ABSTRACT
Reference librarians, who must often respond to queries relating to foreign countries and civilizations, may sometimes be unaware of the rich library resources available for consultation both locally and nationally. Foreign language and foreign area-related works have been an integral part of library collections from the very beginning, but they have been developed with special intensity during the post-World War II period. It is the purpose of this paper to provide an overview of one specific area of this development – resources collected by American libraries to support the study of Africa and the Middle East. From New England to California, a number of academic libraries, augmented by the Library of Congress and New York Public Library, offer a wide range of retrospective and current documentation on this vital world area. These institutions have also been at the forefront in compiling bibliographic tools to assist users in identifying and locating sometimes elusive information. The paper will focus briefly on how these resources have come into being, where they are located, and how they are bibliographically controlled, so that they are accessible through the normal reference process.
