Deepa Banerjee's blog

Panjab Digital Library

2009-08-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

Reported by : Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 23, No. 241. Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London

For the first time ever a searchable collection of millions of rare
pages on the Sikhs and the region of Panjab has been made available.
Panjab Digital Library (PDL) will include texts of manuscripts,
books, magazines, newspapers and photographs and will be available to
anyone with Internet access at www.PanjabDigiLib.org. This launch was
made possible in part by The Nanakshahi Trust and the Sikh Research
Institute (SikhRI).

PDL has been in development since 2003, charged with a mission to
select, collect, preserve, digitize and make accessible the
accumulated wisdom of Panjab. Texts were included without distinction
as to script, language, religion, nationality, or other human
condition.

“Since long, preservation of heritage, research and education have
been a victim of apathy in Panjab; more so, in the last century. With
the launch of the online digital library, we have tried to fill some
of that gap. PDL is a humble offering to the community what it lost
25 years ago,” said Harinder Singh, co-founder and executive director
of SikhRI who also serves on PDL board. “Scholars will be able to
access a wide variety of information concealed in the manuscripts and
other literature of the region with the click of a mouse sitting in
the comfort of their homes. This is essential to the growth of Sikh
and Panjab studies and its meaningful representation in the
fast-changing modern world.”

Digitization technology brings with it untold benefits for heritage
preservation and access. Once a document has been properly digitized
it becomes immortal and can remain accessible long after the original
has ceased to exist. The option of digital access further aids in
preservation of originals through reduced need for physical handling.
The central digital archive which the PDL has developed over the last
six years allows for wide electronic access to the public and will
help the researcher to search, browse and sift through vast amounts
of data in seconds.

According to Davinder Pal Singh, PDL’s co-founder and executive
director, “PDL will break many barriers which currently restrict a
conventional library. Information is decentralized, through its
shared storage and access model, thus enabling utilization of a
single resource concurrently by multiple users all over the world. On
a local note, assuming that every household will possibly have a
computer within the next ten years, PDL holds great promises for the
people of Panjab especially.”

“To date, PDL has been instrumental in digitally preserving over 2.5
million folios from 3,400 manuscripts, 2,200 books, 1,990 issues of
periodicals, 5,578 issues of newspapers, 3,152 photographs, 248,000
legal documents and some 168 hours of video recordings,” commented
Gurvinder Singh, PDL’s US Coordinator. The current collection of data
amounts to about 15,000 GB of available information.

Among others, major institutional collections digitized to date
include SGPC, DSGMC, Government Museum and Art Gallery Chandigarh,
Chief Khalsa Diwan, Panjab Languages Department, and Kurukshetra
University . Critical works of significant importance from the
personal collections of Prof. Pritam Singh, Dr. Man Singh Nirankari,
Dr. Kirpal Singh, Dr. Madanjit Kaur and Prof. Gurtej Singh are also
available at PDL.

"PDL is the only non-profit, non-governmental organization to have
initiated a digitization project for the preservation and upkeep of
Panjab archives, and perhaps the only one in India ” said Gurnihal
Singh Pirzada Director, PDL’s board member. “PDL has undertaken
rigorous research and laid solid ground work in order to be in the
best possible position for this launch. Projects around the globe
were closely studied as models for establishing a successful
digitization project. Internationally recognized benchmarks were
referred to and complied with,” he further said.

PDL is an ongoing project in its early stages and the collection will
grow substantially in coming years. New titles are being digitized
everyday and the Web site will be updated with new features and
titles on monthly basis. PDL staff will be adding at least 50,000
pages per week to the Web site’s collection.

