*Please excuse cross-posting*
Dear Colleagues,
Earlier this year, we at the University of Michigan Library concluded a collaborative project to realize the cataloguing of our Islamic Manuscripts Collection.
883 new catalogue records were created in the course of the project representing 1447 titles in 877 volumes, 2 rolls, and 3 single leaves. Another 21 manuscript descriptions were significantly enhanced.
While in the end most of the cataloguing was done by the project cataloguer, we are grateful to all who contributed remotely and locally, especially our local project staff who worked on manuscripts not yet digitized (http://www.lib.umich.edu/islamic/progress).
We are pleased to report that the entire collection is thus fully catalogued with detailed, searchable descriptions for each manuscript appearing in the online Library catalogue, Mirlyn (http://mirlyn.lib.umich.edu/). The catalogue records should also appear soon in OCLC’s WorldCat.
Further, descriptions and complete digital surrogates for 912 manuscripts from the collection appear in the online catalogue of the HathiTrust Digital Library (http://hathitrust.org/).
To assist with navigating the collection and descriptive data, a research guide has been created with details on the collection history, size, and scope, as well as strategies for locating manuscripts of interest, instructions for viewing manuscripts in the Library, and advice on locating, viewing and downloading digitized manuscripts:
http://guides.lib.umich.edu/islamicmss
This guide will be enhanced and updated periodically as we continue to develop the collection.
In addition, a research guide on Islamic Manuscript Studies has been created with more general advice on identifying and locating manuscripts, an introduction to palaeography and manuscript description, bibliographical resources and reading lists, as well as listings of digitized manuscripts and online catalogues with links and descriptions, a selection of the largest collections of Islamic manuscripts held in North America having some sort of web presence, and links to other relevant research guides and associations, institutes and research initiatives:
http://guides.lib.umich.edu/islamicmsstudies
This guide will also continue to evolve and we welcome any feedback on it.
We also continue to welcome any comments you might have on the manuscripts or their descriptions posted to the collection project site:
Just keep in mind that not all manuscripts from the collection currently appear there. In order to search all manuscripts from the collection, it is best to search Mirlyn.
As always, feel free to be in touch with any questions or requests for assistance with navigating the collection.
With all best wishes, Evyn Kropf _______________________________________ Evyn Kropf Librarian for Near Eastern and Religious Studies Curator, Islamic Manuscripts Collection University Library Area Programs M117B Hatcher Graduate Library North The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1190 (734) 764-1220 | ekropf@umich.edu