[INDOLOGY] Re: Fwd: Petition: Save the South/Southeast Asia Library at UC Berkeley

Mon Mar 29 02:21:52 UTC 2021

Would it be possible for someone senior at Berkeley to communicate to the
managers of the SA library at Berkeley the experience of scholars at Leiden
and Utrecht and Oxford and what was lost by the changes?  This would
include (at least) information on the social factors about meeting-spaces,
about the importance of serendipity as a form of knowledge-discovery and
about the identity-formation of a research field.

The Ithaka foundation <https://www.ithaka.org/> - the people behind JSTOR -
regularly produce influential reports to the academic library world.
Perhaps they would be willing to look into this issue in a serious way?
Perhaps they have already thought about this issue?

I happened to be a fellow at the IIAS in Leiden during the last year of the
Kern Library's existence.  It was a wonder.  The most fabulous place to do
research.

At my university, we've never had a distinct SA collection.  But all the
main stacks are open access, which really helps discovery, and they have
tables and chairs in them to encourage working near the collections.  It's
not the same as the Kern etc., but it helps a bit.

Best,
Dominik

On Tue, 16 Mar 2021 at 11:03, Jan E.M. Houben <jemhouben at gmail.com> wrote:

> As the examples in Utrecht (ca. 30 years ago) and Leiden (ca. 15 years
> ago) tend to show, it is indeed of utmost importance not to fall into the
> trap of such verbiage and continue fighting against attacks on the direct
> accessibility to research space and tools in our field...
> I do not know details about the main librarians at UC Berkeley but would
> not be surprised if they have never read any of the books they are
> 'managing' (the then general director of the Utrecht library admitted he
> only read comics, and not even good ones...)...
> Jan Houben
>
> On Tue, 16 Mar 2021 at 15:40, Jonathan Silk <kauzeya at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Thank you for sharing this.
>>
>> The same thing happened in Leiden with the forced integration of the Kern
>> Institute library into the main library. Among the losses, most important
>> was the loss of a physical place within which scholars of South Asia could
>> meet. In addition, the library now puts all new publications directly into
>> the closed stacks, in order to "save space". The library is now more like
>> dead storage than a living place, despite the creation of an "Asian
>> Library" which is, however, not freely open to visitors, does not allow
>> good access to the book collections, etc. It's one good way to erode a
>> field as a dynamic entity, and depressing that the verbiage of the UC
>> Berkeley library document shared on the website is nearly identical to that
>> used in Leiden.
>>
>> Jonathan Silk
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 16, 2021 at 3:10 PM Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
>>> From: Jonathan Rodgers <jrodgers at umich.edu>
>>> Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2021 at 06:51
>>> Subject: Petition: Save the South/Southeast Asia Library at UC Berkeley
>>> To: <AmericanOrientalSociety at umich.edu>
>>>
>>>
>>> Save the South/Southeast Asia Library at UC Berkeley
>>> <https://www.change.org/p/uc-berkeley-library-save-the-south-southeast-asia-library-at-uc-berkeley?recruiter=547919927&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial&recruited_by_id=ea89bc50-23a5-11e6-9f0b-57db3a989ab4>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> SIGN THE PETITION HERE
>>> <https://www.change.org/p/uc-berkeley-library-save-the-south-southeast-asia-library-at-uc-berkeley?recruiter=547919927&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial&recruited_by_id=ea89bc50-23a5-11e6-9f0b-57db3a989ab4>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> By signing this petition
>>> <https://www.change.org/p/uc-berkeley-library-save-the-south-southeast-asia-library-at-uc-berkeley?recruiter=547919927&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial&recruited_by_id=ea89bc50-23a5-11e6-9f0b-57db3a989ab4>
>>>  you *reject* the proposed closure of the South/Southeast Asia Library
>>> at 120 Doe Library,* and support* its current location and mission.
>>>
>>> After 50 years in operation, the South/Southeast Asia Library (S/SEAL)
>>> located at 120 Doe Library on campus is at risk of closure to accommodate
>>> office cubicles. Read the proposal: here
