Cooperative Structures for the Collection of Internet Resources on and from the Middle East

Lutz Wiederhold

1. Libraries and new Information Technologies

Over the past years, the rapid development of new information technologies has been a great challenge to academic libraries, and it is to be expected that new technologies will create new challenges in the future. Technological change has an impact on many aspects of library practice among them the professional profile of librarians, the organisational structure of libraries, and acquisition policies. It seems hard to imagin that, in the future, a librarian will be able to work without at least a basic knowledge of the mangement of digital resources. Libraries not connected to the information network presenting a significant part of their resources will no longer be recognized as an element of the information landscape. In view of shrinking library budgets and growing numbers of publications libraries will have to weigh possibilities of providing temporary access to distant resources through new technological means against the effects of purchasing and owning resources. Also, in a socio-political environment that is often described as "information society", expectations of funding bodies and users will force libraries to keep abreast of new evolving technological standards.

2. Information Technology Tools at the Special Subject Collection Middle East / North Africa at Halle University Library

However, libraries and collections with a focus on Middle East studies meet several difficulties when attempting to integrate new technologies into their service:

1. In the past, Middle East studies - as other disciplines belonging to the humanities - have not been supported by private and public funding bodies in a manner comparable to commercially more important disciplines as medicine, science and technology in introducing new technologies.
2. The number of electronic resources on and from the Middle East has been growing less rapidly than the number of electronic resources in the Western world. Libraries and other information institutions from the Middle East often only recently have started to use new technologies for intra-library practices and inter-library cooperation.
3. The Middle East with its technical standards has been widely neglected by western producers of new technologies, therefore new technical tools were often unable to work with digital resources from the Middle East.

When Halle University Library took over responsibilty for the special subject collection Middle East / North Africa from Tubingen University Library in 1998, the principal aim was to collect printed materials on and from the Middle East according to the collection's profile. However, supported by Halle University Library's systems section and by colleagues from WEBIS - the national WebInformationSystem - the Special Subject Collection started or continuied to work on several tools of electronic information.
A first element of information policy aiming at the integration of digital resources was our list of internet resources related to Middle East studies. Starting in January 1998 with a small number of links this list today provides access to about 400 internet sites.
The Virtual Catalogue Middle East / North Africa was another digital tool that was introduced shortly after January 1998. Its main objective was to present literature collected in Tubingen until 1997 and from 1998 onwards in Halle in one electronic catalogue.
Since then, other electronic tools were created in order to provide access to digital information and to distribute information from printed materials in digital units. In October 1999, the document delivery service Vorderer Orient Direkt was introduced. This service enables the user among other things to order and receive documents via e-mail.
The electronic list of periodicals held at the special subject collection now provides access to tables of contents in Latin as well as in Arabic characters if so far only for a restricted number of titles. Also, the classification scheme of the special subject collection is now available in an electronic version that is connected to the electronic catalogue of the library and thus facilitating access to materials concerning certain broader issues of Middle East studies.

3. The Project "Virtual Library Middle East / North Africa"

These and other tools of electronic information designed by Halle University Library were seen as first steps towards a larger information system for Middle East studies in the future. However, in view of the rapid growth of information in all scholarly fields it is widely accepted among library and information scientists that comprehensive information systems for particular fields of research and public interest will not - as in the past - be organised as centralised authoritative institutions controlling information collected by their own staff but rather as cooperative bodies with contributers working at a number of institutions.¹ Cooperation in a network is hoped to increase competency of all participating institutions and - by creating a "virtual staff"² - ability to cope with growing quantities of information. In response to this perspective, the German Reserach Foundation (DFG) has initiated a particular program aiming at the development of several "virtual special subject libraries" (Virtuelle Fachbibliotheken). According to the Oxford English reference dictionary (1995) the term "virtual" describes among other things "something not physically existing as such but made by software to appear to do so". This may be seen as an adequate description of the concept of virtual special subject libraries as well. Furthermore, this definition helps to understand the difference between an "electronic library" and a "virtual library". An "electronic library" is a particular library holding a number of electronic documents on its own servers, whereas the term "virtual library" is used to describe a cooperation of several "electronic libraries" connecting their resources in a digital network.³ The electronic information collected and provided by a number of special and research libraries is presented at one internet site that is maintained by a coordinating institution.
Realizing the need for such a coordinating institution, Halle University Library submitted the project "Virtual Library Middle East / North Africa" to the German Research Foundation in December 1999. This project was accepted in April 2000. As a result, the German Research Foundation will provide financial support for three positions for two years (October 2000 - September 2002). It is one objective of the project to extend the scope of the electronic tools as described above, that is adding libraries with their local catalogues to the "Virtual Catalogue Middle East / North Africa" or to co-operate in maintaining a current contents service. Several institutions have expressed their interest in contributing to the creation of the Virtual Library Middle East North Africa. Among these institutions are:

