CASE:  AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF SHARJAH
(UNITED ARAB EMIRATES)

Based on an interview with and email from librarian Lorin Ritchie  [Ritchie Interview] [Ritchie Email]

Development of the library at the American University at Sharjah began in 1997. Lorin Ritchie began work then as Associate University Librarian with responsibility for setting up all public services. Two years later, she and a second librarian took on the task of completing the “establishment of collections, operations, and services,” which came to and end in 2001. In 2002 planning began for a new library building that is now under construction and will open in September 2005.

The collection plan was a product of working closely with faculty “to ensure that we were selecting material that was relevant to the emerging program areas.” The librarians presented a strategic plan to the administration in 1999 indicating the cost of creating a library for undergraduates and for graduate research. This is the plan they have followed.

The Main Building (centre) that Houses the Current Library on the Third Floor
Courtesy of the American University of Sharjah

Periodical and other database subscriptions were also chosen in consultation with faculty, “but access to backfile collections has been a challenge, and we’ve relied primarily on electronic resources for this (JSTOR).”

Half the library budget goes to print, half to electronic. “We currently have a print collection of approximately 75,000 items and are aiming at 100,000 as our first target.” The library has been growing at about 10,000 books per year.

The library has an informal but successful Interlibrary Loan system with other UAE universities, and universities in Oman, Cairo and Beirut.  And they borrow books from the British Library (“It’s not cheap, but they’re good with supply.”)

Books purchased from vendors around the world arrive shelf-ready, "to get the material quickly and on the shelf fast."  It also gets around another problem working in the Middle East. "It's difficult to get qualified cataloguers, and they're very expensive."

Ritchie has been intimately involved with the design of the new library building. “The buildings on campus are one of the best examples of contemporary Islamic design in the country, and the exterior of the library building needed to conform to this traditional design.  However, we were at complete liberty to design the interior spaces and floor layouts as we deemed suitable for our operations and services.”

Artist's Rendering of the New AUS Library
Courtesy of the American University of Sharjah

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