>>> <https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/call_for_public_comment_for_south_southeast_asia_library.pdf>
>>> .
>>>
>>> Opened in 1970, the S/SEAL
>>> <https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/libraries/ssea-library> has served as a
>>> window to the world of South and Southeast Asian cultures to promote cross
>>> cultural understanding in the humanities and social sciences. In addition
>>> to its foundational role supporting scholarship of the area, the S/SEAL
>>> serves the community through academic & professional presentations, curated
>>> exhibitions of the collection, library and course orientations, and
>>> fundraising and book launching events to strengthen and promote the
>>> South/Southeast Asian community on the local, national and international
>>> levels. But the primary day-to-day function of the S/SEAL is a *physical
>>> space* for interaction with, and enrichment of, the student body.
>>>
>>> Representing 19 countries with material sourced over decades in 30 plus
>>> languages, the S/SEAL serves as the heart of interdisciplinary scholarship
>>> on campus for some of the world’s oldest, most diverse civilizations
>>> comprising 30% of the world’s population. Located at 120 Doe Library, the
>>> S/SEAL provides a physical space for students to interact with the heritage
>>> of the region and feel at home. For members of our student body who
>>> identify as South and/or Southeast Asian, this is the *only* space on
>>> campus dedicated to the celebration and preservation of both regions'
>>> cultural production. The space has a humble seating capacity of 30+, is
>>> calm and conducive to engagement with the resources, and is curated by the
>>> two South Asia and Southeast Asia librarians. If the space for the S/SEAL
>>> is taken for office cubicles, we lose our *only* place to experience
>>> the region as well as the heart of our collegiality.
>>>
>>> The physical setting of the South/Southeast Asia Library is the* only* library
>>> of its kind in the United States and in the world! It primarily nourishes
>>> the scholars of the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies
>>> <https://sseas.berkeley.edu/> at UC Berkeley (the *only* one of its
>>> kind in the United States). The S/SEAL also supports the goals of the Institute
>>> for South Asia Studies <https://southasia.berkeley.edu/> and the Center
>>> for Southeast Asia Studies <https://ieas.berkeley.edu/centers/cseas>,
>>> who receive Title VI federal funding to support the hosting and training of
>>> regional scholars. The South/Southeast Asia library is wholly unique in its
>>> mission and most importantly *physical space*.
>>>
>>> This attempted erasure of the library's history and heritage is an
>>> assault not only on our academic institutions & centers but also members of
>>> our student body who call this place “home.”
>>>
>>> By signing this petition
>>> <https://www.change.org/p/uc-berkeley-library-save-the-south-southeast-asia-library-at-uc-berkeley?recruiter=547919927&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial&recruited_by_id=ea89bc50-23a5-11e6-9f0b-57db3a989ab4>
>>>  you *reject* the proposed closure of the South/Southeast Asia Library
>>> at 120 Doe Library,* and support* its current location and mission.
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> J. Silk
>> Leiden University
>> Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
>> Matthias de Vrieshof 3, Room 0.05b
>> 2311 BZ Leiden
>> The Netherlands
>>
>> website: www.OpenPhilology.eu
>> copies of my publications may be found at
>> https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/JASilk
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>
>
>
> --
>
> *Jan E.M. Houben*
>
> Directeur d'Études, Professor of South Asian History and Philology
>
> *Sources et histoire de la tradition sanskrite*
>
> École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE, Paris Sciences et Lettres)
>
> *Sciences historiques et philologiques *
>
> Groupe de recherches en études indiennes (EA 2120)
>
> *johannes.houben [at] ephe.psl.eu <johannes.houben at ephe.psl.eu>*
>
> *https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben
> <https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben>*
>
> *https://www.classicalindia.info* <https://www.classicalindia.info>
>
> LabEx Hastec OS 2021 -- *L'Inde Classique* augmentée: construction,
> transmission
>
> et transformations d'un savoir scientifique
>

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