The Middle East Librarians Association (MELA) and MELCom International held a joint conference in 2026. The event took 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 was
Reflecting on Our Past, Charting Our Future: Middle East Librarianship in Transition
Proposals were accepted 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 between 250–300 words.
- Submissions accepted in English, Arabic, or French.
- Presentations (in English, Arabic, or French) up to 20 minutes in
length, followed by 10 minutes for discussion. - Proposals for full panels (3–4 papers) welcome.
Conference website: AUC MElibraries
https://aucevents-melibraries.vfairs.com/
Deadline for submissions: 26 September 2025
Organizing committee:
- Dale Correa, MELA Vice President/Program Chair 2024-2025, The University of Texas at Austin
- Andreas Drechsler, MELCom International President, Universität Bamberg
- Walid Ghali, Aga Khan University, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations
- William Kopycki, MELA Secretary-Treasurer, Library of Congress, Nairobi Overseas Office
- Mark Muehlhaeusler, Local Convenor, The American University in Cairo
- Wassilena Sekulova, MELCom International Secretary, Oxford University
- Rustin Zarkar, Library of Congress, Cairo Overseas Office