Basement becomes Open Access

Most of our readers know that the Bodleian Oriental Institute Library has collections in Arabic Language and Literature on our ground floor, the PJ section. However what’s less widely known is that we also keep an extensive Arabic Literature section that belongs to the Middle East Library in our basement. These books have been on our online catalogue and available to borrow for a while, but to get access to them you’ve previously had to ask at the front desk.

We plan to eventually move the books upstairs, so they’ll be closer to the main Islamic Literature section, but for now we’ve made these books open access- the doors to the basement have been removed, and anyone can feel free to browse. The collection contains critical works as well as items of literature, and there are lots of gems to be found there. Enjoy!

The books can be found on the online catalogue http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk, where they all have shelf marks beginning with P.

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