In October 2014, the Oman Library at the Middle East Institute (MEI) received a grant from Saudi Aramco designated to initiate a digitization of the library’s rare collection. This is the first project of its kind for MEI and the Oman Library. The digitization project utilizes a high quality resolution scanner and aims to digitize and make hundreds of materials available for online use by scholars and researchers from around the globe.
The Oman Library’s online collection is a web-based digital collection of the library’s rare books and manuscripts, consisting entirely of subjects related to Middle Eastern Studies. The topics of the rare collection range from history and culture to works of fiction from the early twentieth century. The collection includes materials in seven different languages -- English, Arabic, French, Farsi, Urdu, Ottoman Turkish, and Turkish -- and publications spanning the period from 1700 to 1921. In addition to rare books, MEI has included a number of its own published works in the digital collection. These Middle East Institute publications span from the 1960s to 2004.