Welcome to the MENALIB User Manual

This manual will give you some basic information on how to use all modules of MENALIB properly.
Please tell us first what you are looking for:

Books and Journals
Journal Articles
Webpages, e-journals and e-books
More ALMISBAH search hints

 

Books & Journals

Click on the button Books & Periodicals from the menu on the left.

Then a page will show up which allows you to acccess our OPAC (books and periodicals held at Halle University Library), the Middle East Virtual Catalog (Middle East and Islam related books and periodicals held in Halle and Tübingen), and other relevant online catalogues.

Books and periodicals purchased by our library are classified using our Classification Scheme.

You might also use this as a starting point for your book search. Just click on Classification Scheme and then on the topic of your interest. An OPAC search for the respective classification number will be provided immediately.

A list of Journals held by Halle University Library is also available on this site. It shall give you an idea, which journals can be found in our library. Use the alphabetical index to find the periodical that you are looking for.

 

Journal Articles

Click on the button Periodical Contents Databases.

Two different databases may be accessed from the page showing up next.

MENAcontents:

Search for journals or single articles using the different searches (author search, journal title, article title, etc.).
MENAcontents provides tables of content for about 143 periodicals in Latin, Arabic and Persian script.
More than 24.000 articles can be ordered online.
Since MENAcontents utilizes the UNICODE character set, titles of Arabic articles have not been transliterated. Thus use your Arabic keyboard to enter search words.
The same is true for other non latin languages, i.e. Russian or Persian.
Use the respective keyboard layouts.

GBV Online Contents

Restricted access for GBV Libraries in Germany. Contains about 214 Middle East related periodicals, and ca. 89.000 articles.
Provides articles in Latin based scripts only.

 

Webpages, e-journals and e-books

Click on the ALMISBAH button in the menu on the left.
ALMISBAH is a database providing access to selected Internet resources on the Middle East and on Islam respectively.
There are three main ways to search for web pages.

Using ALMISBAH Search
Using the Source Type Catalog
Using the Subject Catalog

 

Using ALMISBAH Search:

Click on the Search button on the left

Simple Search

  • Enter search words in the search box.
  • Please note, that for transliteration of non-Roman scripts we use the ALA-LC Romanization Tables: Transliteration Schemes for Non-Roman Scripts, approved by the Library of Congress and the American Library Association.
  • Use wild cards "?" to extend results:

    • searching for "turk?" will give you all pages in our database containing the words: turk, turkish, turkic, turks, turkse, .....
  • Combine search terms, e.g. when you are looking for a bibliography on the Gulf War enter bibliography and gulf, also the combination of bibliography and iraq will bring you to the same result.
  • Searching for a journal on Arabic literature just enter journal arabic literature
  • Please note, that while conducting the simple search, all data fields of an entry will be searched over. So sometimes the result might be rather large. To limit the result we advise you to combine the simple search with a sourcetype.

 

Combined Search: Search Term + Sourcetype

  • Enter a search term
  • Tick Display only records of the chosen sourcetype!
  • Choose a sourcetype from the list
    e.g.: to search for a Jordanian newspaper choose the sourcetype
    Newspaper and news sites     and enter the term jordan

Keyword Search

  • Each data set contained in the ALMISBAH Database contains also English and German keywords.
  • Click on the button Show Keyword-Lists!* Both lists will show up.
  • The English list contains not only keywords like proper names, personal names, but also abbreviations, and of course subject headings, close to those provided by the Library of Congress.
  • Scroll down the list and select one or more keywords.
  • Multiple selections are possible by either holding down 'SHIFT' (for ranges) or 'CTRL' (for several single keywords) while marking the items. Logical 'OR' and logical 'AND' are supported.
  • Then click the button Select.

 

Using the Source Type:

 All webpages in ALMISBAH have also been classed with source types.
Frequent source types are for instance homepages of universities or university departments, libraries, research institutions,
private homepages, topical websites, bibliographies, electronic articles or books, journals and newspaper sites, maps, etc.
Example:
If you are interested in bibliographies just enter the source type list by clicking on Source Type Catalog, then scroll down until you come to the special bibliographies paragraph, and click on the word hits.
All bibliographies will show up.

 

Using the Subject Catalog:

 The Subject Catalog is organized following the Classification System used also for books purchased by our library.
Main divisions are:
Islam; Regions, Nations and Peoples; Languages and Litteratures.
About the Regions, Nations and Peoples division one should know, that for every region and every country six subdivisions exist. Languages and Literatures of the Middle Eastern region are subdivided into the languages, sometimes with minor languages spoken in the area, and the distinction made between modern and classical literature, etc..
All webpages are classified among the various headings in our Subject Catalog.
Example:
Searching for all materials contained in our database relating to classical Arabic literature just click on Subject Catalog on the left, step to Languages and Literatures, then go further to Arabic Literature and from here to Classic Arabic literature.

 

More ALMISBAH search hints

You are looking for electronic articles on a special subject, e.g. water in the middle east.
Enter: online articles middle east water

You are looking for an Egyptian newspaper.
Enter: newspaper egypt

You are looking for a bibliography on Bin Ladin
Enter: bibliography bin ladin

You want to find all Turkish library related websites contained in ALMISBAH:
Enter: Turkey and click the Sourcetype Libraries, do not forget to tick:
Display only records of the chosen sourcetype!

You are specializing in Islamic Law and would like to see all internet pages related to your field of interest that have been added to ALMISBAH so far:
Use the Subject Catalog and go to Islamic studies, here you will find the subcategorie Law. Click on hits and the results of your search will show up.

For any questions please contact Sibylle Wegener









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