1. Digitizing.

Pilot Project to digitize excerpts from the recordings has started. Will probably be mounted at the Asian Division Web Page, under the name of "South Asian Literary Recordings Project". M/B/RS will catalog the tapes and put a link on the MARC record to the recording on the web.

2. SCINS Implemented

Our new serials check-in system was implemented on December 26, 2000. Conversion from the old automated list (the one on Chicago's site, which is out of date) and the manual visible file will be gradual. Problems encountered so far have been for the most part of a minor nature, mostly along the lines of "Can we have this or that in this screen or that?": afterthoughts about design or presentation of data. As issues come through the door, information on the titles is updated, completed, and entered in the new system. We estimate it will take about a year to cover all active titles. This is the main reason why we are still not in a position to give participants a full and up-to-date list of titles we supply them. So far, 1406 titles have been entered completely, which includes 37 new titles (not entered in the previous automated list) and 1369 records transferred from the old database. These are the titles that are already being checked in SCINS. We estimate there are about 9,600 active titles. The Systems office has completed developing a web interface and search engine for SCINS. [SAMPLE] We need one piece of hardware for the LAN before we can show it to staff in Washington first. The database is currently a test database mounted on a server in the office, and access will probably be via a local domain name as well as linked from our main loc.gov site address. This is the same model already available from the Jakarta office. Updates of the database will be done by transferring data from the live system to the web version.

3. Pamphlet Collections Database Implemented on the office LAN.

This software was implemented in July 2000. Since then, it was demonstrated at the Field Directors' Conference with the result that other offices have decided to use it to manage their own pamphlets and to create microfiched collections. Cairo already started entering Armenian pamphlets using the system. Islamabad will be trained in its use next month. The African and Middle Eastern Division wants to use it to organize its own vertical files for microfiching, with Cairo's assistance. A copy of the database is now placed at the South Asian Division in Washington, and our staff is now working on a web interface for the system, and a search engine.

4. Proposed Change in Handling Participant Copies.

This is a change suggested by Alan Grosenheider during his visit to the office which we believe will benefit participants and help alleviate our space problem on the 5th floor, where our Receiving and Shipping Sections are. We propose to ship the participant copy as soon as it is received in the office, and not wait for the full cataloging record, to be completed, edited and ready to be uploaded to the ILS. We will distribute the participant copy with whatever record is ready at the time the additional copies are received. This may be a full record, or, more probably, the preliminary record. This has a title and statement of authorship, imprint and collation, but no main entry nor subject work. It will have the LCCN to use in searching the title in the OCLC catalog, as well as an unedited annotation used to justify selection internally. However, we will mark the books for which the additional copies have been received to be given priority in cataloging, so that by the time the books arrive at your doors, they will have complete cataloging in OCLC. Preliminary studies indicate that by the time the participant copy is received, most books have already been cataloged anyway. We believe the new system will speed the shipping of English language publications from the major publishers, as these are usually bound, and received promptly after ordering.

5. Audit Recommendation.

The Office has been working to comply with an audit recommendation made to the Cairo Office, namely, that we prepare written procedures or operations manual. This must be inclusive of all activities in the office. We will use the Internet to mount our procedures manual, as LC and so many other libraries do. Access will be restricted to LC staff, however. At this point, we have pretty much developed an outline for the "management, financial, and systems" portion of the manual. Still in development is the "Selection, Acquisition, Cataloging, Microforms" portion.We expect this exercise to be done over a period of at least a year or more, as there is a lot of writing and reviewing to be done.

6. Acquisitions

Delhi visits.

Trip to the Mahakhumb Mela by the Telugu selector resulted in the acquisition of a considerable number of pamphlets and cassettes on Hindutva. New Quality publisher in India: "Permanent Black", founded by editors from Oxford. Co-publications with foreign publishers, paperbacks, and took over the Subaltern Studies series from Oxford. Sangini, a newsletter issued by a Lesbian and Bisexual women's help group in Delhi, is the first that comes to our attention on the subject. We will try to obtain and include in one of the pamphlet collections, but if interested, we can circularize and place subscriptions. I have a sample for your review. Acquisitions figures for LC (which can be used to estimate total receipts) at half year show a 12% decline in the number of Indian titles received from dealers (888 fewer new titles submitted on approval) and a 33% increase in the number of Indian titles rejected by the office. A look at IODA figures for participants, however, show no significant decline in the major subject categories in the Indian English profile we have reviewed for you last year. This may be because we cleared our backlogs accumulated last year. Would participants be interested in a comprehensive list of Indian newspapers compiled by the Embassy Press section with data mostly available from published sources, but with their analysis of where the papers stand on coverage of and position regarding the issues of interest to the USG. Would it be worthwhile to establish a separate profile category for maps, rather than grouping maps in Geography? We circularize expensive sets anyway, but do all libraries which signed up for Geography want maps?Would participants be interested in exhibit catalogs of individual shows? We usually acquire and catalog substantive exhibit catalogs of collectives or of major artists, but would the smaller, individual exhibit catalog also be of interest? Many interesting catalogs are coming out of Bangladesh.

Lygia Ballantyne
16 March 2001

Last update -
Webbing - Philip McEldowney, University of Virginia