June 17, 2021 Update: We are excited and immensely grateful to announce that we have surpassed our initial fundraising target for June! Thank you very much to everyone who contributed. This is not the end of the story, however! With our new facility (and a new librarian starting next month), we are looking at many opportunities on the near horizon to dramatically expand ongoing acquisitions and add to our outreach initiatives. As such, we have raised our initial fundraising target by $2,000 in the hopes that this addition will help us better plan ahead activities as opportunities arise which fit our mission. Please feel free to keep sharing this campaign with colleagues, family, and friends as a way to join us in our efforts to advance knowledge of Jordan and interconnected Middle East for new and expanding audiences!
Thanks to a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implementation by the United Nations Offices for Project Services (UNOPS), ACOR’s center in Amman is currently undergoing major renovations. The primary goal is to upgrade the facility with attention to safety and security, disability access, and gender sensitivity, as well as to upgrade technological aspects in order to reduce operating costs. ACOR remains open—the sound of power tools notwithstanding!—and is still home to fellows in residence and a number of staff members.
Thank you for your support, and please consider sharing this campaign on social media!
The main reading room of the ACOR library in 2018
(photo by Abed Al Fatah Ghareeb).
Today, we are looking ahead to the possibilities when our renovation is completed and we will be able to expand access hours and increase annual programming, reaching out to new communities who can benefit from free services, chief among them access to our library and free Wi-Fi. In fact, among many recent developments, perhaps the biggest impact the renovation will have is creating a new entrance to the building, dedicated to the library. Our hope is this will ultimately allow us to extend our public opening hours into evenings and weekends (availability of staff and funds permitting) and reach new user communities.
As a part of our planning for this new and improved library space, staff and board members have identified a number of key publications that we believe will considerably improve the depth and breadth of our collections in several subject areas that we expect to receive increased focus by users, post renovation, including:
1. Critical readings in race, ethnicity, and migration studies
2. Archival methods and digital / public humanities
3. Arabic as a foreign language teaching and learning (TAFL)
Even as we listen to the drilling going on in the building today, being able to imagine future studious library patrons—whether an Arabic-language study-abroad student, an educator fellow with our digital archive, or simply any member of the public who seeks to increase their knowledge of the dynamic past and present of the Middle East—we know there is a bright future ahead for our library community.
But we could really use your support!
Please consider pitching in a small amount today to help us reach our library acquisitions budget target for the year. All revenue from this campaign will go directly to the purchase of new and updated volumes for our library in the subject areas above.
Thank you for your encouragement, generosity, and support!
Will you help the ACOR library improve our offerings for students and researchers?
The American Center of Research is a non-profit research and educational institution, recognized as a 501(c)(3) organization by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (EIN: 23-7084091). Thus, your donation is eligible as a charitable deduction for tax purposes, to the extent permitted by law.
This gallery provides a sneak peek of renovation work. You can view more on our dedicated webpage that we update weekly with the latest in renovation news. We cannot wait to serve the community again with improved facilities and collections in the near future!
