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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 47| October 2000
Cambodian collection on the air
During August SBS Radio broadcast an interview in the Khmer language about the National Librarys Cambodian collection and services. The interview with Mrs Piphal Engly was heard around Australia.
In her radio interview, Piphal said: The National Library has the largest Asian language holdings in Australia, including an important Cambodian collection, which is now accessible through the Internet.
Piphal is a librarian and a native speaker of Khmer. She has just completed a six-month project to provide online catalogue access to the Librarys Khmer language collection. She moved to Australia in 1977, and has also travelled extensively and worked in Europe. Her most recent qualification is a Graduate Diploma in Library and Information Science from the University of Canberra completed earlier this year. She also has Arts and Asian Studies degrees from universities in France and Australia.
After the radio broadcast the President of the Khmer Community of New South Wales, Mrs Sovannaraind Kay wrote to say: I would sincerely like to thank the National Library for the special opportunity given to Khmer people. All Cambodians who wanted to know about the Khmer Collection were very happy and satisfied with the interview.
The Library holds a growing collection of Khmer language materials consisting of books, serials and newspapers from Cambodia itself and publications produced by the local community in Australia. During the period 1954 to 1975 the Library obtained selected publications from Cambodia. Supply ceased in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge took power, and only resumed slowly as the country struggled to rebuild after the tumultuous Pol Pot era. The Library also received Khmer books and pamphlets produced through refugee organisations during the 1980s when many Cambodians were displaced to Thailand. Since 1990 materials have been received through the Cambodian Acquisitions Program established with the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital.
The Khmer items catalogued by Piphal are searchable on the National Librarys online catalogue, accessible through the home page (www.nla.gov.au). A search by call number under KHMER will bring up records for all these publications.
On air, Piphal added, As well as its Khmer language collection the Library has major holdings on Cambodia in English, French and other languages. She drew particular attention to the Coedes Collection, which contains many books in French on the former territories of Indo-China, namely Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. It includes older and rare items such as the Khmer language Tripitaka, one of the few sets of the Cambodian Buddhist Scriptures to survive the destruction of books during the Khmer Rouge regime (197579).
Through its Cambodian Acquisition Program the Library is also currently acquiring valuable English language publications from Cambodia including political and economic reports from non-governmental organisations such as the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace.
For further information on the Cambodian collection contact Andrew
Gosling in Asian Collections, tel. (02) 6262 1286, email: agosling@nla.gov.au.
Andrew Gosling
Above: Piphal Englys interview about the Librarys Cambodian collection was heard around Australia. Photograph: Damian McDonald
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: gateways@nla.gov.au