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AORC Libraries
DLIR Digital Archive
The DLIR Archive was established as part of the Cooperative Digitization of International Research Materials (CDIRM) project. CDIRM utilized participating American overseas research centers’ (AORCs) connections to collaborate with foreign archives and special collections that hold unique and rare research materials. Selected materials from Guatemala, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Yemen, and Mongolia, aand numerous other countries where AORCs are located are made easily and freely available over the Internet to American and international scholars and students. Not only are most of these materials uncataloged, unavailable, or unknown to scholars, most are extremely difficult to access (because of location, unsettled political conditions, privacy issues, or bureaucratic procedures). The Coordinator of the Digital Library for International Research, located at the Center for Research Libraries, acts as program manager. As were the creation of the DLIR union catalog and the LALORC program, this CDIRM is funded by a 4-year matching grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access (TICFIA) program.
African Language Materials Archive (ALMA)
The African Language Materials Archive (ALMA) is an initiative of The West African Research Association (WARA), the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC), Columbia University Libraries--African Studies, and the Information Society Division of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This initiative aims at increasing dissemination of, and access to materials published in indigenous African languages through digital formats.
Photo Archives of AIIS
The Center for Art and Archaeology, is one of two research centers of the American Institute of Indian Studies (Gurgaon, India). The Photo-Archives contains a unique collection of more than 140,000 photographs and slides of South Asian art and architecture. Plans of temples, mosques, tombs, and secular buildings, supplement the Center’s outstanding photographic collection. Approximately 50,000 images of a total of 140, 000 have been digitized and are available through the Digital South Asian Project and the DLIR.
Mapping Mediterranean Lands (MEDMAPS)
Mapping Mediterranean Lands (MEDMAPS) showcases sixteen important early maps and related information from the collections of ten American overseas research center libraries in the Mediterranean region. This three-year project, funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of State, Education and Cultural Affairs (ECA), 2002-2005, completed a comprehensive survey of maps in the collections of American research centers in the Mediterranean area and created bibliographic records that are accessible through the DLIR catalog.
Middle East Research Journals (MERJ)
The Middle East Research Journals (MERJ) project, funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (2002-2006), provided digital access to five complete journals held at American Overseas Research Centers in the Middle East in the CAORC consortium. Additional materials created for this project are bibliographic records for 1,900 journals held at seven centers in the Middle East, a searchable index of three research journals, preservation microfilm for five research journals.
Digitalized Legal Texts of Outer Mongolia and MPR
The American Center for Mongolian Studies (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) developed this collection of nearly 1,600 digital scans of laws and regulations written in Mongol script. It covers an interesting array of topics from the Mongolian People's Republic constitution to regulations about harvesting pine cone seeds. The project received support from the US Department of Education TICFIA program under the Local Archives and Libraries at Overseas Research Centers (LALORC) project.
Khmer Language Books
The Center for Khmer Studies (Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, Cambodia) Cambodian books project, funded by the US Department of Education's TICFIA program, consists of digital versions novels, textbooks, and educational journals from the National Library of Camodia's extensive colonial and pre-1975 era collection. Most of these materials, in Khmer, French and English, have never been digitized, and are not available in collections outside Cambodia. A Khmer search engine was developed to facilitate searching of the texts in Khmer.
Furniture and Decorative Arts of Sri Lanka
This digital project, sponsored by the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies (Colombo, Sri Lanka), documents furniture and other decorative arts from the Portuguese, Dutch and British Periods (17th - 19th centuries) in the collections of the National Museums of Sri Lanka and in local private collections.
Mustapha Bouchoucha Photograph Collection
The private library Beit El Bennani, owned and operated by Mohamed Bennani, partnered with CAORC member Centre d’Etudes Maghrèbines á Tunis (CEMAT) to organize and digitize the Mustapha Bouchoucha photograph collection. The collection, held at the Beit El Bennani, contains 8155 images that depict people, events, views and objects primarily relating to Tunisia. Photographs of people include images of Tunisian political and cultural figures as well as people involved in the daily activities of life.
The collection was digitized by CEMAT for the Local Archives and Libraries at Overseas Research Centers (LALORC) project organized by the American Institute of Yemeni Studies and the Council of the American Overseas Research Centers with funding from the U.S. Department of Education’s TICFIA program.
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American Board Pamphlet Collection
The American Board pamphlet collection was incorporated into the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT) Istanbul Library in January 2011. It contains roughly 1000 brochures, booklets, leaflets, flyers, and off-prints that date from the mid-1800s to the present, with close to one-third from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Approximately 85% of the materials focus on the operations, institutions, or affiliate organizations of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) that were located in Turkey and the Balkans.
Area Studies Bibliography Database
American Overseas Research Centers (AORCs) offer unique access to local expertise and resources. Library staff and scholars at AORCs compile bibliographies of Area Studies literature for inclusion in the DLIR online resources. AORCs operate in host countries, providing them access to unpublished gray literature or materials published locally in limited numbers in addition to more widely available materials.
Local Archives and Libraries Directory
The Local Archives and Libraries Directory is an initiative of the American Institute for Yemeni Studies and the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. The directory provides information about libraries and archives in various international locations, and allows libraries to create or update profiles for collections that might be of interest to students, scholars, and professionals working in the area of international studies.
Much of the current content of the directory has been provided by members of the Digital Library for International Research and the Center for South Asian Libraries. Libraries and archives with entries are encouraged to keep them up-to-date and those without entries are encouraged to create a profile for the directory.
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