[INDOLOGY] Papers vs files

Tue Nov 5 11:46:00 UTC 2024

I worked in the preservation department at the Regenstein Library at the U. Of Chicago when I was a graduate student (1992-1996). My job was to determine which Sanskrit and Sanskrit related books could be salvaged and which had to be microfilmed and then destroyed. Some were so brittle that one could barely turn a page, much less prepare them for microfilming. I reviewed a number of J. A. B. van Buitenen's books, the  George V. Bobrinskoy Professor of Sanskrit in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations. Several of these had his comments and annotations on a blank leaf, with printed Sanskrit passages on the opposite side. I realized that unless I intervened, these precious pages would not be microfilmed and would be lost forever. I made a case to microfilm these pages and, thanks to James Nye, then Bibliographer for Southern Asia (now retired) those pages were preserved. 

Many of the books had historically interesting "Circulation date due cards” and I collected a few that were signed by Professor Gerow when he was a student at U of C, Alf Hiltebeitel, and even a few of Eliade’s. While there are privacy rules in play now, when there were Circulation date due cards one could trace interesting intellectual lineages and curiosities. 

Deepak Sarma, Ph.D.
deepaksarma.com

Pronouns: they/them/their

Inaugural Distinguished Scholar in the Public Humanities, Case Western Reserve University

Professor of Religious Studies at Case Western Reserve University, College of Arts and Sciences
Professor of Bioethics at Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine (secondary appointment)
President Elect of the Grateful Dead Studies Association
Curatorial Consultant at Cleveland Museum of Art’s Department of Asian Art

Psychedelic Use, Law, and Spiritual Experience (PULSE) Affiliated Researcher
At The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School 

Contact:
Dr. Deepak Sarma
Department of Religious Studies
Tomlinson Hall
2121 Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH 44106-7112
216-368-4790
deepak.sarma at case.edu

> On Nov 5, 2024, at 6:25 AM, Oliver Hellwig via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
> 
> Leaving aside issues with microfilmed material for the moment, I'd find
> such a collection of digital half-finished work extremely valuable. Why
> not set up a github repository and let everybody interested upload their
> material to a separate folder?
> 
> Best, Oliver
> 
> On 05/11/2024 12:18, Jonathan Silk via INDOLOGY wrote:
>> I'm sure others will jump in, but just as is also the case with outdated
>> and subsequently difficult to access computer encodings, microfilm
>> degrades and thereafter...  scanning of such precious materials is an
>> urgent desideratum.
>> 
>> Jonathan
>> 
>> On Tue, Nov 5, 2024 at 11:41 AM Rosane Rocher via INDOLOGY
>> <indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:
>> 
>>    __
>>    This is a concern that keeps me awake at night, that and partially
>>    collated unpublished texts preserved in microfilms and photocopies
>>    of scattered and poorly known, hard to access manuscripts.
>> 
>>    Rosane Rocher
>>    Profesor Emerita of South Asia Studies
>>    University of Pennsylvania
>> 
>>    On 11/4/24 8:12 PM, Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY wrote:
>>>    Excellent suggestion, Jan. Including me, lots of scholars have
>>>    several unfinished projects which may never be completed or
>>>    published, but lie in an incomplete form. There should be a
>>>    repository for such materials.
>>> 
>>>    Madhav
>>> 
>>>    Madhav M. Deshpande
>>>    Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
>>>    University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
>>>    Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
>>>    Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies,
>>>    Bangalore, India
>>> 
>>>    [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]
>>> 
>>> 
>>>    On Mon, Nov 4, 2024 at 3:58 PM Jan Kučera <jan.kucera at ujca.cz
>>>    <mailto:jan.kucera at ujca.cz>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>        Dear all,
>>> 
>>>        I am sure I am not alone with the experience of finding
>>>        treasures in archives, in personal papers and other
>>>        collections of various people from the past, often pioneers in
>>>        the field.
>>> 
>>>        Some of us even had the sad privilege to take over libraries
>>>        and collections of our departed colleagues and teachers. And
>>>        from my experience, there is one significant difference from
>>>        the past: people don’t write on paper anymore. The work is
>>>        increasingly done on computers, and this data is almost never
>>>        available or accessible to anyone else.
>>> 
>>>        I would like to make an appeal to everyone who feels like they
>>>        have significant notes, drafts, or work-to-come they have
>>>        spent decades on, if you don’t want these to suddenly
>>>        disappear, please make provisions for someone to be able to
>>>        pick it up or turn into a treasure to be found by future
>>>        generations.
>>> 
>>>        Thank you and best regards,
>>> 
>>>        Jan
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
>> --
>> Prof. dr. J.A. Silk
>> Leiden University
>> Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
>> Herta Mohr building 2.142
>> Witte Singel 27A
>> 2311 BG Leiden
>> The Netherlands
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> website: www.OpenPhilology.eu <http://www.OpenPhilology.eu>
>> copies of my publications may be found at
>> https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/JASilk <https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/
>> JASilk>
>> 
>> 
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