Minutes of the Meeting Spring 2003
Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, New York, NY
Thursday, 27 March 2003 11 am-3 pm
Mercury Rotunda Room, New York Hilton
Submitted by Andrea Singer
These Minutes approved on 23 October 2003, Madison, Wisconsin
I. Attendees:
Catherine Lee (UCLA), Merry Burlingham (UT Austin), David Magier
(Columbia), Usha Bhasker (NYPL), Bindu Bhatt (Columbia), Gerald Hall
(DSAL, CRL), Allen Thrasher (LC), David Nelson (Penn), Andrea Singer
(Indiana), Rebecca Manring (Indiana), Jim Armstrong (LC), Philip
McEldowney (U of Virginia), James Simon (CRL), Bronwen Bledsoe (U of
Chicago), Edward Minor (Iowa), Rajwant Chilana (U of Illinois), Gene
Smith (Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center), Fehl Cannon (LC), Judy
McDermott (LC), Lena Yang (Institute for Advanced Studies of World
Religions), Avinash Maheshwary (Duke and TRLN), Carol Mitchell (LC),
Laila Mulgaokar (LC), Jim Nye (Chicago), Alan Grosenheider (U
Washington), Surya Mittal (D.K. Agencies), Aruna Kuruganti (Columbia,
BAS), Monica Ghosh (U Hawaii), Carolyn Brown (LC), Tim Bryson
(Emory)
II. Round Robin
Attendees reported on their institutions and libraries.
III. Treasurer's Report
Presiding officer Tim Bryson congratulated Mary Rader on the birth of
her baby, and presented the treasurer's report in her absence.
The
balance at the beginning of the year was $913.23, and is now $825.36.
Refreshments were provided for the current meeting, and gifts were given
to Jim Armstrong and Lygia Ballantyne on the occasion of their
departures from the Islamabad and New Delhi field offices of LC
respectively and in recognition of their work on behalf of CONSALD.
IV. Executive Borad Officers.
Tim Bryson (Chair) and Mary Rader (Treasurer), CONSALD's current
officers, agreed to serve an additional year on the Executive Board.
Elections will be held next year.
V. By-Law Changes.
The group considered proposed changes to the By-Laws.
Article IV. Officers and Executive Board was amended to include a
representative of the Center for Research Libraries as a member of the
Executive Board, bringing the total to 10 Executive Board members. The
new wording is as follows:
"An Executive Board of the Committee shall consist of four librarians elected by the membership-at-large, three faculty members appointed by the South Asian Council and three ex-officio librarian members. The ten member Executive Board shall manage the activities of the Committee. … The ex-officio librarian members shall be the editor of the Committee's newsletter, a representative of the Center for Research Libraries, and a representative of the Library of Congress. The Executive Board shall elect from among its own ten members a Chairperson and Secretary for one-year term with the possibility of only one successive re-election." [See By-Laws as of April 2003]
Changes to the By-Law's Article V. Elections and Appointments was postponed until the South Asia Council is consulted about the appointments which they make to the Board. (The proposed change suggested that a single faculty member be appointed. Since faculty input is valued highly, the group agreed that it is appropriate to consult the South Asia Council in the hope of continuing at the currently required level of faculty participation (3), rather than suggesting a reduction in the number of faculty.) [The chair, Tim Bryson subsequently spoke with Martha Selby, the current chair of SAC, and she invited him to present a report to SAC at the next AAS meeting.]
VI. Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (TBRC) Gene
Smith
Gene Smith presented samples of CDs and
bibliographies from the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center. He described
the projects of the Center which include digitizing Tibetan texts which
have survived the Cultural Revolution in China as well as Mongolian
texts. The goal will be to make 12,000 volumes available at an
institutional price of around $96,000. At this time institutions may
purchase CDs and print volumes. In time, institutions may have access to
the entire collection in a password protected domain. The University of
Virginia has added the deep-level cataloging and is also working on
digitizing paintings, biographies, and other material. (See http://tbrc.org)
Gene also invited the group to visit the TBRC at its new home in the
Rubin Museum,
115 5th Ave., New York, NY.
VII. American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS)
David Nelson
David Nelson reported that Brian Spooner of the American Insitute of
Pakistan Studies is interested in hearing ideas for making linkages with
Pakistani librarians, scholars, or vendors in the U.S., since U.S.
scholars and students can not presently go to Pakistan.
