The William Kelly and Marilyn M. Simpson Library at the Cairo Center houses the complete ARCE collection of over 25,000 volumes, many dealing with ancient Egypt. There is now a strong collection of books in Arabic as well. Of the books printed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the most famous is the Description de l'Egypte . The reference volumes are particularly useful and there is also a good collection of essential periodicals. Guests have access to kitchen facilities and laundry machines.
Awards are generally limited to fields in the humanities, fine arts and social sciences.
Predoctoral candidates must have finished all requirements for the doctorate except the dissertation by the time of the anticipated beginning of their fellowship. For ECA fellowships, predoctoral candidates must be US citizens. Applicants for the Kress Fellowship may be predoctoral candidates of any nationality and are restricted to those enrolled in North American universities. Fellows must devote full time to their research and may not accept outside teaching assignments or employment without the written consent of program officers. Fellowships run from October 1st through September 30th.