Franklin Book Programs, Inc., a private non-profit corporation, was established in 1952 and continued until 1978 as a joint-venture between the American Library Association's International Relations Committee and publishers from the American Book Publishers Council Foreign Trade Committee. The expressed purpose of the initiative was to "assist developing countries in the creation, production, distribution, and use of books and other educational materials" ("Gift Aids Center For the Book" News from the Library of Congress Press Release, January 10, 1979). The program involved approximately fifteen countries and as many languages. Over the course of more than two decades, Franklin Book Programs helped facilitate the publication of approximately 3,000 titles in languages such as Arabic, Armenian, Bangla, Chinese, English, Hausa, Igbo, Indonesian, Malay, Persian, Pushtu, Urdu, and Yoruba.

The Urdu Franklin Books Program established its field office in Lahore, Pakistan (West Pakistan at the time) in 1954 to extend support to the new Pakistani government and encourage its support of the US in its anti-communist stance. This office was set up under the direction of M. K. Rehman. The office was not as successful in its efforts as the Tehran office. The population was not very receptive to the Franklin Book Program's presence in Pakistan as they were doubtful of the program's intentions. An additional problem was the fact that much of the population was already literate in English. The list below is abbreviated to give the researcher an idea of the breadth of materials translated. For a complete list of the Franklin Book Program Urdu books, refer to the Library of Congress Catalog search provided here.

Multiple copies of a book may be available. Please check the catalog record or holding division for information about a particular title.

All Urdu materials including the items listed here may be accessed in the Asian Reading Room.