The South Asia Microform Project (SAMP) is a cooperative program that seeks to acquire and maintain a readily accessible collection of unique materials in microform related to the study of South Asia. Materials are collected both through the filming efforts of the project and through the purchase of positive copies of materials filmed by other groups, institutions and companies.

SAMP strives to cooperate with libraries and archives worldwide in preserving unique or endangered materials for the study of South Asia. Created in 1967 and affiliated with the Association for Asian Studies, the subscribing members of SAMP acquire and maintain materials from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives in microform. To provide convenient access to subscribers, the collection is housed and administered by the Center for Research Libraries (CRL).

The Collection

Since its inauguration SAMP has acquired or filmed more than 23,000 scholarly publications, newspapers, and government documents. Cooperation with national archives and libraries such as the British Library (particularly the Oriental and India Office Collections from the former India Office Library), the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, and the Library of Congress Field Offices in South Asia has assisted in the collection of a diverse range of texts in microform including: reports from the British East India Company, journals from scholarly societies, personal papers of researchers, pamphlets, and posters. This diversity provides the kinds of interconnected evidence that will advance scholarship. For example, the extensive collection of vernacular and English language newspapers from India dating from the nineteenth century is complemented by government reports on the vernacular and native-owned press from the 1860s until the 1920s. Recent acquisitions have included microfilms of the nineteenth-century Hindi, Urdu and Panjabi titles held by the British Library as well as a collection of rare land settlement reports.

Since 1990, financial aid from various organizations has helped expand the range of SAMP's preservation work. Grants amounting to more than $1,650,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the U. S.-India Fund, the Government of India, and the American Institute of Pakistan Studies are supporting the microfilming of 16,700 titles, mostly in the languages of South Asia. In 1990 a special project began to microfilm the 55,000 books in the twenty-two languages found in the Sahitya Akademi's The National Bibliography of Indian Literature, 1901-1953 but rarely held by North American libraries.

Some SAMP microfilm is available for purchase. For more information, see Microform Sales.

For questions about SAMP, please contact:

James Simon
Director of International Resources
Center for Research Libraries
6050 S. Kenwood
Chicago, IL 60637
USA
(tel) 773 955-4545 ext. 324
(fax) 773 955-4339
email: simon at crl.edu

SAMP's workspace for members is at http://workspace.crl.edu/display/SAMP/Home