Go Sher

Resources of 2011 from selected journals

2011-12-13T13:42:00.000-08:00

biblio cover Sp/Oc 2011

Tis the season again - here we are at the end of the Fall semester 2011. Ready for the break - winding down, finishing up, and off to recharge and refresh, to get ready for the second semester.


IESHR

I've been looking at different journals and collecting a bibliography, mostly of 2011 articles, which I find interesting and which others might also.

Click on this link
Resources on South Asia - December 2011
This also lists the 2011 Sp/Oct Biblio's 10 review articles on Indian Cinema and Music

Some are just of my own personal interest (puppetry, Bastar area, graphic novels, etc), and some are what I know some of you may be interested in - cinema, Urdu, cities, Bengal, Bihar, etc.

So, have a quick look to see if there's anything which you might also be interested in.


seminar

Most of the articles are from the Economic and Political Weekly, then some from the Indian Social and Economic History Review, with a couple from Seminar, Biblio, and other resources.

We also recently received a shipment of several boxes with some titles which we will be adding and which may be of interest to you --

biblio

New books - 2011 South Asia through Worldcat

Let me know if you need any assistance accessing these books or articles, or any other resources.


worldcat

Exploring a potential donation to the library [mid November 2011]

2011-11-22T11:56:00.000-08:00

Two of us University of Virginia librarians arranged a meeting with a donor to explore, examine, and discuss the possibilities of a gift of Persian language materials from him which would be added and enhance our library collection. We held the meeting in mid-November 2011. It was an interesting and pleasant exchange of information and ideas - a learning experience for all. Hope that we may work it out in the future.

Here's some photos of the titles under consideration and our meeting.

Describing

Two title pages

Enjoying discussing the book as artifact

14 titles

New DVDs in Kannada language - 31

2011-11-22T10:58:00.000-08:00

We recently received 31 DVDs in Kannada language, motion pictures. Most have English subtitles and are considered some of the best in recent years. They will be added to our UVa library collection and available through Clemons Library Media Center

Have a look through a listing of them at
http://bit.ly/kannadadvds

Here's a photo of some of them

Kannada DVDs

Graduate Student Spaces in Alderman Library

2011-08-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

To the University of Virginia graduate students from the University Libraries, 19 August 2011:

Check out the new Alderman Library Graduate Student Reading Room which will officially open on Monday, August 22^nd!

The Grad Reading Room occupies the former Interlibrary Loan office on the 3^rd floor between the 3Old Stacks and the 3East Reading Room (Maps/Microforms).

The space contains two 4-seat study tables, three individual study tables, a number of comfortable chairs, and laptop tables. Shelves along the walls will be assigned to interested grad students and lockers are available for short term storage needs. Contact Warner Granade (granade@virginia.edu) if you are interested in shelf space. Locker keys will circulate from the service desk in the 3^rd Floor Central Reading Room.

The Graduate Student Conference Room (Room 310) is located at the back of the Grad Reading Room.

The Grad Conference Room will be reserved for Library use until 1pm. After 1pm and on weekends it is available for reservation by graduate students only. Small study groups or presentations, single office hours, and other meetings are welcome to reserve this space. We cannot accept long-term or multiple bookings. The Grad Conference Room can be entered via the Grad Student Reading Room or the 3New Stacks. For larger meetings please ask attendees to enter via the 3New Stacks entrance.

For more information on the room and to reserve the Grad Conference Room please see the Graduate Student Reading Room guide. This space is for graduate students and their guests only. All grad students are welcome, regardless of school or college. Signs on the doors – from the 3East Reading Room and the 3Old Stacks - will indicate that the room is reserved for graduate student use.

This is your space in Alderman Library. Please use and enjoy it!

Click here for a little video on the graduate student rooms.

Non-English pamphlets

2011-07-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

Non-English pamphlets from South Asia, dating around 1960s to the mid-1980s - are these treasures or trash - should they be added to a library or discarded?

