[INDOLOGY] Suggestions for improving services of Asiatic Society, Kolkata

[Dominik Wujastyk]

The photocopying restrictions at the BL are not arbitrary.  They are based
on the advice of conservationists who try to stop books being handled,
especially by readers who rarely wear gloves, who are not trained in the
handling of rare materials, and who are using photocopy machines that do
not have a proper angled spine-bed to support a book without stressing the
spine.  The issue arises at the BL because even quite rare books are given
to readers to copy for themselves, under the loose supervision of a staff
member.

If you had ordered a microfilm or digital copy of the book, the library
would have sold you the whole thing.  You would have to mortgage your
house, but they would not arbitrarily withhold materials from readers.

I am told that reprography prices are falling substantially at the BL.  At
the Wellcome Library, I recently learned that there is a £100 cap on
single-item orders.

Best,
Dominik


​
--
Professor Dominik Wujastyk <http://ualberta.academia.edu/DominikWujastyk>
​,​

Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity
​,​

Department of History and Classics <http://historyandclassics.ualberta.ca/>
​,​
University of Alberta, Canada
​.​

South Asia at the U of A:

​sas.ualberta.ca​
​​


On 16 February 2018 at 22:11, jmdelire via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Very strange, indeed,
>
> I visited the Asiatic Society in 2009 and received everything I ordered
> 100%.
> On the other hand, there are libraries outside of India which have this
> policy : the department of the British Library which was anciently the
> India Office Library prevented me, some years ago, to take a complete
> xeroxcopy of Garrett and Guleri's The Jaipur Observatory and its Builder. I
> was authorized to copy something between a third and a half (I don't
> exactly remember) so that I had to do it in two or three visits. Very
> convenient.
>
> Best,
>
> J.M.Delire
>
> Le 17.02.2018 01:36, Dominik Wujastyk via INDOLOGY a écrit :
>
>> Dear Deepro,
>>
>> I did not know about the AS's "30%" rule.  Administrative slowness is
>> one thing, but the 30% rule is simply unacceptable.  No professional
>> library outside India has such a policy, as far as I know.  And it is
>> clearly an attack on academic freedom.  The 30% rule prevents the
>> true growth of knowledge, which has always been the main mission of
>> the Asiatic Society.
>>
>> The managers of the AS need to understand that their manuscripts only
>> have value when a scholar studies them.  If they lie unread on the
>> shelf, they are dead.  The super-human efforts made by the great
>> pandits and manuscript scribes of the past to pass their wisdom to us
>> today is being blocked by this unacceptable limitation.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Dominik
>>
>> ​--
>>
>> Professor Dominik Wujastyk [2]
>> ​,​
>> Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity
>> ​,​
>>
>> Department of History and Classics [3]
>> ​,​University of Alberta, Canada
>> ​.​
>>
>> South Asia at the U of A:
>>  ​sas.ualberta.ca​ [4]
>>
>> ​​
>>
>> On 16 February 2018 at 03:06, Deepro Chakraborty via INDOLOGY
>> <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>
>> Thank you so much for sharing your experience with me. I will convey
>>> these concerns to the authority. Let's hope for the best.
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>> Deepro.
>>>
>>> On Mon, Feb 12, 2018 at 8:48 PM, Deepro Chakraborty
>>> <chakrabortydeepro at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello All,
>>>>
>>>> I was informally asked to give some suggestions for an upgrade of
>>>> the services of the Asiatic Society, Kolkata. I never visited
>>>> their library and did not have any experience of collecting copies
>>>> of manuscript materials from this institute. Some of my friends
>>>> who were looking for manuscripts in this institute had pathetic
>>>> experiences.
>>>>
>>>> The conditions of these south Asian libraries are often similar.
>>>> Therefore, some general suggestions would also be useful.
>>>>
>>>> If you have any suggestion for improving their services I would be
>>>> glad to forward your message (it can be anonymous if you want) to
>>>> the authority.
>>>>
>>>> Sincerely,
>>>> Deepro Chakraborty
>>>> PhD candidate
>>>> Department of History and Classics,
>>>> University of Alberta.
>>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> Links:
>> ------
>> [1] http://listinfo.indology.info
>> [2] http://ualberta.academia.edu/DominikWujastyk
>> [3] http://historyandclassics.ualberta.ca/
>> [4] http://sas.ualberta.ca/
>>
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