Published on eDesiderata (http://edesiderata.crl.edu)

Home > Early Arabic Printed Books from the British Library, 1475-1900

Early Arabic Printed Books from the British Library, 1475-1900

Tabbed

Overview

Early Arabic Printed Books from the British Library, 1475-1900 is a full-text searchable digital collection of early printed books in Arabic script.  This collection covers Islamic and Christian literature, law, science, mathematics, astrology, alchemy, medicine, geography, travel, history, chronicles, and literature.  It also includes European translations of Arabic works and Arabic translations of Christian religious works.

The collection will be available in three modules:

  • Module 1: Islamic literature, Christian literature and Islamic law
  • Module 2: Sciences, History, Geography and Periodicals
  • Module 3: Literature, Grammar, Language, Catalogues and General Works

 

 

 

 

Provider: 
Gale [1]
Posted: 
Feb 16, 2015 8:56am
Updated: 
Oct 25, 2018 2:53pm
Source
CRL reviews are based on independent research. Information is researched by CRL staff and other specialists at CRL libraries. See CRL Review for additional source notes.
Details

Collection Content

Subject Areas: 
Arts and Humanities
Science, Engineering and Technology
Social Sciences
Resource Types: 
Books
Dictionaries
Laws and regulations
Major Languages: 
Arabic
English
French
Italian
Latin
German
Russian
Swedish
Greek
Dutch
Hebrew
Direct from Publisher - Denotes data sourced directly from publisher

Specifications

Metadata: 
MARC records available Yes
Creator of MARC recordsOCLC for most collections, Backstage Library works for a small number of earlier produced GPS collections
Source for obtaining MARC recordssome expanded records built from existing records in film, fiche or physical form, however most created new for the GPS product, and ECCO totally rebuilt by the ESTC MARC Record Committee
Fee for MARC recordsVaries by collection, by number of records
Subject authorities usedLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Name authorities usedLibrary of Congress Name Authority Headings
Technical Platform: 
Browser compatibilityAll
Authentication optionsGeo, IP, IP Proxy, User/Pass
Archiving solution (master files)Master images and XML files archived on external hard drives as well as  redundant highly available online storage
Archiving solution (derivative files) Portico archives both the derivative product images and source XML
Available in web discovery tools Yes
Open url target Available for all archives on GPS cross search  https://support.gale.com/technical/openurl [2]
Federated searching, z39.50 Selected archives https://support.gale.com/technical/sru_supported_databases [3] 
Local host option Not available 
Usage stats based on Counter codeYes
Interface Tools: 
Comments
Full text displayed Yes
Page images Yes
Color images Yes - most collections
Search full text Yes - most collectionsManuscript content is in conversion for this process, but presently is metadata searchable
Advanced search Yes
Search within results Yes
Limit results by dates and/or document types Yes
Display highlighted search terms Yes
Display snippet (search term in context)Yes
Relevance sorting Yes
Save searches Yes
Download PDF Yes
Download HTML YesXML scanned OCR content can be downloaded
Print page Yes
Print full document Yes
Export citations Yes
Annotation tools Yes
Cross-product searching YesYes, via the Gale Primary Sources (formerly Artemis) platform
ILL permittedYesIn smaller, controlled amounts
Text/data mining permittedYesAvailable for most GPS collections - Gale is yet formatting and converting content to make this available for all collections - such as manuscript options and other challenging XML conversation collections
Restrictions on useNoUse allowances are standard to the industry - for educational purposes with no re-purposing for commercial applications, etc.

Terms and Provider Details

Terms: 
Comments
Subscription option No subscription options
Purchase option Yes - one-time purchase
Multiple year payments option Yes
Maintenance feesNo
Annual supplement No, except for 4 collections - see commentsThe Economist | The Times Literary Supplement | US De-Classified Documents | Smithsonian + Air&Space Magazine Archives
Hosting charges Yes, unless hosting cap levels is metHosting Cap - a set monetary level of aggregate existing fees from past GPS collection purchases that precludes any future additional hosting fees being acrued by the purchase of other Gale Primary Sources collections - many CRL accounts are capped and receive no new hosting fees when they acquire additional GPS collections
ArchivingPORTICOAll GPS collections are included in Portico, and GPS buying institutions need not participate in Portico to benefit from any "trigger event" to have continued access to GPS collections they purchased
Provider: 
Gale [1]
Website: 
http://www.cengage.com/us/ [4]
Main Address: 
27500 Drake Road
Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535
United States
CRL Review
Collection Content: 

Early Arabic Printed Books from the British Library is a collection of titles cataloged in A. G. Ellis’s Early Arabic Printed Books in the British Museum, London, 1898-1901 (3 vols), with additional material from the India Office Library.  Included are works printed in Alexandria, Baghdad, Beirut, Bulak, Cairo, Constantinople, London, Lucknow, Paris, St Petersburg, Tunis, Vienna among others. The majority of works are in Arabic text, though some content is bilingual or in other languages.

