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 - 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@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@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@gmail.com> wrote:

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Jonathan Rodgers <jrodgers@umich.edu>
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2021 at 06:51
Subject: Petition: Save the South/Southeast Asia Library at UC Berkeley
To: <AmericanOrientalSociety@umich.edu>

Save the South/Southeast Asia Library at UC Berkeley

 

SIGN THE PETITION HERE   By signing this petition 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. Opened in 1970, the S/SEAL 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 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 and the Center for Southeast Asia Studies, 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 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

https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben

https://www.classicalindia.info

LabEx Hastec OS 2021 -- L'Inde Classique augmentée: construction, transmission 

et transformations d'un savoir scientifique

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