MEC Library Collections

The Middle East Centre (MEC) Library was established in 1957 with a mission to provide library resources on the contemporary history and societies of today’s Arab countries, Turkey, Iran and Israel, for students and scholars in the field. The collection remit therefore focuses on Humanities and Social Sciences related topics, spanning the late 17th Century to the present day. The collection offers books and non-book materials in vernacular languages, for example Arabic, Persian, Turkish, some Hebrew, as well as English, French and other official languages of Europe.

The Scope of the Collection

Modern history of the region; national movements; biographies & memoirs; works on political science, constitutional history; political and diplomatic history; economic theory; economic development/history; oil and other industries; labour market and condition; gender and media studies; Islamic thoughts and movements.

The summary of the Library holdings

• 1. Lending collection: approximately 40,000 volumes of books are stored and have been made accessible in two open stacks, housed in the MEC Library, located in the Investcorp building. This collection is catalogued online, and can be searched on SOLO. Items can be borrowed from this collection by those who are entitled to borrowing from this Library. Please see this page for details of the MEC Library Regulations.
• 2. Special Collection: this collection comprises: rare books, i.e. publications dated from 1700 up to 1930, a small collection of lithographically printed books in Arabic, and a collection of theses. Items held in Special Collection are Reference only, and can only be consulted onsite.The entire collection is catalogued online and can be searched on SOLO. Rare Books can be identified on SOLO by their classmark/shelfmark suffix of (RB). The theses collection can be identified by classmark/shelfmark suffix of (Thesis). Please note:
  • i. Special collections are stored outhouse, so please give a day’s notice if you need to consult any item from this collection. Requests can be placed via email at: meclibrary@sant.ox.ac.uk.
  • ii. While consulting materials from the Special Collection, only the use of a pencil is permitted.
  • iii. The library reserves the right to decline a request, if the item is either fragile or too large to handle.
• 3. Manuscripts: the Library holds a small collection of manuscripts, bequeathed to the Library as part of the “Harold and Doreen Ingrams” library. Find further details about manuscripts here.
• 4. Periodicals: the Library offers a comprehensive holding of periodicals in several languages, unique to the Oxford University collection. Find further details about periodicals here. 
• 5. Pamphlets: the Library holds a large collection of pamphlets, for the most part donated by the “Friends of the MEC library”. Find further details about pamphlets here.
• 6. Microfilms: this collection comprises copies of newspapers, magazines, books, periodicals, and manuscripts, held at universities and archives elsewhere. The microfilms are in several languages. Find further details about microfilms here.
• 7. DVDs: this collection comprises documentary programmes, feature films from the region, as well as some full runs of digitised magazines and newspapers. Find further details about DVDs here.