Sep 1, 2017
NOTE: This is a re-post of the episode originally published on 8/13/17, that was removed due to a technical issue.
Welcome to episode 34 of ATG: The Podcast.
This week, we’re featuring a conversation between David Hirsch and Matthew Ismail.
David Hirsch is the Middle East Librarian at UCLA's Charles E. Young Research Library. He received his MA in Middle Eastern Studies and a second MA in Library Science from the University of Chicago in 1990. He had previously obtained a BA in Oriental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1980. His first professional job was as a cataloguer on the Near East Cataloging Team at Princeton University. He moved to UCLA in 1989 where he initially served as Near East Bibliographer and gradually added on responsibilities in Central Asian, Armenian, South Asian and Islamic Studies. Since arriving at UCLA has worked closely with UCLA’s Middle Eastern print collections as well as the Islamic Manuscripts collection. He has a special interest in Arab diaspora communities and their literatures.
David is interviewed by Matthew Ismail, who is currently Director of Collection Development at Central Michigan University. He worked at the American University in Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates, from 1999 to 2006 and at the American University in Cairo, in Cairo, Egypt, from 2006 to 2011. Matthew is on the Editorial Board of Charleston Insights in Library, Archival, and Information Sciences, and is the series editor of a new publishing project called the Charleston Briefings associated with the Charleston Conference and Against the Grain. We get started with David telling us about his background and how he became a librarian, and then more about the specifics of his work at UCLA and abroad.