About the Division

About the Collections:
   Online Illustrated Guides
   The African Section
   The Hebraic Section
   The Near East Section

Research and Reference:
   Reference Assistance & Contacts
   Research a Country or Language
   Use the Reading Room
   Transliteration Tables

Internet Resources:
   Selected Internet Resources
   Portals to the World
   African and Middle Eastern Portals

Cybercasts:
    African Section
    Hebraic Section
    Near East Section

Search our Databases:
    LC Databases & E-Resources
    LC On-line Catalogs

From left: 18th century Middle East book binding; The Washington Haggadah; Kente Cloth

Special Reports:

Conflict in Iraq: 2003-2004

    The Library of Congress in Iraq

View an interview with the Participants

(Real Player is required to view this film
Get the free version of Real Player here)

Ask a Librarian
Want to ask our reference staff a question about the
African and Middle
Eastern collections?

The African and Middle Eastern Reading Room is the primary public access point for materials housed in the the African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) which include a variety of vernacular scripts, such as Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, and Yiddish. Covering more than 70 countries, from Morocco to Southern Africa to the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, the division's three sections--African, Hebraic, and Near East--offer in-depth reference assistance, provide substantive briefings on a wide range of subjects relating to these languages and cultures, produce guides to the Library's vast resources and cooperate in developing and preserving the Division's unparalleled collections.