Hebrew language works from Israel and Persian works from Iran have been and continue to be selected and ordered by the Library. The South and West Asian collection is one of several Midwestern libraries participating in the SFC program. All but a few South and West Asian vernacular materials, including most newspapers and a limited number of Western language reference works and current periodicals, are located in the Asian Library. Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and the 12 Indic languages on the LC Program for India and Pakistan. Vernacular materials from Southeast Asia are not currently being acquired.
Emphasis is on scholarly treatment rather than popularization, textbooks, and children's literature.
The Undergraduate Library normally collects more popular treatments and the Education and Social Sciences Library collects children's literature for its School Collection. The primary focus is on aspects of the languages, cultures, history, peoples, and societies of South and West Asia. Appropriate primary and secondary works, and bibliographic, and reference materials are acquired. Ordinarily, dissertations, theses and translations are selectively collected. Audio-visual materials are normally collected selectively.