Content Curation Working Group

The Content Curation Working Group is a standing body of the South Asia Open Archives, reporting to the SAOA Executive Board and working in close consultation with the Program Coordinator and other Working Groups.

Members of the Content Curation Working Group:

Ryan Perkins, Stanford University (chair)

Sohaib Baig, University of California, Los Angeles

Deepa Banerjee, University of Washington

Brent Bianchi, Yale University

David Magier, Princeton University

Jeffrey Martin, University of Michigan

James Nye, University of Chicago

Gautham Reddy, Emory University

Purpose:

The Content Curation Working Group solicits ideas for new SAOA content from scholars and librarians, conducts research on available holdings, and selects and prioritizes materials for Executive Board consideration, on all matters associated with SAOA's core mission of providing digital resources for open access. These include, but are not limited to:

  • consulting with other digital projects and archives for content
  • selection of titles for inclusion
  • approaches to copyright clearance for titles

Rationale:

The Content Curation Working Group contributes to one of the most central components of SAOA: the shape of its collections. When making selection decisions, the work of the Content Curation Working Group is informed by two important documents approved by the SAOA membership: 

  1. An evolving set of Selection Guidelines (with expanding content foci for themes and resource types); and
  2. Selection Principles (collection development guidelines).  

These two documents help focus SAOA’s collection development around thematic areas and provide a rationale for making informed selection decisions. 

Membership:

The Content Curation Working Group is composed of at least three or more members from SAOA member institutions appointed by the Executive Board. At least one member will be from the Executive Board and that member will Chair or Co-Chair the Working Group. The SAOA Project Coordinator participates in meetings of the Working Group. While there is no fixed term of service for Content Curation Working Group members, they are encouraged to participate for at least two years to help ensure continuity and progress.

Tasks, Timelines, and Deliverables:

Tasks, timelines, and deliverables for the Working Group will typically be recommended by the Executive Board. The Working Group may also propose tasks within its purpose that contribute to the SAOA mission. 

Reporting:

The Content Curation Working Group reports to the Executive Board on a monthly basis and more often if requested. The Executive Board will be responsible for reporting recommendations by the Working Group to the SAOA membership. 

Updated on October 16, 2020

Featured: Unique Urdu and Hindi Collection

Prof. Robert Phillips, lecturer for the Program in South Asian Studies at Princeton University, teaches courses in Hindi-Urdu and South Asian Studies, and has used both South Asia Materials Project (SAMP) and CRL resources to support different research, writing, and teaching projects.

Accessing Āmukha in SAMP’s holdings offered an opportunity to incorporate the crucial - but often less-collected - genre of the little magazine into his research on Hindi modernism and a subsequent conference presentation.