• Deutsche Morgenlaendische Gesellschaft (DMG)
• Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Vorderer Orient (DAVO)
• Institut fuer Orientalistik der Martin-Luther-Universitaet Halle-Wittenberg
• Middle East Librarians Committee (MELCOM, UK)
• University Library and Information Center, Exeter, UK
• Research Group Contemporary Arabic Studies, Malaga
• State and University Library (SUB) Goettingen (technical tools for current contents services)
• Verbundzentrale des GBV - (technical tools for current contents services)
• UB Karlsruhe (extension of virtual catalogue)

Some of these institutions will support the creation of technical tools for the virtual library Middle East / North Africa, others are planing to add contents to the tools that will be developed.

4. The Special Subject Guide Middle East / North Africa

An essential element of the virtual library in the creation of which long-term cooperation in both fields - technical support and contents - will be needed, is the subject gateway for relevant digital resources on and from the Middle East. The primary objective of this special subject guide will be a qualified selection and evaluation of electronic resources on and from the Middle East. As a result of selection, evaluation and bibliographic recording, this tool will provide links together with a set of metadata describing formal aspects and contents of the respective resources. A search engine will enable the user to search the database using various categories such as "title", "creator", "key words" or "subject headings". Metadata added to the links will be organised according to the suggestions of Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. The technical structure will be similar to that of already existing subject gateways for other areas of research like that of the English Studies Guide offered by the Lower Saxony State and University Library Goettingen. The subject guide is suggested to be realiesed according to the following agenda:

1. Halle University Library will built the technical structures needed for the subject guide. These structures include 1) a bibliographical database in which links are collected and metadata are added to the links, 2) a hypertext document (HTML) for the presentation of the subject guide on the Internet 3) a search engine and 4) a catalogue enabling the user to search the data using different search modes and methods, and 5) an automatic searchtool to identify "broken links". In order to facilitate long-term cooperation in adding new links to the subject guide, Halle University Library will also design electronic forms as a HTML document which will enable cooperating libraries and users to propose new resources for integration into the subject guide.
2. Links collected by cooperating institutions can be integrated into the technical structure of the subject guide after work on these structures has been finished. The decision, which resources will be integrated into the subject guide will be made by an editorial board. Participating institutions can become part of the editorial board. Communication between members of the editorial board will be organized in a mailing list.
3. Halle University Library will receive funds for the project for two years. The aim of the project concerning the subject guide in particular is to provide technical tools, that enable contributers to add links together with metadata to the guide by 2001. Until then, the numerous links collected in individual link lists of contributing institutions could be integrated together with metadata into the subject guide by staff working on the project in Halle.

Work on the technical basis of the special subject guide Middle East / North Africa will start in October 2000. It is hoped that a first version of the subject can be presented by December 2000. At that time also an electronic form for proposing new web-sites for integration into the special subject guide will be available.

5. Conclusion

There is a number of comprehensive link lists concerning Middle East Studies without additional metadata available already. However Halle University Library invites colleagues and institutions to join forces to create a structured subject guide for studies on the Middle East and North Africa providing metadata concerning the sources collected. The cooperative realization of this tool is hoped to guarantee a continuing growth of the database in the future. The internet presentation of the Virtual Library Middle East / North Africa will mention all participating institutions with their contributions to the information network. Also the subject guide in particular will be designed in such a manner as to demonstrate to both users and funding bodies that a multitude of information to be selected, evaluated and recorded needs a multitude of institutions to contribute.