25 boxes of non-English pamphlets

After reviewing a large number of "PL 480" pamphlets, around 25 boxes of them have been identified as non-English pamphlets, each containing around 45-50 pamphlets or an estimate of around 1200 pamphlets.

The difficulty is identifying each of the pamphlets - their titles, and possibly their authors, publishers, and maybe date, because they are in several different languages, using several different scripts and alphabets. About 60% of them are in Hindi, Urdu, or Bengali. A considerable number of them (maybe 30%) seem to be in South Indian or Sri Lankan languages, such as Tamil, Sinhalese, Kanada, Telegu, Malayalam, etc. And a remaining number (about 10%) are in other South Asian language - Marathi, Assamese, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Rajasthani, etc.

Do other libraries have these? A recent (June 2011) visit to Duke University indicates that they have about 4 shelves of uncataloged non-English pamphlets. They are in the languages which Duke has taught in the past - mainly Hindi and Urdu and mainly dating from the late 1970s or the 1980s and afterwords. Duke has cataloged, listed or inventoried around 7,500 English pamphlets, but they are mostly from the late 1970s and after. There may be some duplication of non-English pamphlets in the microfilm sets of emphemera processed in Delhi since 1986, and held at the Library of Congress in DC or at the Center for Research Languages. But it is hard to tell if the 1200 pamphlets presently at the University of Virginia are duplicates or unique, since they have not been identified yet and appear to be mainly before the 1986 microfilming. Certainly Duke may have some duplicates of Hindi and Urdu among its uncataloged shelves of pamphlets, but our estimate is that 90% of these non-English materials in the the 7 or 8 Indian languages at the UVa are not duplicated nor held at other institutions or libraries. The other possibility is that some or all of these English and non-English pamphlets may be uncataloged and unprocessed in the old "Maureen Patterson" file cabinets at the University of Chicago, but that possibiity has not yet been investigated or confirmed.

Multiple languages thus is a challenge, especially if there is a desire or need to identify and add these pamphlets to a library or institution's holdings. There are only 3 or 4 libraries or institutions in the world which might be able to handle all or most of these languages for purposes of identifying their titles, subjects, and content.

Tamil, Sinhalese, or ??

At the University of Virginia, we have only basic knowledge of Hindi and Urdu, but especially are unable to deal with even simple identifications of materials in other languages. Such as what is the language of the journal or series in the photo to the right here. Are they in Tamil or Sinhalese, or some other language? Are the 27 issues of this journal or series a treasure or trash - are they unique and rare enough, or valuable enough, for someone to spend time identifying them, and then cataloging them, and finally adding and holding them in their collection?

Here are two other 'composite' photos which are samples of non-English pamphlet materials, some of them are in Hindi, one in Bengali, and some in Urdu. The second is a photo of 9 small Urdu pamphlets (part of a set of 23) at the size of 11 x 13 cm (about 7 or 8 pages each), with the overall title of "quran roshni hai"

Urdu

Might the identification, evaluation, and decisions to add (or not) these non-English pamphlets be taken up as part of a long-term (several years) project to gradually process these 1200 non-English South Asian pamphlets? Where might we apply for a grant for this project? It might be worked on in stages with trained persons knowing Hindi, Urdu, or Bengali first to go through the set and identify and add them to a collection; and then gradually bring in experts in other languages to process the remaining pamphlets. Possible places where these might be housed for the processing of these might be the Library of Congress in Washington, DC or shipping them back to the New Delhi Office, or in Chicago at the University there or at the Center for Research Libraries (though CRL policy is not to handle this type of material), or some other place.

The University of Virginia would love to handle this process for these non-English pamphlets, but we have none of the language expertise to handle them, nor the personnel or funds, nor future space to house them. So, we need suggestions of how to distribute or ship or dispose of these items. We would be glad to hear from you.

Bengali new books July 2011

2011-07-16T22:29:00.000-07:00

Another shipment of books arrived in Alderman Library (U of Virginia) from the Library of Congress, New Delhi, India. It included a variety of books in Bengali language. Have a look at the list of the recent arrivals.

