The Boards of the Middle East Librarians Association (MELA) and MELCom International are delighted to announce that both organizations will hold a joint annual conference in 2026. The event will take place over three days — Sunday 25 January to Tuesday 27 January 2026 — at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. Click here to read more.
The theme of the conference is:
Reflecting on Our Past, Charting Our Future: Middle East Librarianship in Transition
We warmly invite proposals for papers addressing one or more of the
following themes:
- Historical perspectives on Middle East librarianship
- Evolution of collection development practices
- Digital humanities and Middle Eastern studies
- Preservation of rare materials and manuscripts
- Challenges in cataloguing and metadata for multilingual collections
- Impact of political events on collecting and access
- Collaborative initiatives across institutions and borders
- Emerging technologies and their application in Middle Eastern
collections - Training the next generation of Middle East librarians
- Community engagement and outreach
Submission Guidelines
- Abstracts should be 250–300 words.
- Submissions are accepted in English, Arabic, or French.
- Presentations (in English, Arabic, or French) will be 20 minutes in
length, followed by 10 minutes for discussion. - Proposals for full panels (3–4 papers) are also welcome.
Please submit your proposal via the conference website: AUC MElibraries
https://aucevents-melibraries.vfairs.com/en/call-for-paper-en
Deadline for submissions: 26 September 2025
Registration for the conference will open later. Updates will be posted on
the conference website: AUC MElibraries
https://aucevents-melibraries.vfairs.com/
Please direct all questions to Mark Muehlhaeusler (local convener, AUC):
mark.muehlhaeusler@aucegypt.edu
We look forward to your contributions — and to welcoming you to Cairo!
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Dale Correa
MELA Vice President – Program Chair 2024–2025
Wassilena Sekulova
MELCom International Secretary
