Yale University Library
11 November 2003

Yale University Library announced today that it has released for public
review, comment, and use a prototype version of its OACIS Middle East
Database. This unique collaboration will make scholarly literature from
and about the Middle East much more widely and much more easily available
to scholars around the world.  Project OACIS (Online Access to
Consolidated Information on Serials) will create a publicly and freely
accessible, continuously updated listing of Middle East journals and
serials, including those available in print, microform, and online. The
listing, a prototype version of which is now available on the Web at
<http://www.library.yale.edu/oacis/>, identifies libraries that own the
materials as well as exact holdings for a broad range of Middle Eastern
and other language titles.

Associate University Librarian Ann Okerson views the project as "exciting
evidence that American and world libraries can band together to provide
extraordinary expansion of access to the kind of scholarly research that
brings light and understanding to a vital part of the world."

OACIS is being supported by a U. S. Department of Education Title VI grant
under the "Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign
Information Access" program as well as significant cost share by the Yale
University Library and resource investment by the OACIS partners.

Project OACIS is international in scope, engaging European, American, and
Middle Eastern individuals and institutions. US partner libraries have
contributed the initial titles in the prototype; however, the database
will be expanding in the coming two years to include titles and holdings
of targeted participating institutions in Europe and the Middle East. The
project design includes interactions with teachers of foreign languages
and with librarians in Middle Eastern countries who will offer input on
design and functionality.

Draft guidelines for libraries interested in participating in the OACIS
database union list can be found at:
<http://www.library.yale.edu/oacis/project/>

Yale Library staff, along with faculty of the Middle East Studies Council
of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, have been
developing Project OACIS over several years, in a commitment to provide
access to the literature of this increasingly important region of the
world for a wide range of educational, government, and commercial
institutions. The aim is to develop a better understanding of the varied
economies, politics, languages, and cultures of the Middle East.

Yale University was one of the earliest higher education institutions
formally to study the Middle East, and its Library collections and other
educational resources -- and faculty -- are among the strongest in the
world.

The leadership of the project is shared by AUL Ann Okerson as Principal
Investigator; Kimberly Parker, Head of Electronic Collections, as Co-PI
and
Technical Director; Simon Samoeil, Near East Curator, as Project Manager
and Director of Networking and Relationships; and the OACIS Technical
Administrator, Elizabeth Beaudin. The US libraries partnering on the
prototype
include: Cornell, University of Michigan, Ohio State, University of
Pennsylvania, University of Texas, and University of Washington. The
principal European partner is the Universitaets-und Landesbibliothek
Sachsen-Anhalt. Future Middle Eastern participants have been identified in
Egypt, Jordan, The Lebanon, Syria, and Tunisia.

Information about the OACIS project is available at
<http://www.library.yale.edu/oacis/>

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Ann Okerson, Associate University Librarian
203-432-1763, [log in to unmask] or

Simon Samoeil, Near East Curator
203-432-1799, [log in to unmask]