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 Israel/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 It is also committed to reviewing and proposing changes to outdated, inaccurate, and harmful LCSH terminology about the Middle East and Islam.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 & Islamic Studies Metadata Librarian at UCLA (idagher@library.ucla.edu).
MEMBERSHIP
Anyone with an interest in the Funnel’s mission may join. Members may propose headings and propose, plan, and participate in projects that involve creating or changing a group of related headings. We highly encourage exploration of problematic subjects and underrepresented areas. Members may also be asked to assist with reviewing submissions.
On occasion the coordinators may solicit advice from persons with specialized expertise. Advisors are free to become full members should they wish to do so.
To sign up, please send the coordinators a brief statement of interest.
PROPOSALS
If you would like to submit a proposal to the MEIS Funnel for review, you may either use this Google form or email the coordinators with the information outlined in our SACO Submissions document.
Before beginning, check our proposals list showing the status of new and in-process proposals, and be sure to read SACO Submissions which will provide you with guidelines and links for creating solid proposals.
REQUESTS
If you have a suggestion for a proposal or a project, please email the coordinators. We will add it to our wishlist for funnel members to address as time permits.