Covers of Bengali books July 2011

http://bit.ly/bengali2011b
These books include novels, poetry, satire, criticism such as of Rabindranth Tagore, philology, and one book of a "collection of stories on the anti-globalization movement among the peasantry and political conditioins in Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal, India."

and here's the larger list of Bengali books that have arrived this year (2011) so far.
http://bit.ly/bengali2011

South Asia Collections as of March 2011

2011-03-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

South Asia Collections as of March 2011

Here is a sampling and lists of the University of Virginia collections of South Asian materials as of March 2011, including Bengali books (41) and videos (24), Urdu (44) and Hindi (126) books including translations of all of the Hairi Potara = Harry Potter books (7), the Dalai Lama talking on Buddhism in 6 sets of videos, some outstanding South Asia books, videos of Indian writers and artists (22 about 30 minutes each), how different writers have translated stories from Indian languages into English (7), and talking books, ie audio CDs of Indian writings (20).

Bengali videos (24) acquired during 2010
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/1742977
Bengali books (41) acquired during 2010
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/2227020

Urdu books (44) acquired during 2010
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/1743756

Hindi books (126) acquired during 2010
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/1743757
Such as Hairi Pottara = Harry Potter - translated into Hindi (7)
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/1585009

The Dalai Lama presents talks on various aspects of Tibetan Buddhism on DVD (6)
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/2194760

South Asia books (30) acquired during November 2010
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/2136901
Such as A) Handbook of Muslims in India (2010)
http://www.worldcat.org/title/handbook-of-muslims-in-india-empirical-and-policy-perspectives/oclc/502401151?referer=list_view
and B) Towards freedom : documents on the movement for independence in India. 1941
http://www.worldcat.org/title/towards-freedom-documents-on-the-movement-for-independence-in-india-1941/oclc/609106660?referer=list_view

Writers from India - videos (22)
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/2183740

Translators of Indian literature (7) Examples of 7 stories translated by different writers
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/1881137

Talking books from India 2009 (20)
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/962803
Talking book such as Nirmala : upanyasa by Premchand
http://www.worldcat.org/title/nirmala-upanyasa/oclc/425293771

Please feel free to contact me if you have some suggestions or any comments or questions about South Asia library materials. Philip McEldowney at pm9k@virginia.edu

Asian Studies Room Open House and South Asia recent Acquisitions

2011-03-17T10:26:00.000-07:00

Everyone is invited to the Open House for the newly rennovated Asian Studies Room on the Second Floor of Alderman Library, from 4-6 pm tomorrow, Friday, the 18th of March 2011.

Details of the invitation are:"The Asian Studies Room has been created in the former Barrett Room on the second floor of Alderman Library. The room has been refurnished to provide a reading room and home for the University Library’s current and future Asian and Buddhist studies collections. Changes to the room include the exposure of two windows to allow natural light, upgrades to electrical access, and new furniture and carpet. Existing glass-front shelving has been left in place to house Asian Studies reference material and current periodicals. The offices of the Library’s subject specialists for Tibetan, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and South Asian Studies are located adjacent to the room. In addition to supporting the Asian Studies programs at the University, the room offers students a beautiful new quiet study space adjacent to the popular McGregor Room.

"No RSVP is required for the open house. This event is open to all; please feel free to distribute the attached flier. Hope to see you there!"

South Asia items highlighted and on display at this event will be the Reference South Asia atlas by J. Schwartzberg, 3 Bengali language DVDs, 3 Urdu books, a Hindi translation of a Hairi Potara = Harry Potter book, a 3-DVD set of talks by the Dalai Lama, and two DVDs of 30-minute interviews of India artists and writers.

Please join us and have a look at these selected South Asia items.

Here are some further details.