The South Asian Language Review Journal

2009-08-18T16:39:00.000-07:00

The South Asian Language Review (SALR) is an research journal published by the Indian Institute of Language Studies (IILS) established in January, 1980. Access to current, back and forthcoming issues of this journal is available free at:http://salr.net/volumexvii2.aspx

" Words of the World" Library Exhibit in conjunction with the Jackson School of International Studies Centennial Celebration

2009-05-08T16:07:00.000-07:00

The International Studies librarian at University of Washington libraries has put together an
exhibit titled "Words of the World" in conjunction with the Jackson School of International Studies centennial celebration. This exhibit showcases rare and interesting collections from different areas of international studies. The exhibit will be on from May 8th - May 31st, 2009 in the Allen North Lobby of Suzzallo/Allen Libraries.

Libraries and Archives in South Asia (LASA) wiki

2009-05-08T15:50:00.000-07:00

From The Asian Studies WWW Monitor: Apr 2009, Vol. 16, No. 6 (296)

Digital South Asia Library, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, US.

The Digital South Asia Library is pleased to announce the launch ofthe Libraries & Archives in South Asia (LASA) wiki, a collaborativeuser-driven effort to compile a guide to South Asian libraries andarchives for academics and researchers in the humanities and socialsciences. The LASA wiki contains detailed information about librariesand archives in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives,Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It aims to become a full-fledgedportal to research in South Asia, for the scholarly community and bythe scholarly community.Any entry in the wiki can be improved upon with new or updatedinformation. A typical entry contains location, contact information,basic access and collection information and a link to theinstitution's website when it is available. More detailedinformation, including maps, photographs, links to online catalogs,etc. are provided when available. The LASA wiki was created by Samip Mallick, AssistantBibliographer for Southern Asia at the University of Chicago Library.- jn."
URL http://dsal.uchicago.edu/lasa/

Four more Indian journals convert to open access

2009-05-08T15:43:00.000-07:00

India's National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (NISCAIR) has converted four more of its 17 journals to OA and plans to convert the rest this summer. Details from Subbiah Arunachalam:

Now four more journals have become open access: Indian Journal of Chemistry B Indian Journal of Radio and Space Physics Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research Indian Journal of Pure & Applied Physics

This information is not yet recorded by DOAJ.

Madan Puraskar Pustkalaya launched their digital MPP portal

2008-03-19T13:11:00.000-07:00

Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya has launched the Digital MPP portal on 13th March, 2008. Currently, they are making the images digitized through the EAP supported digitization project. Here is the link:

www.madanpuraskar.org/digitalmpp

Digital MPP is an initiative of Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP) for the preservation of its collection in digital medium and to make them more accessible to the users. In this first phase of digital MPP, about 7000 images are being made available through this site. Half the images are old and rare images from the MPP collection and the other half comprises of negatives from the collection of Madanmani Dixit which were acquired by MPP.

The images look fabulous.

Mellon Foundation Grant awarded for the publication of South Asian Book Series

2008-02-25T10:47:00.000-08:00

January 30th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Mellon Foundation Grant awarded to Columbia University Press
The Mellon Foundation recently awarded Columbia University Press, the University Press of Chicago, and the University Press of California a grant to commence publication of a major book series covering South Asia. Read the full press release here.Columbia University Press, University of California Press, and the University of Chicago Press announce a new joint publishing effort in South Asian Studies.
Press Release
The University Presses of California, Chicago, and Columbia are pleased to announce that the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a grant to commence publication of a major book series covering South Asia. Titled “South Asia across the Disciplines” the new series aims to publish six monographs per year, in a collaborative effort across all three University Presses with each press publishing two series books per year.
Each press has long-established roots in the field and is based at a university with outstanding South Asia faculty. In recent years, the market for South Asian studies books has declined along with the broader market for academic monographs in many fields, making it increasingly difficult for emerging scholars to get their work published. “South Asia across the Disciplines” will disseminate and promote new scholarship on South Asia by combining the efforts and resources of the three presses.
Jennifer Crewe, Associate Director and Editorial Director of Columbia University Press says “Our three presses have all published in the field of South Asian Studies for many years and developed programs reflecting the strengths of their faculties. But lately, as the sales have declined, it has become almost impossible to recover our costs and maintain our previous level of commitment to the field. This new collaborative venture will allow us to publish books we would otherwise have reluctantly declined and achieve a significant level of visibility for them.” Alan Thomas, Editorial Director for the Humanities and Sciences at the University of Chicago Press, adds that “the Mellon grant will allow our three presses to experiment with a collaborative approach to monograph publishing and at the same time help shape the vital but underserved field of South Asian Studies. By publishing the series jointly, we have the potential to reduce costs and quickly achieve a critical mass of new scholarship.”
Major editorial goals of the series will be to open up new archival material to scholars, to explore new theories and methods, and to develop scholarship that is both deep in expertise and broad in appeal across disciplines. To that end, three prominent scholars have agreed to serve as series editors: Dipesh Chakrabarty (University of Chicago, history), Sheldon Pollock (Columbia University, literature), and Sanjay Subrahmanyam (UCLA, history). An additional twelve-member editorial board will include senior faculty at the three universities. They will seek to acquire books for the series that cover history, literary studies, philosophy, religion, social or cultural anthropology, and other fields.
All books in the “South Asia across the Disciplines” series will have a common design but will appear under the imprint of one of the three presses. Acquisitions and marketing costs will be shared among the three presses and supported by the Mellon Foundation grant.

