Library of Congress microfiche collection - South Asia

History of the Collection

In 1985, the South Asia Microform Project approved a proposal to purchase the complete set of South Asian materials on microfiche produced by the Library of Congress under the Special Foreign Currency Program (PL-480), Delhi. It was decided to also subscribe to the complete set of future publications from the microfiche program. The Center for Research Libraries agreed that it would contribute to the program by purchasing current materials (i.e. serials), while SAMP would acquire fiche produced for monographs and other “historical” material. It was agreed that Center members would have full access to the entire set.

The LC field office in New Delhi had been capturing select materials on microfiche since 1978. In the early 80’s, LC expanded their program of preservation to include old monographs, serials, and large collections of valuable documents published by the former princely states of India. In 1989, a letter from LC-New Delhi outlined selection procedures for the fiche program. Materials would be selected for ficheing a) if more than one copy is unavailable, or b) if the physical material required immediate preservation. Publications under 50 pages were also eligible for inclusion. Later enhancements to the description include voluminous sets that are too bulky for distribution and of greater research value if organized as a collection and microformatted together rather than treated as individual items. In the 1990’s, the field office began grouping and filming pamphlets and other ephemeral material which were better treated as collections rather than as individual items.

Bibliographical information for all titles acquired by LC were included in the Accessions List : South Asia, a monthly publication from the New Delhi field office distributed free of charge and containing preliminary catalog records prepared by the field offices. Beginning in 1981, this title unified all separate accession lists for each South Asian country issued since 1962. This title was discontinued in 1996, only to reappear in March 1998 as the South Asian Bibliographer.

Entries for microformed material first appeared in Accessions List : SA in December 1981 (Vol. 1, no. 12, part 3). This issue constituted a supplement to the accession list featuring only material in microform, though subsequent item entries for film or fiche were incorporated into the general accessions lists. A new cumulative list issued in 1983 (vol. 3, no. 11/12, part 3) superceded the 1981 list with all material issued in microform through 1983.

Since 1993 (?), all items (“monographs and most serials”) included in the Accessions List : SA and SA Bibliographer were also cataloged with MARC records and made available in OCLC and in the LC online catalog. Library of Congress Control Numbers, ISBN and/or ISSN numbers were included to assist in retrieving records or ordering titles.

Access to Fiche

Access to individual titles in the fiche set was traditionally achieved through the Accessions list : South Asia. Each issue of the accessions list organized latest publication acquisitions (print and microform) by country, then by individual sections for monographs or serials. For monographs, titles were further subdivided by language and then alphabetically by author. Serials lists were arranged by country and alphabetical sequence only. Beginning in 1994, series and monographs were interfiled in the lists.

For microfiche, each entry in the Accessions List possesses a microfiche identification number, designated by order of filming. CRL files the microfiche it receives from the Library of Congress by its individual fiche number.

Titles microfiched before January 1, 1982 bear a country code number, as in these examples:

SAI 81/00 001 - South Asia India monograph
SAIR 81/00 001 - South Asia India retrospective monograph
SAN 81/s0 001 - South Asia Nepal serial

Microfiche produced from January 1, 1982 onward were noted as follows:

Microfiche 82/60001 - monograph
Microfiche (o) 82/60001 - serial

The Accessions List preface posits that all microfiched monographs were given minimal level cataloging. Beginning in June 1984, microfiched monographs were assigned the first letter of the appropriate Library of Congress classification schedule:

Microfiche 86/60207 (R)

According to the preface of the lists, since 1987, all microfiched monographs were given either full or minimal level cataloging,.

In theory, LC issued two sets of cards with each fiche set it distributed. These were intended to be filed in two separate series – the first by main entry, the second by shelflist number. In practice, CRL did not receive full sets of cards, nor did it manage to keep these sets together – anecdotal evidence suggests that unfiled cards were later discarded or used by staff for other purposes. Through a combination of these card sets and manual photocopying from the Accessions List (done by Ester Williams up through 1991?), CRL was able to put together a (incomplete?) card set for South Asian fiche by main entry. This is located on the second floor of CRL and can be consulted by staff only.

A degree of retrospective conversion of card files and copy cataloging has been perfored over the years. A cursory examination of fiche records found in CRL’s online records indicate that a reasonable degree of recon was done for the years 1982 – 1991 (with the bulk of records covering fiche from 1986-1991 from both New Delhi and Jakarta). Considerably fewer records from 1994-1998 appear in the catalog. Sparse records are found for SA monographs pre-1982. In total, there are over 20,000 records in the OPAC as of August 2003, including both South and Southeast Asian fiche:

Microfiche SAIR 81/… 60 records
Microfiche SAR IN 81/… 10 records
Microfiche 82/ … 400 records
Microfiche 83/ … 834 records
Microfiche 84/ … 494 records
Microfiche 85/ … 914 records
Microfiche 86/ … 2785 records
Microfiche 87/ … 2465 records
Microfiche 88/ … 1650 records
Microfiche 89/ … 1794 records
Microfiche 90/ … 1293 records
Microfiche 91/ … 1036 records
Microfiche 92/ … 36 records
Microfiche 93/ … 12 records
Microfiche 94/ … 204 records
Microfiche 95/ … 948 records
Microfiche 96/ … 650 records
Microfiche 97/ … 502 records
Microfiche 98/ … 103 records
Microfiche 99/ … 16 records

Serial records (o) 513 records

Microfiche SEI 3749 records
Microfiche SEM 44 records
Microfiche SES 60 Records

New Delhi, unidentified 178

Total found: 20758 records

Return to SAMP Current Project page