Are the Information Needs of Asian Studies Academics Being Met?
Report on the Library and Information Needs of Asian Studies Academics lunchtime panel at the Asian Studies Association of Australia, 12th Biennial Conference Asia in Global Context, Monday 28 September 1998. Report published in East Asian library Resources Group of Australia newsletter, no. 38, November 1998.
Panel Session
Questions
Recommendation
This panel was jointly organised by the East Asian Library Resources Group of Australia and the Asia-Pacific Special Interest Group, Australian Library and Information Association.
Panel Session
Susan Prentice, Convener, Asia Pacific Special Interest Group (APSIG) of the Australian Library and Information Association introduced the session and welcomed both speakers and those attending.
Professor Robin Jeffrey, School of Politics, La Trobe University, Victoria (panel chair) then introduced each speaker.
Professor Kam Louie, Head of Department, Department of Asian Languages and Studies, University of Queensland, spoke from the point of view of an academic at a university where there were comparatively few resources on China. His written presentation is attached. His students had to travel to Canberra to use the resources of the Australian National University Library and the National Library of Australia. He rated the collections in Canberra good enough to do most research in Chinese Studies. They are certainly as good as most western libraries. The problem at ANU was that their recent books are not catalogued. The biggest difficulty for students and researchers outside Canberra is that they have to travel to use the collections. This was a cost for anyone living outside the triangle of Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. Each year, his Department spent significant sums to fund them to go to Canberra. In the past, there were scholarships (the Commonwealth Department of Employment, Education and Training Asian Studies Library Awards) which could be used to fund postgraduates travelling to use these collections. He had found access to the National Chinese, Japanese and Korean System within his university had been very limited so far. He was pleased to hear that the price of the software to access the system was now much reduced.
Andrew Gosling, Chief Librarian, Asian Collections, National Library of Australia, spoke in place of Dr Ken Wells, Senior Lecturer, Asian History Centre of the Australian National University, who could not be present, about the Korean User Survey which had recently been published. He outlined the background to the report. It had arisen from a meeting of librarians and academics in Canberra in March 1996 on Korean library resources in Australia. It had been agreed that a fundamental start to the process of trying to improve the situation would be to find out what users need and their perceptions of the situation. The Korean Working Group composed of representatives of major libraries and leading Korean academics had been formed to take action Funds had been secured from a variety of sources to hire a consultant to prepare the final report. The report was very frank and revealed a general lack of awareness by users of what resources did exist, especially by business. There was a lack of materials on Korea in many libraries. Follow-up action includes : proposals will be prepared for funding to fill some of the gaps in collections; greater access will be provided to the National Chinese, Japanese and Korean Library System with new software; interlibrary loans between libraries will be studied to see if there are problems which can be identified and fixed; North Korean materials will be sought and the needs of business considered more fully.
Professor Vera Mackie, Professor of Japanese Studies, Curtin University, Western Australia, spoke about Japanese library resources. The Internet was not a substitute for printed library materials. There were problems with the acquisition of Japanese books as costs were high and the Australian currency had declined in value very sharply against the yen. The Japan Foundation had been very helpful in developing resources but generally libraries need to put more resources themselves into developing their collections. The major library resources are in the Southeastern corner of Australia and she had become more aware of this problem, having moved from Melbourne recently. There is a problem in funding post-graduates to travel to use the resources. This was an issue which might be addressed. The former scholarships for post-graduates might be revived. There was a need for more subject/language librarians outside the Southeastern corner of Australia where most were employed. Combining language and library studies should be encouraged and this was possible at in the library training course at Curtin University.
