We are pleased to announce the formation of the Middle East and Islamic Studies (MEIS) Funnel. Our mission statement:
The Middle East and Islamic Studies (MEIS) Funnel Project enables catalogers, subject librarians, and scholars to submit proposals for additions and changes to Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms (LCDGT), Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms (LCGFT), and Library of Congress Classification (LCC) in the area of Middle East and Islamic Studies. Exceptions are for topics pertaining to Israel and Judaism, which are under the purview of the Judaica Subject Authority Funnel. MEIS was formed in Spring 2024 and falls under the Program for Cooperative Cataloging’s Subject Authority Cooperative Program (SACO).
This project’s goal is to promote and facilitate the creation of new LCSH, LCDGT, and LCGFT terminology as well as LCC numbers dedicated to improving discovery and access for Middle East and Islamic studies materials. It is also committed to reviewing and proposing changes to outdated, inaccurate, and harmful LCSH terminology about the Middle East and Islam.
The MEIS Funnel collaborates closely with the Middle East Librarians Association (MELA) Committee on Cataloging. Regular updates on the funnel’s progress will be communicated at the MELA Annual Meeting and related listservs.
The MEIS Funnel is coordinated by Denise Soufi, Metadata Librarian for Middle Eastern Languages at UNC-Chapel Hill (dsoufi@email.unc.edu), and Iman Dagher, Arabic and Islamic Studies Catalog Librarian at UCLA (idagher@library.ucla). We are in the process of organizing the funnel and setting up a website, so stay tuned for further updates on when you can begin submitting proposals or participate in funnel projects!