Libraries

South Asian Library Resources in TRLN

The Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) began informally in the 1930s to coordinate collection development at Duke and UNC-CH and by the 1960s had expanded to include NCSU. Reciprocal borrowing privileges, a formal policy of non-duplication of expensive materials, and other shared programs have laid the foundation for an important experiment in “dispersed collection development” for the South Asian collection. “Trip Saver,” integrated into Interlibrary Loan, guarantees 24-48 hour delivery anywhere in the Triangle.

Duke University was one of the original twelve participants in the Library of Congress PL-480 Program in 1962, now called the Cooperative South Asia Acquisition Program (SACAP). Duke University’s South Asia collection, built systematically over a period of four decades, ranks among the leading research collections in the country. The combined holdings of TRLN, about 300,000 vols. consist of monographs, serials, microforms, videos, sound recordings and e-resources, mainly from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The bulk of the material is in English. The South Asian languages collected include: Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Persian/Farsi, Sanskrit, Tamil and Urdu.

The consortium known today as the Triangle Research Libraries Network started with the collaborative efforts of Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, on the development of their research level collections in the 1930s. North Carolina State University began participating in these cooperative collection development programs in the 1950s, and North Carolina Central University became a member of the consortium in 1995.

For an overview of the collections please visit the TRLN South Asia collection websites:

Duke: http://guides.library.duke.edu/southasia
http://library.duke.edu/research/subject/guides/south_asian_studies/

NCSU: Site under construction. However, for basic information see: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/search/?q=South+Asian+studies

NCCU: (Lists selected electronic and print sources under South Asian history) http://web.nccu.edu/shepardlibrary/assistance/research_guides/south_asian_history.html#db

UNC: http://www.lib.unc.edu/cdd/crs/international/southasia/index.html

As part of the agreement on collaborative collecting, Duke University has named Edward Proctor as TRLN South Asia Bibliographer to manage the collections on the four campuses. For reference assistance, one-on-one consultation, bibliographic instruction or questions relating to the collections, he can be reached at: edward.proctor@duke.edu, 236 Bostock Library, Duke University, ph. 919-660-5841.