[INDOLOGY] Library of Congress – digitization and cataloging updates

[Jonathan Loar]

Dear Indology colleagues,



I’m writing with some belated updates from the Library of Congress (LC) in
Washington, D.C. with regard to our South Asian manuscript digitization and
cataloging. Good news ahead!



Digitization: We just finished a one-off project to digitize the five
volumes Albrecht Weber Manuscript #54: Beiträge zum Petersburger Wörterbuch
<https://www.loc.gov/item/2002531409/>. These volumes are Weber’s
contributions to Sanskrit vocabulary, and only some of the entries made it
into Otto Böhtlingk and Rudolf Roth’s Sanskrit dictionary. This manuscript
joins two prior Weber digitized manuscripts: Anupadam
<https://www.loc.gov/item/2002531351/> and Anupadasûtram : Nidânasûtra
<https://www.loc.gov/item/2002531376/>.



These manuscripts are part of our South Asian Digital Collection
<https://www.loc.gov/collections/south-asian-digital-collection/about-this-collection/>,
which has about 1,300 items for far. Most of this digital collection
reflects LC’s general digitization output over the last 15-20 years, so
there are books in English, German, French, and South Asian languages.
Other highlights include LC’s Gandhara scroll, Mahatma Gandhi’s “A Common
Platform” draft, several Urdu masnavis, and the Hindi and Urdu editions of
the “Hindostan” camp newspaper for prisoners held in Germany during World
War 1. All items are fully open access.



The South Asian Literary Recordings Project—an open access collection of
100+ audio recordings of prominent authors, poets, and playwrights—has
moved to a new presentation on the LC website
<https://www.loc.gov/collections/south-asian-literary-recordings-project/about-this-collection/>.
It has added 20 new recordings of Nepali, Newari, and Maithili authors from
Nepal from 2024 and 2025.



Finally – and perhaps most exciting – LC recently completed a Tibetan and
Sanskrit rare material cataloging project that fully catalogued nearly all
of our Sanskrit rare books and manuscripts. The output is the expansion of
our South Asian Manuscripts at the Library of Congress
<https://guides.loc.gov/south-asian-manuscripts> research guide with
detailed pages on our full manuscript collection, including the Crosby
Khotan Fragments, the Princely State Papers Collection, and the Albrecht
Weber Collection’s Sanskrit manuscripts. Special note: See the page “Other
South Asian manuscripts” for many titles that are not part of a named
collection. That page also includes some notes on our uncatalogued
manuscripts in languages like Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, and Sinhala.



Please feel welcome to reach out to me 1:1 over email with any questions,
using my LC email: jloa at loc.gov.



All best,


Jon

Jonathan Loar, PhD

South Asia Reference Specialist

Asian Division, Library of Congress || 202-707-3417 || jloa at loc.gov

4 Corners of the World Blog
<https://blogs.loc.gov/international-collections> || South Asian Digital
Collection
<https://www.loc.gov/collections/south-asian-digital-collection/about-this-collection/>
||
South Asian Literary Recordings Project
<https://www.loc.gov/collections/south-asian-literary-recordings-project/about-this-collection/>
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