1. Reference book – An atlas.
Students pour over this atlas at the beginning of each semester in order to complete their map exercise. There is also a copy in Clemons. Joseph E Schwartzberg’s A historical atlas of South Asia (1992). G2261 .S1 H5 1992. An online copy at the Digital South Asia Library is nice, but so far is difficult to navigate.

2. Bengali DVDs and books.The library is developing and adding to its collection of Bengali books – fiction and non-fiction as well as DVDs. Here is a sample of three DVDs.
Here's a list of 24 Bengali videos acquire during 2010http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/1742977

3. Urdu books and materials.The library also has a large number of Urdu books – fiction and non-fiction as well as DVDs and CDs. Included here are two books by Shamsur Rahman Faruqi – one his novel Kai chand the sur-I asman = There were many moons in the sky (2006), and the other his critical essays on 20th century Urdu literature Sura va mani-yi sukhan (2010). He also has a short story in the popular Oxford India Anthology of Modern Urdu Literature (2008), edited by University of Virginia professor Mehr Afshan Farooqi.

Here's more - a list of Urdu books (44) acquired during 2010
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/1743756

4. Hindi books, CDs, DVDs.The library has a large number of Hindi books – fiction and non-fiction, as well as a considerable number of DVDs and CDs. This is the first in the 7 book series of translated versions of the Hairi Potara or Harry Potter books. Hairi Potara aura parasa patthara = Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone (2003).

This is a list of the 7 Hairi Pottara = Harry Potter books translated into Hindi
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/1585009
Also here is a list of 126 Hindi books acquired during 2010
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/1743757

5.Tibetan DVDs.The library has several collections of DVDs on different aspects of Tibetan Buddhism, some in English and others in Tibetan. This is a 3-DVD set of the Dalai Lama explaining many of the basic ideas of Buddhism, The awakening mind of Nagarjuna (2008).

Sets of 6 DVDs in which the Dalai Lama presents talks on various aspects of Tibetan Buddhism
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/2194760

6. Videos of leading South Asian writers by the Sahitya Akademi.These VCDs or videos are on more than 22 writers and artists of India, lasting about 30 minutes each, created and produced by the Sahitya Akademi. Here are two – one on artist Mulk Raj Anand (2006. DVD12171) and the other on the popular writer Khushwant Singh (200-. DVD13733).

Videos (22) on the writers from India
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/2183740

Hope to see you at the Open House, and even if you cannot make it for that event, please feel free to come to the Asian Studies Room, check it out and use it as a research, study, or writing space.

More photos are available at the Picasa album - Asian Studies Room Renovations 2010-
https://picasaweb.google.com/philipmc59/AsianStudiesRoomRenovations2010#
To view the renovated space looks like, see this photo and click forward
For the Open House start with this photo and click forward

South Asia Ephemera Collection

2010-09-06T09:16:00.000-07:00

Color

The "South Asia Ephemera Collection" is a very valuable and rich resource for researchers in the area, providing government and organizational pamphlets on almost any topic ranging from social and political events, movements, information, and ideas, as well as language, linguistics, music, film, festivals, religious groups and leaders. The focus is on the 1970s and 80s and India, but pamphlets continue to be collected in to the 21st century and also cover Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka.

[Important update on the 6th of June 2011. There are two major sources for South Asia ephemera or pamphlets- Library of Congress database and Duke University Inventory of South Asian Pamphlets Collection. The Duke Collection covers 7500 English pamphlets from 1920-2005, while the LC database consists of 1851 sets of topical grouped titles, dating mainly from 1986. There is some overlap, and there are gaps held by neither. The Duke collection lacks non-English materials and a small number of English materials, and the LC database has hardly any pre-1986 materials. How to remedy these gaps?]

Most of these ephemera or pamphlets have been microfilmed and are available from the Library of Congress or / and the Center for Research Libraries. The microforms are organized in 1851 sets - each set contains around 10-20 pamphlets on the topic of the title and lists a table of contents of pamphlet titles arranged alphabetically.