Asian & Pacific Archaeology Online (Bulletin of the IPPA)

2008-02-15T15:48:00.000-08:00

The Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific PrehistoryAssociation probably the largest international academic forum forAsian & Pacific archaeology and cultural heritage), has just comeonline, with open access to all issues from the first in 1979 up to2007. See the IPPA website:http://arts.anu.edu.au/arcworld/ippa/ippa.htm

Press release on Million Book Project

2008-01-02T11:43:00.000-08:00

Online Library Gives ReadersAccess to 1.5 Million Books
International Project Makes Complete Texts Available Through Single Web Portal
PITTSBURGH — The Million Book Project, an international venture led by Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, Zhejiang University in China, the Indian Institute of Science in India and the Library at Alexandria in Egypt, has completed the digitization of more than 1.5 million books, which are now available online.
For the first time since the project was initiated in 2002, all of the books, which range from Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" to "The Analects of Confucius," are available through a single Web portal of the Universal Library (www.ulib.org), said Gloriana St. Clair, Carnegie Mellon's dean of libraries.
"Anyone who can get on the Internet now has access to a collection of books the size of a large university library," said Raj Reddy, professor of computer science and robotics at Carnegie Mellon. "This project brings us closer to the ideal of the Universal Library: making all published works available to anyone, anytime, in any language. The economic barriers to the distribution of knowledge are falling," said Reddy, who has spearheaded the Million Book Project.
Though Google, Microsoft and the Internet Archive all have launched major book digitization projects, the Million Book Project represents the world's largest, university-based digital library of freely accessible books. At least half of its books are out of copyright, or were digitized with the permission of the copyright holders, so the complete texts are or eventually will be available free.
The collection includes a large number of rare and orphan books. More than 20 languages are represented among the 1.5 million books, a little more than 1 percent of all of the world's books.
Many of the books, particularly those in Chinese and English, have been digitized - their text converted by optical character recognition methods into computer readable text. That allows these books to be searched and, eventually, reformatted for access by PDAs and other devices.
An outgrowth of Reddy's Universal Library, the Million Book Project received $3.5 million in seed funding from the National Science Foundation and substantial in-kind contributions from hardware and software manufacturers. These funds were primarily used to purchase scanning equipment and for developing the scanning, digitization and cataloguing methods necessary for creating a large digital library.
The vast majority of the scanning, digitization and cataloguing has been performed at centers in China and India, where more than 1.1 million and 360,000 books have been scanned, respectively. The U.S., China and India provided $10 million each in cash and in-kind contributions to the project. More recently, the Library at Alexandria, Egypt, has joined the effort. Now, about 7,000 books are scanned daily by more than 1,000 workers worldwide.
"We greatly value the participation of Bibliotheca Alexandrina," said Michael Shamos, a Carnegie Mellon computer science professor and copyright lawyer. "Scholars everywhere regret the destruction of the Alexandria Library at various points in history, and we're willing to go to great lengths to see that no such destruction is ever possible in the future. Once books are on the Internet, they become immortal."
Protecting and preserving texts is a major goal, said Pan Yunhe, the leader of the Million Book Project in China. "Paper gets old and brittle, so books soon become so delicate that no one can read them without damaging them," said Yunhe, the former president of Zhejiang University who is now vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. "Artwork fades. But once we have digitized texts and illustrations, we can keep them in circulation indefinitely. And by storing them at multiple sites, we can minimize the risk that they be destroyed, as occurred in Alexandria."
"This collection of books in multiple languages opens up unparalleled opportunities to bring Indian cultural material to everyone, and offers a huge range of possibilities in natural language research," said N. Balakrishnan, associate director of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, one of the partners in the project.
"Digital libraries constitute an essential part of the future of the developing world," said Ismail Serageldin, director of Bibliotheca Alexandrina. "This requires that we approach conditions governing copyright, digital archiving and scientific databases with a view to creating two-tier systems of access to information that would allow access to such data from developing countries for a nominal fee or for free."
Though the long-term goal of the Universal Library is to make books, artwork and other published works available online for free, about half of the current collection remains under copyright. Until the permission of the copyright holders can be documented, or copyright laws are amended, only 10 percent or less of those books can be accessed at no cost.
The project has surpassed one million books, but the participants are looking to expand to all countries and eventually every language. At the Third Annual International Conference on Universal Digital Library, held at Carnegie Mellon Nov. 2-4, 2007, the partners in the Million Book Project agreed to continue scanning, to enlist more centers for the scanning of rare and unique materials, and to work on governmental solutions to the problem of books which are out of print but still in copyright.
For a full list of partners in the Million Book Project, see the "people" menu at www.ulib.org.

