Middle Eastern Databases
Kotobarabia
Hosted on servers in Minneapolis, Kotobarabia is a pioneer resource, making over 8,000 published works in Arabic available as e-books for the first time. Two collections are available through East View: Kotobarabia E-Library and Kotobarabia Modern Arab Renaissance Collection.
Kotobarabia E-Library (KAEL): Kotobarabia has signed agreements with over 1,400 authors, publishers, NGOs and Publications. Arranged thematically and with accompanying MARC records, Kotobarabia puts an electronically searchable library of contemporary and classic writing at your fingertips. Content is mostly in Arabic, with metadata in both Arabic and English and bilingual English/Arabic search interface, including a virtual Arabic keyboard for easy text input. The Kotobarabia Arabic e-library is arranged into over 29 thematic areas and many sub-categories. Complete title lists and trials are available.
Kotobarabia Modern Arab Renaissance Collection (KA-MAR): This is an
electronic archive of books published 1820-1914 from Egypt, Syria and the Islamic World. With over 3,000 titles, this collection covers humanistic, intellectual and scientific fields. Subject categories include philosophy and theology, literature, arts, history and politics, including writings from Mahmoud Abdo, Gamal El Din El Afgahany and Rashid Reda.
AskZad
Over 500 million pages of Arabic Content searchable in English!
AskZad is now available in North America and Europe with an English-language interface and search functionality.
Pan-Arab News Index (PANI) is more than just an index of Arabic news; it is a full content resource of complete news article clippings, many of which are available in full-text and full-image. The flagship product of AskZad, PANI has more than 24 million entries, with some content going back to 1998. 10,000 new entries are added each day from various sources:
- 130 newspaper and news magazine print editions
- 181 newspapers and new magazines with both print and online editions
- 215 news-related Internet sites
- Partial indexing for an additional 1,000 news-related Internet sites
Each article has 14 elements of metadata added, so searching for the information you need --whether in Arabic or English -- is easy. Download a flyer on PANI.
AskZad Full-Page Newspapers is a full-image collection of several—currently 12—Middle Eastern Newspapers which AskZad is licensed to re-distribute. AskZad is pursuing an initiative through 2010 to license the Top 100 Arabic language news publications from the Middle East.
Pan-Arab E-Books contains 23,483 digitized books as of July 2009 and is constantly adding content. Books cover a range of topics from Religion, Politics & Economy to Literature, Poetry & Arts and many other subjects. Authors are often highly respected professors from elite universities in the Middle East.
Pan-Arab Academic Journal Index contains full Arabic language indices of more than 650 Middle Eastern university-published journals and approximately 350 organization-published journals, in any language. Most are in Arabic, but others are in English or French. For 165 licensed journals (as of July 2009), we have indices back to Issue 1. For non-contracted journals, we have indices dating from 1998.
Pan-Arab Academic Journals is a database of complete, licensed content of 165 Applied Science and Social Science Academic Journals published in the Middle East in any language. Most are in Arabic, but others are in English and French. AskZad continues to negotiate with other journal publishers to expand its collection to include all of the 3,000 journals published across the Arab world.
Pan-Arab Dissertations contains almost 7,000 dissertations published by graduate students in the Middle East in any language. Dissertations cover many disciplines in both Applied and Social Sciences. Initiatives are ongoing to greatly expand this collection in late 2009 and 2010.
Pan-Arab Peer-Review Articles cover research published in credible, but non-Academic, journals and periodicals. As of July 2009, AskZad contains close to 10,000 peer-review articles in both Applied and Social Sciences. Negotiations are ongoing for expanded collections.
Pan-Arab Conference Proceedings covers approximately 50 Middle Eastern conferences (most held annually), primarily academic, and includes white papers, research presentations, etc.
Publishing in the Arabic World, a whitepaper from Kotobarabia
The Middle East is rich with classic and contemporary writing. The publishing and distribution business model that pervades in the Middle East is quite different than any of the other content arenas that East View engages. It is unlike Russia, China or the West, according to Ramy Habeeb, co-founder of the Arabic world's only commercially available eContent database, Kotobarabia.
"It is unfortunate, but the reality of our system of publishing is quite chaotic. Cross border publication is almost unheard of and the concept of subsidiary rights trading is almost non-existent, practiced by only a handful of publishers on a very limited title basis." Ramy Habeeb, November 2008
To read more of Ramy Habeeb's writing on the subject of Publishing in the Arabic World, download Ramy's editorial.
East View's Commitment
East View is just as committed to delivering our current and prospective customers eBook, newspaper, periodical and print book content as we are for Russia/FSU and China. East View's ability to source unique and powerful content from extraordinary places is why we exist and we have two decades of delivering on that passion.
Please reflect on what kinds of resources you would like to see coming from the Middle East and email us directly with your ideas and comments.
In the meantime, please download our flyers on Kotobarabia and AskZad to find out more about these sources, available for purchase and subscription in North America and Europe.