Funding organisation: DFG Funding level: Personnel Running time: 2006 – 2009   Project description:   In January 1998, the University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt took over care for the special subject collection 6.23 Middle East incl. North Africa (SSG VO) from the UB Tübingen. The organisational preparation for the transfer of tasks made it necessary to begin acquiring titles, especially original-language titles, from the priority region in Halle about four months prior to the official start of the ULB’s responsibility. The library therefore received extensive deliveries of corresponding titles from the priority region since September 1997. Because the staff responsible for cataloguing in the SSG VO however could not be hired until 1.3.1998, the time lag further increased. Thus, when work began in the SSG VO, there were already about 3,000 titles of original-language (mainly Arabic and Turkish) literature which could not be included in the catalogue of the ULB Halle due to the constant arrival of new deliveries. The backlog in formal indexing that arose when SSG 6.23 was taken over was caught up by support of the DFG.   Supplementary information and publications:     The catalogued titles can be researched in the OPAC of the ULB Halle and the catalogue databases of the GBV.