Digital audio edition of the Ramayana in the library

2007-11-02T16:01:00.000-07:00

UW Libraries has just ordered digital audio edition of Ramayan.

This resource can be used as a teaching/study resource as

* Each set includes an annotated bibliography outlining the contents ofthe entire program.
* Each canto and kanda has its own track on the digital production,making it very easy to locate and refer to particular sections.
* The translation used is the excellent version by renowned Indianjournalist, N. Raghunathan, and the production is read by professionalactors.
* All three volumes of the original text, including all seven kandas ofthe Ramayana, are included in the production

"This audio edition of the Ramayana provides the English-speaking audience the opportunity to hear one of India's two great epics in a manner closer to that of its original audiences in ancient India....The epic was composed to be heard and now English speakers can enjoy this greatmasterpiece of world literature in a more authentic form."

Peter Scharf, Dept. of Classics, Brown University

More information about this resource can be found at http://www.ramayanaudio.com/

Open Access Journals From India

2007-11-02T14:37:00.000-07:00

Now you can access free of charge and full text open access journals from India at http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/SouthAsia/openaccessjournals.html
Open access journals provide access to full-text contents of scholarly, peer-reviewed journals.

The journal coverage is mainly in the subject areas of Medicine, Science and Technology but there are some open access journals in this list that also cover the subject areas of Humanities and Social Sciences such as Journal of Social Sciences and Anthropologist.

Please note that access to some of these Indian open access journals require user registration.

These open access journals are published by the following major publishers in India

Indian National Science Academy
Indian Academy of Sciences
Indian Medlars Centre, National Informatics Centre
Medknow Publications
Indianjournals.com
Kamla-Raj Enterprises

Kashmir University puts rare manuscripts on-line

2007-10-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

The University of Kashmir has digitized some rare manuscripts and made them available on the University's website for students, scholars, and researchers. The manuscripts that are nearly three to four hundred years old have been put for free access on the University's website:http://www.kashmiruniversity.net/.

