James Douglas Pearson was a British librarian and bibliographer in the field of Islamic studies who founded the Index Islamicus. He grew up in Cambridge, where he was also educated. His first job was as a book fetcher in the Cambridge University Library at the age of 16. He was awarded a scholarship for Hebrew at St John's College. graduating in 1936, and studied other languages such as Arabic and Persian. He worked in the Oriental Section of the Library until 1941 when he was enlisted for war service until 1945. He worked again in the same library as an assistant under-librarian from 1945 until 1950. During 1950, he was appointed as librarian of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. In 1972, Pearson was appointed as senior fellow and professor of bibliography in the University of London. He retired during 1979 and returned to Cambridge, to work on the Index Islamicus. In 1982, he retired from editorship, and handed responsibility of the Index Islamicus to Cambridge University.
In 1967, Pearson established the Middle East Libraries Committee, now known as MELCOM UK. This gave birth to a large series of bibliographies and research tools.
Herbert Niel Randle C.I.E. F.B.A. (1880–1973) was the librarian of the India Office Library (1933–49; assistant librarian 1927–33), professor of philosophy at Queen's College, Benares, and a writer on Indian philosophy.
Anthony Ashley Bevan, FBA was a British orientalist and distinguished Arabist.
Ignatii Iul'ianovich Krachkovskii was an Arabist scholar, who wrote 'Among Arabic Manuscripts, Memories of Libraries and Men'. He was one of the founders of the Soviet school of Arab studies.
Arent Jen Wensinck, from 1912 until 1927, was professor of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac at the University of Leiden, and in 1927 he succeeded Snouck Hurgronje as professor of Arabic and Islam at the same university, at which post he remained until his death.
Henry Guppy CBE was Librarian of the John Rylands Library in Manchester from 1899 until his death in 1948. He was created Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1937. He was active in the Library Association of Great Britain and among his notable achievements are contributions to the reconstruction of the university library of Louvain between the World Wars and the founding of the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library in 1903. During much of his tenure in Manchester he resided at Buxton, where he died. He was survived by his wife Matilda, with whom he had two daughters, Lilian and Alberta.