The Center supports acquisitions for the UCLA Library’s Middle East and Islamic studies research collection, which is available to both scholars and the public. With over 500,000 volumes, it is the largest Middle East collection in the western United States. The Department of Special Collections houses over 10,000 manuscripts in Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Ottoman Turkish and Persian. Other specialized collections are housed in the Art, Biomedical, Music and Law Libraries.
Below are links to some helpful UCLA Library guides to assist researchers.
Remote research guides
Podcasts of recorded sessions on remote research possibilities with Middle East research expert librarians offer guidance on a range of digital collections of Middle Eastern materials and discuss strategies for conducting research online. Lists and links to the resources mentioned in the forums accompany each corresponding video session.
Area-studies research guides
The guides are portals to online research resources on the Middles Eastern Studies, Ancient Near East and Egypt, Jewish studies, and Jewish Los Angeles. They offer links to online dictionaries, encyclopedias, and bibliographies; databases and indexes; e-book and journal collections, and online archives, image repositories and maps.
Instructional Media Library
Over a thousand Middle East-related film titles are available from UCLA’s Instructional Media Library and Film and Television Archive, including features, documentaries and newsreels from the region, Middle East-themed Hollywood films (from The Sheikh of 1921 to Three Kings of 1999), and works on the Middle Eastern diaspora such as the CNES-produced documentary Arabs in America. These resources are widely used in undergraduate courses, language instruction, film studies, and for individual viewing.
Center for Primary Research and Training
The UCLA Library created the Center for Primary Research and Training to integrate special collections materials more fully into the teaching and research mission of the university. The Center trains graduate students in archival methods through creation of resource guides for other library users.
The Minasian Collection of Persian and Arabic Manuscripts
The Minasian Collection of Persian and Arabic manuscripts consists of works related to the studies of theologians and scholars in centers of learning in Iran from the 16th through the 19th centuries. The manuscripts, which include both bound collections and single works, chiefly date from the 14th to the 17th centuries, and shed light on the social, religious, and political history of Iran and Shi’ism.
Contact information for UCLA Library staff with MENA specialties can be found HERE