Help save the Kern Institute Library

[Anna A. Slaczka]

(sorry for crossposting)

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It is yet another cry for help - we've seen so many of them during the last few years. Please, see the letter of my colleague Dr. Ellen Raven of the Leiden University attached below.

Open and easy access to 'special collections' of manuscripts and microfilms and the possibility just to browse among the shelves of a library are invaluable for students and researchers alike.

This appeal may not help. In fact, there is a great chance it will not. But we should give it a try.

Anna Slaczka
Leiden




This is an urgent appeal for your help


Leiden, August 15, 2008

To colleagues, library visitors and friends of the Kern Institute,

The Leiden University’s Faculty of Arts is presently carrying out a major reorganization of its Department of Asian Studies. The plan proposes a system in which the various subdepartments (including that for South Asia and Tibet) will merge into an Institute of Area Studies. In the new concept India will be included as a regional area, but Indology and Tibetology will no longer exist as independent departments for education and research.

Part of the ongoing changes are plans to dismantle the Institute Kern Library. Many of you have made use of its open-stacks while visiting the library.. Since its foundation in 1925 this form of storage has offered optimum accessibility to the almost unparalleled collection of  monographs and journals on ‘every’ aspect of South Asia. In the plans the Kern Institute books and journals will become part of a larger library, however, only offering semi-closed stacks facilities.

The plans not only entail closed storage of the books and journals, but also the dividing up the collections. Next to books and journals, the Kern Institute library holds important Tibetan block prints and Indian palm leaf manuscripts and rich collections of archaeological and art historical photographs, slides, microfilms and microfiches. These special collections have always been available for integrated research to students and scholars from all parts of the world. In the plans these special collections are to be moved to the University Library, to be stored in special vaults. Access will thence only be available via application through a digital catalogue (which makes effective browsing practically impossible and excludes direct access)..

The association ‘Friends of the Kern Institute’ evolved from the original Kern Institute founded by Prof. J.Ph. Vogel in 1925. The association has requested the University to safeguard the uniqueness of the Kern Institute Library and its open-stacks policy, but so far without lasting positive results.

We now turn to you for support and urge you to send a letter (by mail to the head librarian, d.heilijgers at let.leidenuniv.nl) or by snail mail to the Kern Institute Library, Dept. of India and Tibet, POB 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands, preferably to reach before August 31, 2008. The letter is to be addressed to: The Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Leiden University, Prof. W. van den Doel, POB 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.

In your letter please emphasize the importance of the Kern Institute Library as an unique deposit of scholarship in the multidiscipline of Indology. Throughout the years easy access and a helpful staff have served a multitude of international scholars. Help us to keep this service available and this centre visible! Thank you in advance for your support,

 
Ellen M. Raven
Chairman, Friends of the Kern Institute