Gale represents that the collection will represent the entirety of unique titles and editions in the Ellis bibliography. Gale projects that the collection will encompass 7,000 titles (in 12,000 volumes), and will include approximately 2.5 million pages.

Early Arabic Printed Books: from the British Library will be published in three parts.

Module 1: Islamic literature, Christian literature and Islamic Law (December 2015)
The Quran, traditions (Hadith), tafsir, theology, prayers and sermons, traditions -interpretation, biographies of traditionalists; bibles, commentaries, Christian teaching and practice, liturgies, prayer books; law, fiqhand statutes, fatwas and rulings


Module 2: Sciences, History, Geography and Periodicals (March 2016)
Natural history, medicine, physiology, other science, classical sciences, philosophy, logic, politics, ethics, mathematics, arithmetic, geometry, mechanics, astrology, chemistry; history, early caliphs and conquests, modern history, genealogy, biographies; geography and travel, regional geography, topography, and periodicals


Module 3: Literature, Grammar, Language, Catalogues and General Works(December 2016)
Folktales, pre-Islamic literature (Antar, BaniHilal, Imru'lqays), Islamic poetry and prose (al-Burdah), poetry and prose (maqamat), Kalilahwa-dimnah, Luqman, proverbs and sayings, Thousand and one nights, later literature, poetry and prose, general literature; language and lexicography, dictionaries, grammar, syntax, rhetoric, 'ilmal-bayan, catalogues, manuscript catalogues, etc

Gale has expressed interest in working with other libraries to identify additional Arabic primary sources and are planning future releases.

Delivery: 

Some of the features included are: searchable Arabic text with right-to-left read, a user interface for right-to-left navigation and reading, searchable metadata in Arabic and European languages and international citation tools.

According to the publisher, investment in OCR technologies has improved the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) of printed Arabic to approximately 75% accuracy. At the "Gale Symposium: Middle East" (2015), the company confirmed that Gale is not manually correcting OCR, but is adding rich metadata to records to assist in discovery.

MARC records (5000+ titles) are available for loading into local catalogs to increase discoverability. Author/Title information are rendered in original scripts (Arabic, Cyrillic, Syriac, Greek, Bengali, etc) as well as in Romanized format. Users have reported that some records were found to have missing romanized title information. 

Users report several instances where images have been redacted from the online publications. Gale reports this is in response to cultural sensitivities (such as the prohibition of visual depictions of Muhammad). Purchasers may acquire the missing images from Gale to make available locally, though the images may not be integrated into the product.

 

Sources

Sources for this review include information publicly posted or obtained directly from the publisher; data collected by CRL staff and specialists at CRL libraries; and examination of the digital collection when possible. Other sources are noted where cited. CRL continues to gather additional information on this resource and to solicit critical assessment.
CRL Offers & Status
StatusCurrentDescription
CRL FlaggednoPotential interest to CRL community
Offer PendingnoCurrently a candidate for CRL offer
Active OfferyesCurrently offered for purchase or new subscription
Trial AccessnoAvailable for trial
Renewal OffernoCurrently offered for renewal
Expired OffernoPast offers
Inactive / DeclinednoNo longer under consideration by CRL
Reviewed by CRLyesEvaluation available by CRL and community
The complete offer and activity details for this resource are only available to CRL members.
Appendix
Title List: 
PDF icon Early Arabic Printed Books [5]

Community Ratings

Platform and user interface: 
0
Your rating: None
0
No votes yet
Content scope and completeness: 
0
Your rating: None
0
No votes yet
Cost and price-structure: 
0
Your rating: None
0
No votes yet

Source URL: http://edesiderata.crl.edu/resources/early-arabic-printed-books-british-library-1475-1900

Links
[1] http://edesiderata.crl.edu/providers/gale
[2] https://support.gale.com/technical/openurl
[3] https://support.gale.com/technical/sru_supported_databases
[4] http://www.cengage.com/us/
[5] http://edesiderata.crl.edu/sites/default/files/resource_docs/Early%20Arabic%20Books.pdf