W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (AIAR), Jerusalem, Israel

AIAR, founded in 1900 in Jerusalem as the American School of Oriental Research, is the oldest American research center for Ancient Near Eastern Studies in the Middle East. The library currently contains 28,000 volumes, half of which are monographs and half journals. The major focus is on the archaeology, history and ancient literature and languages of Syria-Palestine, that is, the Levant, including the modern countries of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria with a strong representation of materials from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Cyprus and the Aegean. The slide collection has several thousand items, the photo archive over a thousand pictures, and the cartographic collection almost one thousand maps. One of the unique features of the library is a comprehensive collection of archaeological field reports appearing in the monographs and journals, beginning with the earliest reports in the late 19th century. There are also a number of complete journal series specializing in Near Eastern archaeology, history and ancient Semitic languages, as well as early examples of maps, including some of the earliest scientific cartographic surveys of Palestine that are not found elsewhere in Israel. The library maintains a collection of dissertations written in western languages and in Hebrew on archaeology and Semitic languages.