MELCom International 2023

MELCom International (Middle East Libraries Committee) 44th annual conference will be organized by Koç University, Suna Kıraç Library. Conference will take place from Tuesday 25th to Thursday 27th April 2023 at at the Koç University AKMED Library in Antalya, Turkey. 

As previously, the conference sessions will be dedicated to the following topics dealing with library material from and on the Middle East:

• Librarianship, collection development and acquisition policies
• Cataloguing policies and practices
• Catalogues and bibliographies
• Electronic resources and digitization projects
• Digital humanities & Middle Eastern collections
• Cooperation projects between libraries holding Middle Eastern collections
• History of libraries, ownership and readership
• Manuscripts, rare books and documents
• Current issues of information science in Middle East area studies
• The book market in the region

…and any other aspects within related fields of Middle Eastern librarianship.

MELCom is the acronym of the Middle East Libraries Committee. It was founded in the UK in the second half of 1960s. It was an era whereby new libraries and new collections were established while existing libraries were receiving more resources to develop their holdings. In order to «unite forces» so to speak, an official report recommended the creation of inter-university library committees to work in coordination in order to cover the needs of both scholars and students specialized in Middle Eastern studies. The committee met in 1967 in Cambridge for the first time and since then has met regularly twice a year.

MELCom International, the European Association of Middle East Librarians, is a non-governmental organization, devoted to promoting co-operation among individuals and institutions in Europe, the Middle East and throughout the world concerned with all aspects of Middle East librarianship, book collecting, the book trade and publishing. The Middle East has been defined for this purpose as meaning the Arab world, Turkey, Cyprus, Israel (but excluding Hebraica and Judaica), Iran, Afghanistan and the Muslim and Turkic peoples of the former Soviet Union.

The main function of MELCom International has been to provide a forum for personal contact, discussion and exchange of information and ideas among European Middle East library specialists, bibliographers and publishers, a three-day conference is regularly held, serving as a more formal platform for the professional experiences. MELCom International tries to achieve these aims in an atmosphere that is both scientific and informal.

In 2006, MELCom International was organized in Istanbul and was hosted by the Ottoman Bank Research Center and Archives. Traditionally the conference presentations cover topics that vary from manuscript and rare books to collection development policies, from library history to new technologies and the three-day programme includes visits to local libraries and documentation centers. Papers may be presented either in English or in French, the two official languages of MELCom International.

Although there are regular participants to MELCom International, there is no formal membership structure. Attendees are of course librarians and archivists but also researchers and information officers, bibliographers, booksellers, bibliophiles and anyone interested in information sources concerning the Middle Eastern studies from all over the world.

Bibliography:

Yontan Musnik, S.  (2008). MELCom International: Middle East Libraries Committee, The European Association of Middle East Librarians. Türk Kütüphaneciliği, 22 (4), 474-476. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/815063

Yontan Musnik, S.  (2012). Bir Toplantının Ardından: 34. MELCom International Konferansı. Türk Kütüphaneciliği, 26(2), 409 - 411. https://search.trdizin.gov.tr/yayin/detay/174269/bir-toplantinin-ardindan-34-melcom-international-konferansi

Conference Planning Committees