Several in the group indicated that mutual benefits might result with
working with colleague librarians and archivists, but that it would be
important to consult with the U.S. Dept. of State about current visa
availability early in planning, since visas to the U.S. are problematic.
Suggestions for the program included having potential participants
propose what they want to achieve, possibly overlapping visits with
conference attendance, or training in microfilming or digitizing. The
Mortenson Center for International Librarianship at the University of
Illinois was suggested as a possible facilitator.
VIII. Library of Congress Report for Islamabad (Jim
Armstrong)
Jim Armstrong (currently in Washington) reported that the Islamabad
Office was functioning normally until last week when the embassy closed.
An exchange agreement with the National Library of Iran had resumed.
Acquisitions and cataloging numbers were down, but now publishers and
vendors have been asked to stop supplying materials. It is possible that
the question of resuming office arrangements in Afghanistan may be
revisited. There is considerable periodical literature and NGO
monographs now in Kabul.
IX. Minutes approval.
Minutes of the last meeting did not include previously suggested
corrections. It was moved, seconded and approved that the minutes be
approved when corrected.
X. Bibliography of Asian Studies (Aruna Kuruganti and
David Magier)
Aruna Kuruganti reported on indexing South Asian material for the
Bibliography of Asian Studies, BAS. She described the history of BAS,
showed record input forms, and described the two priority levels for
indexing materials. She invited CONSALD input for developing
priorities. David Magier announced that BAS has a new administrative
structure and is headed by Frank Conlon. He invited CONSALD to have a
general discussion to influence the BAS processes. Merry Burlingham,
David Magier, and Alan Thatcher agreed to serve as a sub-committee to
develop a proposal to CONSALD for selecting and prioritizing journals
for BAS indexing and cooperative cataloging of analyzed sets.
XI. Universal Library (Alan
Grosenheider)(http://delta.ulib.org/html/index.html)
Alan Grosenheider represented the University of Washington Libraries in
India for the Universal Library Project led by Dr. Raj Reddy of Carnegie
Mellon University. He reported that Indian participants have begun
digitizing materials in South Indian languages including palmleaf
manuscripts, science journals, and, in Hyderabad - everything more than
50 years old. About 20,000 volumes have been digitized as scanned images
thus far. Copyright permissions for new materials have been extensive.
Hard discs are being shipped between the U.S. and India. Although the
model of the project is not for profit, a member of the group had heard
that some Indian libraries are being charged for digitization. Selection
of objects to be digitized is at the discretion of each institution.
XII. Library of Congress Reports (Fehl Cannon, Carol
Mitchell)
Fehl Cannon advised anyone with billing questions to contact him at
James Gentner's numbers or Fehl's email (fcan@loc.gov).
Carol
Mitchell reported on visits to the New Delhi Office by Avinash, Ved,
Alan, and Don. Two new members have established specialized profiles:
the Art Institute of Montreal and Rutgers University (Womens' Studies).
She described ongoing efforts to process large publishers' output
most quickly. Oxford, Rupa, Permanent Black, Seagull, Mapin, and Manohar
are among those being specially handled through all processes.
An
announcement is forthcoming about maps which are now going to be
available as a format apart from the 67 Geography category in the
profile.
She asked about interest in having the office identify
publications by non-resident Indians writing in Indian vernacular
languages.
She also announced that Braille and talking books in
vernacular languages, movies and DVDs, and textbooks from Madrasa
schools and Vedic math textbooks are now available.
Acquisition
trips have been canceled at present.
Fiche are being produced
again.
XIII. Announcements (Tim Bryson)
THURSDAY, 27 March 2003
4:30-5:30 Digital South Asia Library meeting at NYPL Trustees Room (Room 206)
5:30-7:00 AIIS reception at Hilton Petit Trianon Room
7:00-9:30 Dinner at Utsav Restaurant, 1185 Avenue of the Americas.
FRIDAY, 28 March 2003
7-9:00 p.m. South Asia Microform Project meeting Hilton Gramercy A
SATURDAY, 29 March 2003
1-2:30 Asian Librarians Liaison Committee, Mercury Ballroom
2-5 Reception for CONSALD at NYPL's Asian and Middle Eastern Division Newspaper Reading Room (Room 220)
Return to Minutes OR
Last update:
Webbing - Philip
McEldowney, University of Virginia