Will Tuchrello, Library of Congress, Field Officer, Jakarta, said that he and Oliver Mann were considering how the resources might be better used in their two library materials acquisition offices in Jakarta in regard to collecting Southeast Asian materials. The rapid political change at present underway in Southeast Asia was very greatly effecting publishing and collecting for libraries. One important development for him is that his office was now able to offer more support to the Library of Congress reference and research services to the members of the Congress by the use of the Internet, email, electronic scanning of documents for transmittal, etc. He then gave a quick sketch outline of publishing in Southeast Asia : Malaysia the situation is now very difficult due to the political problems; Brunei difficult also; Cambodia most publishing was done by non-governmental organisations with many reprints of older works; Laos - publishing was mainly in English language; Philippines many non-governmental organisations published a variety of titles and there was a wide range of government publications also; Singapore it presented a problem with many publishers having dual imprints in other countries; there was also a problem of coffee table books which had little research content; Thailand with the freest press in Southeast Asia, it is a centre for regional publication; Vietnam economic liberalisation has freed up some publishing but there is a pattern of strong regional publishing within the country which made acquisitions difficult.
Oliver Mann, National Library of Australia, Regional Officer, Asia, described the operations of the Indonesian Acquisition Program which he manages in Jakarta. A variety of means are used to acquire material purchase and gift included. Government publications and those from non-governmental organisations present a particular challenge. Among the many facets in acquiring Indonesian publications are : the structural problems with the lack of organisation of the Indonesian book trade and publishers; the publication of the Indonesian national bibliography is badly out-of-date and cannot be used as a source of current publications; many print runs in Indonesia are small and books go out of print quickly; regional imprints are not available in Jakarta, and Indonesian staff are needed to acquire some publications especially from government sources. In the present financial climate, there is a paucity of well-researched publications. An up-to-date periodical and newspaper index is lacking and would greatly benefit Indonesian scholars.
Ian Dawes, Acting Senior Librarian (Humanities), Curtin University, spoke about the South Asian project, Renovating the National Collection. He reported that South Asianists feel that their area is doing pretty well at the moment. The South Asian database which had been established with funding from the project had allowed academics to assess the national collection. The bad news is the problem of finding funding to retain subscriptions which were placed with project funds. Ian agreed with Vera Mackie on the need for specialist language skills for librarians, especially in cataloguing vernacular materials.
Questions
Questions followed the presentations and included :
Q. How likely is the virtual library? Is there consideration of band-width in the development of websites? Are there electronic substitutes for printed materials?
A. Oliver Mann responded that there was clearly a problem with access to the Internet in countries like Indonesia where only a very tiny percentage (1%) of the population has access. This made reliance upon large amounts of electronic networked materials unlikely in the near future.
Ian Dawes said that often the smaller, more ephemeral publications from the region are not in electronic format, even if some of the major titles such as newspapers are. Older materials will not be available in electronic form.
Andrew Gosling said that the Korean User Survey showed that the Internet is important but that electronic materials are not a substitute for printed Asian script materials.
Vera Mackie said that it is difficult to share access to electronic materials as there are limitations on their licences.
Recommendation
Recommendation for postgraduate travel scholarships : at the end of the meeting, several speakers, including Professors Louie and Mackie, spoke about the desirability of re-instating the postgraduate travel scholarships for Asian studies which the Department of Employment, Education and Training, had funded for two years. This had enabled postgraduates to travel to centres where there were library resources, particularly Canberra to use the National Library of Australia and the Australian National University. This was supported by Andrew Gosling and Susan Prentice. Professor Jeffrey said that he was happy to take this forward and thought that it should be raised at the Asian Studies Association of Australia AGM that week.
Susan Prentice emphasised the need for librarians and academics to work together to get the best result in order to maintain the quality and breadth of collections in Australia. She thanked the speakers and particularly Andrew Gosling for his organisational work with the panel.
Note: This recommendation that: "The Asian Studies Association of Australia should lobby the Federal Government for the re-instatement of scholarships for Asian Studies students to travel to library collections in Asian languages, on the model of the former Asian Studies Library Awards was subsequently supported at the Annual General Meeting of the Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) which held during the ASAA conference on Tuesday 29 September. The recommendation was Moved by Prof. Vera Mackie, seconded by Prof. Kam Louie, and carried without dissent
Record prepared by Marie Sexton, National Library of Australia, 4 November 1998
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