The manuscripts comprise Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Kashmiri Sufi literature and rare copies of Quran.

Center for Research Libraries digitizes almost 600 South Asian titles from SAMP

2007-10-19T11:13:00.000-07:00

Center for Research Libraries has digitized almost 615 South Asian titles from South Asia Microform Project. You can access electronic full text of these titles by using CRL's advanced search catalog at < http://www.crl.edu/catalog/advancedsearch.htm> and typing the keyterms "digitzed SAMP." These titles are available for public viewing.

Some examples of the content from SAMP’s collection include:

Garcin de Tassy, M. (Joseph-Héliodore-Sagesse-Vertu), 1794-1878. Mémoire sur des particularités de la religion musulmane dans l'Inde d'après les ouvrages hindoustanis. Paris : Imprimérie royale, 1831.

East India Company. Selection of papers from the records at the East-India House relating to the revenue, police, and civil and criminal justice, under the Company's governments in India.London : Printed by order of the Court of Directors, 1820-26. Indian National Congress.

Proceedings of the ... Indian National Congress…. Bombay : The Congress, [1886].

Media Center offers access to a free Netflix DVD rental service

2007-10-08T16:48:00.001-07:00

* Netflix for Instruction*

The Media Center is pleased to offer UW instructors access to a free Netflix DVD rental service. This service will augment our permanent collections by offering access to titles we do not currently own, faster access to popular titles we do own, and the opportunity to preview titles before requesting they be purchased by the Libraries. Information on how to use the service is available here: http://www.lib.washington.edu/media/netflix.html This is a pilot project and will be evaluated at the end of the Fall 2007.

* Films on Demand*

The Media Center is gauging interest in FMG On Demand, a streaming video subscription service. Instructors have over 4,000 streaming titles to choose from, most of which are produced by Films for the Humanities and Social Sciences (FHSS). To browse by subject or view a list of available films go here: http://tinyurl.com/3desgn We are asking instructors to send their initial list of requested titles by October 15, 2007, to vallier@u.washington.edu. Based on this feedback, we will decide whether or not to move forward with the project. To view a list of FHSS titles already held by the UW Libraries, click here: http://tinyurl.com/ytcsvs

A NEW LIBRARY ACQUISITION

2007-10-08T16:11:00.000-07:00

A NEW LIBRARY ACQUISITION

UW libraries has recently acquired the following:

Digital Tēvāram. Kaṇiṉit Tēvāram. (CD-ROM)

(A collection of 800 Tamil hymns to Siva)

Digital Tēvāram. Kaṇiṉit Tēvāram. V. M. Subramanya Aiyar, Jean-Luc Chevillard, S.A.S. Sarma. Collection Indologie n° 103, IFP / EFEO, 2007 [CD-ROM]

The “Digital Tēvaram” is a multifeature CD-ROM edition of a collection of 800 Tamil hymns to Śiva, possibly dating back to the 7th and 8th centuries, attributed to three authors (Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar), traditionally called Tēvaram, and constituting the initial part of the Tamil Saiva Scriptures. This electronic edition of the Tamil text, furnished with many maps, MP3 audio files and a complete English rendering by the late V.M. Subrahmanya Ayyar (1906-1981), combines the features of the two traditional book-forms of Tēvāram:

1. arrangement according to musical modes (pan-s), as in panmurai editions of Tēvāram, and 2. arrangement according to sites (stalams), as in talamu ṟai editions. It incorporates a concordance, and can be used as a dictionary of Tēvāram

Talk with Deepa - Meebo Widget- a new reference tool

2007-10-04T11:55:00.000-07:00

Now you use the Meebo chat box to chat with Deepa Banerjee, the South Asian Studies Librarian even if you don't have an Instant Messaging account. This is great instant reference tool.

It is very simple to use !!

Just go to http://www.lib.washington.edu. You will see a Meebo Chat box titled " Talk with Deepa" on the right side of the screen. You can instantly chat with Deepa if she is on-line or leave a message for her if she is off line. Please provide your contact email ID or phone number so that she can respond back to you.