The New Delhi Library of Congress has a database for the ephemeral publications they have produced on microfiche. You can search for the microfiched titles in that database
http://www.locdelhi.org/PCSNEW.aspx

As an example, here is a search result from
"Castes in India, Part 1":
http://www.locdelhi.org/pcsnewdetail.aspx?tid=292&partno=1

Also the Center for Research Libraries scans content from LC fiche in response to scholar requests. An example can be seen here:
http://catalog.crl.edu/record=b1990421~S5

Here are two documents on this 1) A short bilbiography and 2) a spreadsheet with further information

1) To see a sample list of titles, click
RefWorks version http://bit.ly/SAephemera
or PDF http://bit.ly/SAepehmPDF
or WorldCat SA Ephemera References

2) Here is a spreadsheet with further information
PDF - OCLC spreadsheet

What might we do to further enhance access and use of this collection? Perhaps 1) digitize the pamphlets and 2) catalog the individual pamphlet titles.

1) Digitization of the original pamphets might add considerable valuable and provide ready access. Many of the documents are in color or contain photographs - the black and white microform versions of these pamphlets are often difficulty to read without color. Furthermore many researchers dislike using microforms and find searching and reading them to be very difficult. On the other hand, regularized digitization procedures and projects are more readily available in 2010 than ever before.

2) Cataloging the titles would further enhance access to the pamphlets in this large collection. Already the microform sets contain table of contents of the alphabetized titles. It would be a matter of making a searchable master list tied to the microform sets. If the collection was digitized, those titles could also be linked to the master list or cataloged separately.

Both projects (digitization and cataloging) may take a considerable amount of time and efforts from several library staff members. If anyone has sugguests or proposals for these projects, please let us know.

Summertime 2010

2010-06-17T11:51:00.000-07:00

Summertime ahead, the academic year of 2009-210 behind, and the new academic year of 2010-2011 bekons ahead.

Topics: Asian Studies Room renovation, new South Asia books and videos, preparing for Fall, possible projects.

The Asian Studies Room on Alderman's second floor is under renovation during the summer, with new chairs, tables, rugs, and visible windows in place soon after the start of the Fall semester. The library worked hard to obtain funds for the new room, Reference and journals and newspapers have been temporarily relocated, and even Nawang is up on the 5th floor during this construction. We look forward to a fantastic study and research space for our Asian scholars.

Meanwhile new South Asia books and videos have arrived and have been added to the library collections. Summertime is a perfect time to check out and sample some of these new acquisitions. For the language students, there are Hindi versions of the Harry Potter books. We have started to receive and add Bengali books and videos.
Have a look at these lists of materials.

In preparing for fall calsses and the new academic year, consider a session introducing new students or students in one of your courses to the library resources; just let me know and we will arrange a 40 or more minute session focused on your students interests and the available library resources.

Possible projects for the coming year - editing the videos of the 2009 September UrduFest for online display, reworking the sound and video files of South Asia Paige Barbour lectures, and developing a way to enhance Tibetan and other titles to enable researchers to search for and discover print and digital sources.

Enjoy the summer, let me or others know of your library needs, and particularly if you want any sessions introducting library resources.

Asian Studies Room - where? January 2010

2010-01-10T15:19:00.000-08:00

The Asian Studies Room - where is it? Answer: in Alderman Library, 2nd Floor, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia.

Come study and do research on Asian topics, with the convenience of ready access to Asian Reference materials, magazines, journals, and newspapers in one location. The materials deal with many topics of the Asian area: South Asia, East Asia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Korea, etc. The Library will continue work to improve the Room in the coming months.

See this three-minute video leading you on a trip from Alderman's 4th floor to the Second floor and to the Asian Studies Room area.

Library Resources Fall 2009 UVa

2009-09-23T21:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome to a new academic year! Hope all goes well. Let me know if I or the library may be a help in any way.

