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 languages 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 o
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.
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 Avinash Maheshwary 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: avinash.maheshwary@duke.edu,
227 Bostock Library, Duke
University, ph.
919-660-5841.