• Reference Resources at the University of Florida
• Local Electronic Resources
• Major Internet Sites and Links

Collection Policy Statement

The Arabic program at the University of Florida is taught by the Department of African and  Asian Languages and Literatures  which offers a minor in Arabic language and literature. A major in Arabic is offered through the interdisciplinary program Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, with tracks in Arabic and Hebrew. Besides classical and modern Arabic literature and Arabic language and linguistics the program also offers courses on folklore, the Arab woman, the Maghreb and its peoples, as well as general courses on history and culture.

The George A. Smathers Libraries are committed to provide budgets permitting the best possible support in all formats for these programs. The monographic holdings are quite adequate in both English and Arabic. The Library also possesses a good collection of French titles on the field, reflecting the continuous political and cultural ties between France and the Arab world. The serial collection, while not comprehensive, has most of the significant titles. Upgrading the collections is done on a continuous basis. They are also reinforced by other academic programs. Religious Studies offers a M.A. program with Islam as a major component; English, with a Ph.D. program, provides substantial support in literary theory and film studies, (with components on African and Asian film); French, with a Ph.D. program, offers a course on Francophone literature, including writers from Africa and Lebanon; African Studies is a major field of research at UF; the history of art offers a M.A. program and disposes of a good collection on Arabic and Islamic art in Africa, Asia and Spain; Spanish and History both offer a Ph.D. program, and both have contributed in building sizable holdings on the Arabs in Spain and throughout the Mediterranean and the History Department has also recently established a research program in Mediterranean Studies. Linguistics, with a Ph.D. program offers large holdings in all aspects of general, theoretical and applied linguistics. Lastly, the Prince Judaic Library provides a research collection on Semitic languages, literatures and cultures.

Hesham Monsef is the library liaison for Arabic. All comments, inquires and suggestions for new acquisitions should be directed to him. He may also be contacted for specialized reference and research consultation in this area. Telephone: 352-273-0367; e-mail: hesmons@uflib.ufl.edu.

A. Reference Resources at the University of Florida  

A.     Language, Literature and Civilization

B.     General Linguistics

B. Local electronic resources
The following represent some of the most electronic resources related to Arabic language, literature and civilization. Some are only available to UF affiliated users. They have not been separated by format and include full-text databases, indexes abstracts or dictionaries. It is intended to group them separately in a later revision of this home page.

1. The following databases covering Arabic language, literature and civilization are available through First Search:

a. MLA International Bibliography on FirstSearch

Available online through First Search, the largest annual index on Arabic language, linguistics and literature, from Old French to the present. Besides all modern literatures and all languages, the MLA also indexes folklore, film studies and literary theory. Free text searching or using combinations of established descriptors allow for broad or narrow information retrieval.

b. Dissertation Abstracts International on First Search

Abstracts most American and Canadian dissertations and some British ones. Online version allows keyword searches of titles and of abstracts since 1980. Keyword of abstracts is very useful because of the sometimes imprecise subject classification.

2. Francis on Eureka, is produced at the CNRS(France) and combines 19 indexes in the humanities and social sciences in one large database covering ca. 6000 journals. It can be used as a supplement to MLA for Arabic history, literature and language. Strong in French material.

3. For Arabic studies in Africa see the Africana Collection home page at the University of Florida.

4. Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts

Useful for Arabic applied linguistics. UF affiliated users only. Can also be accessed through WebLuis.

C. Major Internet Sites and Gateways with links to Arabic Studies Sites

 

ArabNet: the online resource for the Arab world in the Middle East and North America: http://www.arab.net

A multifaceted Web site and gateway for links to other sites. Owned by Arab Net Technology, which is in turn owned by a media conglomerate in Saudi Arabia, this site provides historical, cultural and business information on each Arab country. Information is basic but links to other sites are numerous.

• 1001 Sites.com - The Arab Internet Directory

This contains both a directory and search engine.

• Arab Countries' WWW Sites: 

• Middle East North Africa Resource Guide

Contents are by: Academic Disciplines, Nations and States, Regional services, Religion, and Special services. Many of the links are annotated and include listservs, e-journals and bulletin boards. Important for scholars and students.

• University of Texas Middle East Network Information Center (MENIC): 

Primarily for Middle Eastern Studies, with links to two dozen similar centers and institutses. Information organized by categories: ancient archeology and history, arts and culture, business and economics, government and country profiles, religion, etc. For such categories there is an additional index listing libraries, associations, reference works and Internet search tools.

• Ethnologue: 

A major source of information about the world's languages. Catalogues more than 6700 languages, also organized according to language families. This is the electronic version of the 13^th ed.

Academic Info.: Foreign Language Study: 

A megasite on foreign language study. Languages are listed alphabetically, after meta-indexes and general directories. Under Arabic one finds the following sections:

• American Association of Teachers of Arabic (connect to Academic Info)

Topics include Arabic software, Manuscripts, Discussion Groups, and Links.

• Arabic and Middle Eastern Distance Learning  (connect to Academic Info)

• Arabic Newsstand  (connect to Academic Info)

Using the Internet to study the language.
 

•  BABEL: arabic  (connect to Academic Info)

An online course in Arabic with sound.

• Center for Arabic Language & Eastern Studies (CALES) (connect to Academic Info)

"Devoted to teaching Arabic as a foreign language to non-native speakers, the Center (aka CALES) has attracted graduate and undergraduate students from the leading universities in North America and Europe." University of Science & Technology, Sana's, Republic of Yemen

• Dale Frakes' Arabic Language Page  (connect to Academic Info)

"I have included links to the Web pages of various educational institutions, and news organizations. Most importantly, I have made links to the Arabic programs I have written."

• Modern Standard Arabic Page  (connect to Academic Info)

"It includes an archive of Arabic-English vocabulary lists containing over 8000 individual words which are freely available for download. You may also access interactive Arabic texts with on-demand English definitions as well as an audio-visual presentation of some Egyptian spoken Arabic. Finally, we offer online versions of important reference material for learning and mastering Modern Standard Arabic grammar." (Harvard University)

• Radio-Tunis, Live (connect to Academic Info)

After a long session of book learning now listen to live conversation