Kotobarabia E-Library (KAEL), a database covering more than 3,000 works. It includes an electronically searchable library and the content is mostly in Arabic, with metadata in both Arabic and English and bilingual English/Arabic search interface. We acquired KAEL at the close-out cost of $3,413, 50% off the list price, with accompanying MARC records for the one-time cost of $500. In addition, the annual maintenance/new content fee beginning in the second year has been reduced 67% to $500. During my negotiation with the vendor, East View, some issues came up that make the package somewhat complicated to set up. Some peer institutions complain that loaded bibliographic records are ‘very poor,’ with many problems—transliteration, no authority work, no listing of the original publisher and date, no subjects. These need to be worked out. LTS could handle the loading of MARC records of this collection to the catalog and attach holdings to OCLC for the WorldCat Local interface. We may need to provide access to the collection as a whole for browsing purposes in addition to individual records/titles.

PURCHASED 12/12/2010