Welcome to the online catalogue of IDEO’s library

IDEO’s library is one of the prominent libraries specialised in Islamic studies in the world. It is opened to all. Our library gathers over 150,000 monographs and nearly 1,800 journals and periodicals. It intends to cover all disciplines in Islamic studies: Arabic language, Quranic exegesis, theology, law and jurisprudence, history, philosophy, sufism, history of sciences. It provides more than 20,000 classical texts of the Arabic and Islamic heritage, and secondary literature in Arabic and European languages. Many PhD dissertations are also available.

AlKindi 4 and FRBR

We are glad to introduce the new version of AlKindi, genuinely complying with the conceptual model proposed by the International Federation of Library Association (IFLA) called FRBR (which stands for Functional requirements for Bibliographic Records).

FRBR specifies four levels of information. Each level can be connected to a specific responsibility. You are already familiar with two of these four levels:

  • The item, the lower level: it is the document you actually have in hands. It is identified by its call number. Examples of responsibilities include: a donor, a binder, or a former owner.
  • The manifestation: it refers to a specific publication. It is identified by ISBN/ISSN. Examples of responsibilities include: a publisher, a manufacturer, or a copyright owner.

To those long-established levels, FRBR adds two new more abstract levels:

  • The expression: it refers to a specific edition. It is typically identified by a language. Examples of responsibilities include: an intellectual editor, a translator, or an illustrator.
  • The work, the higher level: it refers to the intellectual production in itself. It is identified by its title. Examples of responsibilities include: an author, a compiler, or an addressee.

The new features of AlKindi 4, based on FRBR, make it easier to display the different editions or translations of a given work (its publication history), or to distinguish the different responsibilities of a given authority.

Each of these four levels can be connected to an authority and to another record of the same level.

  • At the work level, it enables the display of the historical and cultural context of a work. Examples of relationships include: commentaries, refutations, summaries, or compilations.
  • At the manifestation level, it enables the display of the publishing context of a manifestation. Examples of relationships include: reprints, offprints, piece-analytics, or accompanying materials.

Lastly, authorities themselves can be connected to one another, it enables the display of family and academic relationships. Examples of relationships include: son, father, disciple, or master.