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

Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity

Department of History and Classics

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@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@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@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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[4] http://sas.ualberta.ca/

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