Please try this new tool for instant reference work and please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

South and South East Asian Literature Database Trial

2007-10-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

SOUTH AND SOUTH EAST ASIAN LITERATURE DATABASE TRIAL

The following database by Alexander Press which provides access to South andSouth East Asian literary resources is currently being considered for purchaseby the libraries. The UW Libraries invites you to try these databases and to letus know what you think of them by filling out the evaluation form<https://catalysttools.washington.edu/survey/dbaner/36409>. Please find sometime from your busy fall schedule to try this database.

ABOUT THE DATABASE

South and Southeast Asian Literature <http://sali.alexanderstreet.com/> is asearch-able collection of fiction and poetry written in English by authors fromSouth and Southeast Asia and their Diasporas. Focusing on works composed duringthe late-colonial and postcolonial eras, the collection will also featureauthor interviews and manuscript materials that will shed additional light on therich literary heritage and emerging traditions of this region. New content isuploaded on a biweekly basis, giving users immediate access to a steadilygrowing treasury of classic, rare, and contemporary literature. The databasecurrently has over 6,000 pages.

Click on <http://sali.alexanderstreet.com/> to connect to the trial database.Feel free to forward the URL of this database trials Web page to others in theUW community (faculty, students, and staff). This trial database is accessibleonly from campus. Please note that "Off Campus Access" option does not apply to this trial database.

After trying the databases, please fill out the Evaluation Form/Survey at <https://catalysttools.washington.edu/survey/dbaner/36409>. Your comments areimportant in determining if the South and South East Asian Literature databaseis useful for the research and teaching needs of the University of Washington.I really look forward to your feedback about the coverage and usefulness of this trial database.Thanks.

DELNET - TRIAL DATBASE

2007-06-05T12:48:00.000-07:00

The following database that provides access to South Asian Resources are currently being considered for purchase by the libraries. The UW Libraries invites you to try these databases and to let us know what you think of them by filling out the evaluation form .

DELNET (http://www.delnet.nic.in/) Developing Library Network is a major resource sharing library network in South Asia connecting nearly 1100 libraries in 30 States and Union Territories in India and six other countries. It provides online access to more than 6.5 million bibliographic records of Books, journal articles, journals, etc and extensively provides Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery services globally to its member libraries. DELNET resources will not only provide an overview of published resources but also the researchers and scholars will be able to avail of the Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery services for books and journal articles through DELNET.

Click on the links below to connect to the trial databases. Feel free to forward the url of this database trials Web page to others in the UW community (faculty, students, and staff).
After trying the databases, please fill out the Evaluation Form/Survey. Your comments are important in determining which databases are the most useful for the research and teaching needs of the University of washington using the following login and password Login usunivwlib Password r r s 206 (without space).
The following database that provides access to South Asian Resources are currently being considered for purchase by the libraries. The UW Libraries invites you to try these databases and to let us know what you think of them by filling out the evaluation form .

DELNET (http://www.delnet.nic.in/) Developing Library Network is a major resource sharing library network in South Asia connecting nearly 1100 libraries in 30 States and Union Territories in India and six other countries. It provides online access to more than 6.5 million bibliographic records of Books, journal articles, journals, etc and extensively provides Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery services globally to its member libraries. DELNET resources will not only provide an overview of published resources but also the researchers and scholars will be able to avail of the Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery services for books and journal articles through DELNET.

Click on the links below to connect to the trial databases. Feel free to forward the url of this database trials Web page to others in the UW community (faculty, students, and staff).
After trying the databases, please fill out the Evaluation Form/Survey. Your comments are important in determining which databases are the most useful for the research and teaching needs of the University of washington using the following login and password Login usunivwlib Password r r s 206 (without space).

I created a blog

2007-06-05T11:34:00.000-07:00

I just created a blog and am very enthusiastic to post news and resources about South Asia.