SAOA fosters robust online research on South Asia through its mission to produce and preserve digital content, to make digital content openly accessible, and to foster communities committed to collaboration through open access.

The following principles, prepared by the SAOA Executive Board and reviewed by the SAOA membership, function as a dynamic document to inform collection development decisions for the allocation of resources (financial as well as human):

• We concentrate on materials that have high value for research
• We prioritize resources that will benefit researchers across many disciplines of South Asian Studies
• We give precedence to materials that are at risk
• We seek to digitize resources that complement and complete collections already available
• We work to enhance modes of discovery of materials that are otherwise difficult to find or use
• We prioritize creation of access to otherwise inaccessible or inadequately accessible resources
• We strive for transparency in all decision-making processes, from initial proposal through production to end product
• We recognize the value and independence of existing, credible and sustainable open access repositories and seek federated alliances with them to minimize duplication of effort
• We build community through inclusive processes, collaborations, and federated alliances of repositories, institutions and members

Dated: March 23, 2019