The Library of Congress holds the largest collection of materials from Ethiopia and Eritrea in North America. In addition to its many books in Amharic and Tigrinya, the Ethiopian Collection has significant holdings of newspapers and serials with over 350 serials to date and about the same number of newspapers, among them Aemero, the first newspaper in Amharic. Twenty of these newspapers have already been microfilmed and the two national newspapers, Adis Zaman of Ethiopia and Hadas Eretra of Eritrea, are also available on microfilm. Berhanena Salam, published from 1925 till 1934, is available in digital format. Other languages represented in the collection include Oromo and Ge’ez.

The acquisition of the Thomas Leiper Kane Collection in 2001 added a number of books printed before 1960 as well as an important collection of pamphlets. The crown jewel of the Kane Collection is its manuscripts, with about 250 codices on vellum and paper.

The Ethiopian Collection also offers researchers a significant number of photographs, postcards, and other items useful for researching the Italo-Ethiopian wars.

For more information about the Ethiopian Collection and its ongoing program of events, please contact:

Fentahun Tiruneh, Area Specialist, African Section, African and Middle Eastern Division
Contact information: [email protected] | Tel: (202) 707-4163 | Fax: (202) 252-3180

The African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) was created in 1978 as part of a general Library of Congress reorganization. AMED currently consists of three sections - African, Hebraic and Near East - and covers more than 77 countries and regions from Southern Africa to the Maghreb and from the Middle East to Central Asia. Each section plays a vital role in the Library's acquisitions program; offers expert reference and bibliographic services to the Congress and researchers in this country and abroad; develops projects, special events and publications; and cooperates with other institutions and scholarly and professional associations in the US and abroad.

As a major world resource center for Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, AMED has the custody of more than one million physical collection materials in the non-Roman-alphabet languages of the region such as Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, and Yiddish. Included in these collections are books, periodicals, newspapers, microforms, grey literature, and rarities such as cuneiform tablets, manuscripts, incunabula (works printed before 1501), and other early African and Middle Eastern publications. Among the most prized items are also several sizable pamphlet collections on African Studies.

The Library of Congress has more than 20 centers that provide research space and guidance for users to interact with collection items based on subject or format. AMED's three sections - African, Hebraic and Near East - offer reference assistance, provide research briefings on a wide range of subjects relating to the languages and cultures of the region, produce research guides to the Library's vast resources, and cooperate in developing and preserving the Division's unparalleled collections. The African and Middle Eastern Reading Room provides readers with access to materials from the AMED Collections and helps point researchers to relevant items in other reading rooms. For reference assistance using the Library’s resources, use the Ask a Librarian service to contact a reference librarian.

AMED offers group briefings and research orientations onsite and online. We request that appointments be made at least 3 weeks in advance. Please contact AMED via Ask a Librarian.