25 SEPTEMBER 1999
MARSEILLE, FRANCE
SEALG 1999
On September 25 1999 the SEALG group met on the premises of the new CNRS Maison Asie Pacifique &endash; Bibliotheque Asie du Sud-Est, Universite de Provence, which has just been moved from Aix-en-Provence to Marseilles. The programme was crammed and in fact it was impossible to cover all the business.
By ROSEMARY ROBSON-MCKILLOP
The response to the SEALG questionnaire for the Directory of Southeast Asia Collections has been disappointing. Dr Lieu Cao Thi reported that she has had only 25 percent of the forms sent to French universities and research institutions returned. In many instances she has been hindered by academic arrogance, scientists refusing to give information about collections which for the most part have been formed on the basis of government grants. This evoked a discussion about the position of libraries and librarians, which can only assume more importance as a huge flood of information on every conceivable topic now pouring in. Librarians have to play a pivotal role in making information on every conceivable topic available to scientists who are very often entirely specialized on one very small field of expertise. All participants were agreed upon the necessity to increase Asian language expertise among librarians, especially in the languages of Mainland Southeast Asia.The Group was treated to two engrossing papers on two important Southeast Asian libraries and collections. Dr Cao Thi gave a report of her recent visit to Myanmar to make an evaluation of the University Library of Rangoon. Louise Pichard-Bertheaux spoke of her experiences with the famous library of the Siam Society in Bangkok. Both these reports will be published in full in the next IIAS Newsletter.
If you have any comments, queries, or suggestions about the role of libraries in Asian Studies, we would be very pleased indeed to hear from you. This is an important debate on a matter which has been allowed to slumber far too long in an era when libraries are being enriched with ever growing number of publications from Asia itself, be this Southeast Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, or East Asia.
On behalf of the SEALG Group I should like to thank Dr. Charles Macdonald, Dr Cao Thi, and Mme Pichard of the Maison Asie Pacifique for their warm reception and stimulating. *
Rosemary Robson-McKillop is editor of Excerpta Indonesica, and a member of SEALG.
E-mail: robson@let.leidenuniv.nl