The 104th MELCOM (UK) meeting, hosted at Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation in London, on Thursday, October 26th, 2023.
This meeting was attended by the subject librarians of the leading institutions in the UK hosting North African, Middle Eastern, South Asian, Southeast Asian or Islamic collections. In-person attendees included Lydia Wright (Bodleian Library, Oxford), Niko Kontovas (Bodleian Library, Oxford)) Carlos Leo Roca ( SOAS), Yasmin Faghihi (Cambridge University Library, Cambridge), Anne Watson (British Museum) , Mirina Paananen (Cambridge Muslim College), and representing the Foundation, Wafa Fatima Isfahani. Joining us online were members of Exeter James Downs and Nicola Howorth.
AIHF’s institutional report to the committee included our LMS upgrades to MARC 21 and plans to join COPAC (Consortium of Publica Access Catalogues) and OCLC (Online Computer Library Center), a review of past and upcoming activities and events, as well as a showcasing of recent publications. In an effort to encourage the use of more e-resources coming out of the Middle East MELCOM entertained presentations by three e-resource providers including al-Mandumah, NoorSoft, and Muteferriqa. Consortium members also talked about the prospect of an exchange program for duplicate holdings between UK institutions, which will be led by AIHF librarian Wafa F. Isfahani.
