, plus clickable maps.
Should
be used together with at least one of the print
encyclopedias listed below, as it is not complete and the articles are not necessarily lengthy or in depth.
NOTE: In Dec. 2007, this Web site announced
that it would expand to “include every subject in
the entire world” rather than being restricted to
the Middle East and
region.
Kwintessential Cross Cultural Solutions (http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/country-profiles.html)
A commercial company that provides translation
services as well as cultural awareness training. Site includes short but succinct summaries of
etiquette and customs for a number of countries.
Library Online Resources
Check out the list of databases available through the Libraries’ home page. Access to these databases is paid for by the Libraries, so if you’re trying to use these from off-campus, be sure to use the “Off-campus Sign-in” link so you can search.
From the Libraries’ Web site (http://library.osu.edu), look at the left-hand side of the page, and click on “Research Databases.” You can type in the name of a specific database (like those listed here) or you can choose a subject area and browse the various databases available.
Many of the databases are bibliographies and indexes to journal articles or books. But some of them include full-text articles and statistics, such as:
Europa World Plus
Divided into regions of the world, with essays on
topics important to that region (e.g., for the Middle East, there are always
essays on oil), information on international organizations with interests in
the region (World Bank, International Monetary Fund, various UN organizations)
and on regional organizations (Gulf Cooperation Council, Organization of the
Islamic Conference, OPEC). Separate
sections on each country, include essays on the recent history and economic
development, and lots of statistics and other information. Lots of clicks to get where you sometimes
want to go, but well worth the effort.
Political Risk Yearbook
Information
for businesses interested in investment or trade with another country.
Includes
information on politics (including violence and corruption), trade barriers,
analysis of current government and its policies, etc., that might impact
business. Lots of statistics. PDF.
E-Books
In addition to books in
print, the Libraries also purchases e-books, i.e. full-text books available to
you electronically. While it is tedious
to read a large amount of text on a computer screen, you can find a number of
books that will contain just one or two chapters that you’re interested
in. (Note: It is easier to locate these
titles if you use “Search OSU Catalog” not “Search OSU and Beyond.”)
Examples:
Hammond, Andrew. Pop
culture Arab world! Media, arts and lifestyle.
Hillstrom, Kevin and Laurie
Collier Hillstrom. Africa and the
Search the first title on
OSCAR and you get two records: one has
copies in MES Reading Room & NWK Stacks; the one other has the location
“Web E-books.” You can access this from
any computer on campus, and any computer off campus once you have signed
in. For the second title, you will see
that the e-book is the only form of the title we own.
When you click on “Connect to
title online,” you will automatically be given the table of contents to
browse. You can also do keyword
searching on the full text of the book.
The following Web sites all have good maps of each country
individually as well as maps of regions, such as the Middle East or
http://menic.utexas.edu/Reference/Maps/
-- “Maps of the
UT’s Map Collection
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~gov46/ -- historical maps, showing
various schemes
for countries during and after the World Wars and later
http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/english/htmain.htm
-- UN has pdf files
for
easy printing, by country or by region (West Asia =
ESCWA
= Arab countries of the
Many of these maps are scanned versions of printed maps that can be found in the Map Room (550 Ackerman Library; same hours as Ackerman Library); ask about CIA maps or other small maps by country or region.
There are also a number of atlases that will give you good, clear maps. These are all in the Middle East Studies Reading Room, in the atlas cases, with other copies in the Map Room.
CIA. Atlas of the
Hammond atlas of the Middle East. (MES G2205H3 1997)
Karta
(Firm). Atlas of the
National
Geographic Society. Atlas of the
G2205A853 2003)
Finally, many good world atlases will also have regional and country maps that you can use. Check for these in the Map Room, at SUL Ref, and in other libraries on campus.
Ask for the most recent edition of The Times atlas of the world, The Book of the world, Atlas of the world published by the National Geographic Society, or other world atlases.
Encyclopedia of the modern Middle East. 4 vols.
(ACK Stacks, MES DS43E53 1996)
Each article has a short bibliography and is signed
by the author. Look for
people, places, battles, treaties, subjects. Illustrated.
Encyclopedia of the modern Middle East and North Africa. 4 vols.
(SUL Ref DS43E53 2004)
Also, any good general encyclopedia (such as the Britannica
or the
Sources on Individual Countries – There is a lot of information, both in print and on the Web, about culture and politics in the various Arab countries. Following are a few suggestions that are good, basic introductions to each country.
World
Bibliographical Series
Example: Lawless, Richard I.
A bibliography on all topics about the country. Use the table of contents and the index to
locate books and articles about your topic.
Each title is annotated, so you can quickly decide if it’s worthwhile
getting the complete book or article. There
is a bibliography for each country of the world. They are hard to find on OSCAR because the title
is simply the name of the country.
Search as a title the name of the series (World Bibliographical Series),
then choose the option to limit your search by words in the title and type in
the name of the country. You may also browse
the shelves in MES, where you will find the ones for the Middle East and
Historical Dictionary
of …
Example: Commins, David. Historical dictionary of
Syria. (MES DS94.9C66 2004)
A dictionary which gives quick information on people, places, and events in each country. Contains short introductions on history and long bibliographies which you might want to browse through for more information. There is a historical dictionary for most countries of the world. Search for them on OSCAR by title (Historical dictionary of …).
Culture and Customs of
…
Example: Shoup, John A. Culture and customs of
Each
volume includes information on social life & customs, including dress,
food,
cinema, media, holidays, religion,
music, art, etc. Search in OSCAR by
title, with name
of country or continent. There are not yet volumes for all countries.
Sources
on specific customs
There may also be a printed
encyclopedia or dictionary on a specific custom that will contain information
about the
For example, search OSCAR with the
keywords: marriage and encyclopedias or
marriage and dictionaries. Look at the
results. When you find a title you think
will be of help to you, be sure to look at the subject headings and series
titles; click on them to find other resources on the same topic or in the same
series.
You can do the same thing by using a
particular subject or custom and then using “and Middle East.”
4/7/08