About this Reading Room | African and Middle Eastern Reading Room | Research Centers | Library of Congress

About this Reading Room | African and Middle Eastern Reading Room | Research Centers | Library of Congress
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Research Center
African and Middle Eastern Reading Room
About this Reading Room
AMED Reading Room in LJ229 Open House Event
Nigerian National Assembly Library Delegation views rare African postcards.
Librarian Huda Dayton and Specialist Muhannad Salhi, Ph.D. showcase Arab American books to Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).
AMED staff display rare new materials during New Acquisitions event.
Dungan Community from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan display gift books written in their language.
Kluge scholar Ali Boozari discusses Iranian and Indian lithographed books he used in his research.
Early recordings of Armenian Classics Vardanants Day Lecture.
The African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) was created in
1978 as part of a general Library of Congress reorganization. AMED
currently consists of three sections - African, Hebraic and Near
East - and covers more than 77 countries and regions from Southern
Africa to the Maghreb and from the Middle East to Central Asia. Each
section plays a vital role in the Library's acquisitions program;
offers expert reference and bibliographic services to the Congress
and researchers in this country and abroad; develops projects, special
events and publications; and cooperates with other institutions and
scholarly and professional associations in the US and abroad.
Africana Collections:
An Illustrated Guide
Hebraic Collections:
An Illustrated Guide
Near East Collections:
An Illustrated Guide
As a major world resource center for Africa, the Middle East, Israel,
the Caucasus, and Central Asia, AMED has the custody of more than one
million physical collection materials in the languages of the region
such as Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Baluchi, Chechen,
Coptic, Ge’ez, Georgian, Hebrew, Kazakh, Kiswahili, Kurdish, Ladino,
Oromo, Ossetian, Pashto, Persian, Somali, Syriac, Tigrinya, Turkish,
Turkmen, Uighur, Uzbek, and Yiddish. Included in these collections are
books, periodicals, newspapers, microforms, grey literature, and rarities
such as cuneiform tablets, manuscripts, incunabula (works printed before
1501), and other early African and Middle Eastern publications. Among the
most prized items are also several sizable pamphlet collections on African
Studies.
Explore
our online resources
.
Featured Collections
Africana Historic Postcard Collection
Hebraic Manuscripts
Armenian Rarities Collection
See more collections
Most Recent Blog Posts
Pressing the Past: Materials, Markets, and Meaning
Salhi, Muhannad
2026-04-15
Hedayat’s Animals: The Blind Owl and Other Stories
Salhi, Muhannad
2026-02-17
Hebrew and Yiddish Artists' Books at the Library of Congress
2025-09-29
Etched in Stone: The Writing on the Wall
Salhi, Muhannad
2025-09-19
From Bologna to Istanbul: An Armenian Edition of Giovanni Aldini’s Fire Safety Manual
Salhi, Muhannad
2025-09-05
Africa in the Indian Ocean World
2025-07-18
See more blog posts
Ask a Librarian: African and Middle Eastern Studies
Call us at (202) 707-4188 or
Ask a Librarian: African and Middle Eastern Studies
Location
Library of Congress
10 First St., SE
Thomas Jefferson Building, LJ 229
Washington, DC 20540-4810
View map
External link
Hours
Public Hours
Monday - Friday
8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Closed Saturdays, Sundays &
Federal Holidays
Social Media
4 Corners of the World: International Collections
The official blog of the African & Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress
Facebook: International Collections
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