Indological series on microfilm

[james nye]

  Both Harvard and Chicago committed to make Indological titles
preserved under their joint grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities available by inter-library loan and purchase at cost-
recovery prices.  Raymond Lum spoke with inter-library loan staff at
Harvard last week and received their assurances that the titles would
be loaned according to provisions in effect between Harvard and other
academic libraries.  Inclusion of the "Harvard Depository Film" number
for titles requested will speed the delivery.  Those numbers can be
found on the Harvard on-line catalog under the heading "LOCATION" in a
record.  The numbers usually have a prefix of "Film W".
  Titles are also available from Chicago through inter-library loan.
Service of these requests will be improved if the call number from our
on-line catalog is included.
  Both individuals and institutions are welcome to purchase copies of
Indological series microfilm.  The film is priced on a cost-recovery
basis.  For Harvard, it is vital to include the "Master Microforms"
number, found under "LOCATION" in the on-line records.  The master
negative number for titles microfilmed at Chicago is found in on-line
records within parenthesis in a note field following the statement
"Microfilm. Chicago : University of Chicago Library, 1990. 1 microfilm
reel ; 5 in., 35 mm."
  At present, the easiest way to explore the publications in any
particular series is to conduct a search by series on the Harvard or
Chicago catalog.  In the future, I intend to produce a short-title
catalog for titles filmed, including master negative microfilm
numbers.  This will be available as an electronic file and also on
microfiche.

  A few more general notes on the NEH preservation project may be of
interest.  The Indological series encompassed were all published in
South Asia.  And, only titles with imprints prior to 1957, the date of
the copyright act of India, were included.  Within the larger domain
of nearly 1,200 series in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Pali fitting that
description, 182 were identified as having the greatest importance for
scholarship.  Those series were selected with assistance from a panel
of eight scholars.  After a series was chosen for preservation action
we systematically filmed each title, occasionally contracting for
microfilming by other libraries to fill in gaps in the Chicago and
Harvard collections.  In addition to preservation, increasing
availability of these important and often rare editions was a major
motivation in our undertaking the project.

On December 19, Jonathan Silk wrote:

> James Nye very kindly pointed Lars Martin Fosse, myself and interested
> others to the list on the South Asia Gopher of microfilmed materials.  I
> have downloaded this material, and now hope Mr. Nye will kindly help us:
> When I checked the computer databases, the notation for Harvard's holdings
> indicated that they will not loan the material.  Now, are we to understand
> Mr. Nye's note at the head of the list as indicating that although they
> will not LOAN material they will copy it and sell the copies?  May we order
> privately, or must / should we go through our library?  I am sure others
> besides myself would appreciate this information.  (Many extremely rare
> materials seem to be available.  However, only series entries are given,
> not individual titles, so presumably the patron must provide the details of
> the desired volume(s).  Is there a database that lists the contents of such
> series?!)