Here's some further information about
1. Subject Library Guides
2. Online Journals
3. Books
4. the Asian Studies Room in Alderman Library

1. The main Library Guide for South Asian studies is
http://guides.lib.virginia.edu/southasia
It is pretty basic and sparse so far, and I welcome you to look at it and make any suggestions of what to add there - links, information, news, etc.
Some other Guides are for Urdu, as well as South Asian History and specifically for class on the history of the Partition of India. Guides for Hindi and Persian will be developed in the future.

2. Online Journals. We have recently revived our online subscription for the Economic and Political Weekly. If you are logged in to UVa's online access, you may search and see full-text any EPW article from 1999 to the present. Full-text of various Indian newspapers and of the India Today magazine are available through Lexis/Nexis. You are probably aware of how to access online magazines such as Seminar and newspapers such as the Telegraph, which don't need authentication for online access.

3. Books. A large number of books arrived during the first 8 months of 2009. Two lists of (A) English books (B) of 2009 cover a large number of topics of food, art, history (1857 and partition), politics, anthropology, etc There are also a lists of recently received Persian language, and Hindi and Urdu language books

4. Asian Studies Room in Alderman. We are continuing to remodel, improve, and add to the Asian Studies Room on the Second floor of Alderman Library. Recently East Asian and South Asian Reference materials have been moved from the 4th floor and added to the Asian Studies Room. We are also moving Asian current periodicals, journals, and newspapers to the room at the entrance to the Asian Studies Room. We are planning for adding some appropriate art works to the AS Room. Two computers will be added to the Room. Come by and see the developments of the Asian Studies Room. We hope that Asian reference, journals, newspapers, and wall art will be available by mid-November 2009 or so. We encourage students and faculty to enjoy the Asian Studies Room as a center for research and study.

Please feel free to leave public comments on this blog (below), or to contact me [pm9k at virginia.edu] or other librarians about any questions, comments, or suggestions you may have.

I hope you may have been able to attend some of the Workshop on North Indian Vernaculars (18-19 September 2009). Here are some photos.

My previous Go Sher blog (August 2009) was about videos - have a look at it, if you have not seen it as yet.

South Asia videos, talking books, music on dvds

2009-08-28T00:49:00.000-07:00

A large number of media arrived in Alderman Library at the University of Virginia during the summer of 2009 and will be cataloged in the coming month or two. They include

motion picture videos on DVD
documentaries on DVD and VCD
music on DVD and VCD
and finally 'talking books'

The motion picture videos on DVDs run to about 130, with a little less than half coming from Pakistan, mainly in Urdu and Punjabi languages, while the rest are from India, mostly in Hindi. Few have English sub-titles.

You can find a list of these at worldcat -
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/651077

Each list may be sorted by title, author, newest/oldest, and date added.
If you select 'date added' with oldest first, you will see the Pakistani titles first with the India titles second in the list of 130 South Asia Videos of 2009.

Here are some photos (also at Picasa) of the India DVDs

Secondly, there are a about 60 DVDs and VCDSs which are non-motion pictures, but documentaries, music, and other media on DVDs and VCDs. See the media list at
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/983961

Among these are some DVDs with play dramas of selected Prem Chand stories, two dvds on painters (the one on Rabindranath Tagore's paintings also includes some of his songs in Bengali with English sub-titles) , DVDs on film directors, science DVDs on bamboo, on Afghan women's movements, on Sanskrit manuscripts, and music DVDs.

There are 25 DVDs with music and some on dance, including Bhimsen Joshi, Subbulaksmi, Ustad Bishmillah Khan, Sufiana Qawalis, and Kathak, Odissi, etc. dance, at this list
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/989341

Finally there are 7 "Talking Books" of sound recordings including Ludhiyanvi's Urdu poetry, H. Josi, S. Catopadhyaya, Rajvamsha, and Premchand's fiction, at this list
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/uvalibrary/lists/962803

So, check out this new crop of South Asia media - if you see some things not yet cataloged, send me a request, and I'll see if I can rush them along for you.

Go Sher

2009-08-27T17:53:00.000-07:00

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