SV: [Y-Indology] Filming of South Asian newspapers

[Guest guest]

Dear list,

 

I think this is an extremely interesting piece of information, and I

also think that we should recognize the right Indian institutions have

to copyright/remuneration for use of their materials.

 

Is there any way in which we could establish a system similar to the one

used in the music business, where any public use of a record by, say,

the radio, automatically leads to a small sum being paid to the the

artist. (In Norway, this is called Tono).

In other words, would there be method whereby we can copy and use

manuscripts while paying a fee to the owner of the manuscript?

 

Alternatively: Could manuscripts be distributed in the same manner as

computer software on CDs/DVDs? Like computer software, it should be

possible to protect such manuscript copies against illegal copying. This

would give Indian institutions some sorely-needed income, and benefit

the scholarly world, as well as securing the manuscript material for

future generations.

 

Best regards,

 

Lars Martin Fosse

 

 

 

Dr.art. Lars Martin Fosse

Haugerudvn. 76, Leil. 114,

0674 Oslo - Norway

Phone: +47 22 32 12 19 Fax: +47 850 21 250

Mobile phone: +47 90 91 91 45

E-mail: lmfosse

DO NOT OPEN UNEXPECTED ATTACHMENTS.

MY EMAIL ADDRESS IS BEING ABUSED BY

MALICIOUS OPERATORS.

 

 

> -----Opprinnelig melding-----

> Fra: David Salmon [dsalmon]

> Sendt: 26. januar 2004 00:52

> Til: Indology

> Emne: [Y-Indology] Filming of South Asian newspapers

>

>

> There appears to be an organized effort by certain Western

> research libraries to identify and to film all South Asian

> newspapers, present and historical.

> http://www.arl.org/newsltr/206/icon.html ;

> http://www.lib.washington.edu/Southasia/iconpaper.html

> The effort has run into resistance from some South Asian

> libraries possessing copies. The problems encountered, and

> the attitudes revealed, when permission to film has been

> sought are interesting for what they also suggest about

> current attitudes towards scanning old manuscripts and books

> in South Asia:

>

> "Of the 2,500 hundred titles for which I have located

> holdings, 55% or 1,350 are not currently available in

> microform. Most have ceased and exist only in fragmentary

> runs or even single issues. Many of these holdings are in

> institutions in South Asia where there is, at times, a

> resistance to microfilming unique materials. Microfilming is

> preserving, but it is also replicating. An institution's

> funding may be based on the numbers of researchers drawn to

> it to use materials unavailable anywhere else. Replicating

> those sources is seen as having the potential to weaken or

> even destroy an institution's funding base by taking away its

> unique character. Some archives make it difficult even for

> individuals to obtain a complete copy of single documents, so

> great is this fear of replicating an archive's holdings.

> Projects, which from the western viewpoint look like win-win

> for both sides, have fallen through on just this point.

> Western institutions, willing to pay for filming, are like

> the date who has paid for dinner and the movies, they want a

> bit more than "Thank you, it's been a lovely evening". They

> want access by either owning the negatives or receiving

> copies for their collections. Some archives, newly introduced

> to capitalism, believe that there is money to be made and

> that we are just an extension of a former colonial power, now

> returned to strip mine their intellectual property and they

> would prefer to go it alone. And even when the situation is

> favorable and they are willing to allow filming, our

> interests may not coincide, what we are want filmed may not

> be what they want filmed. We need to encourage local efforts

> at preservation for its own sake. We should pay particular

> attention to smaller institutions with more limited

> resources, such as those in Bangladesh or Nepal and, for

> diaspora papers, those in the Caribbean, Mauritius and East

> Africa." [see fn. 1.]

>

> Why, I ask the void, is there no comparable organized effort

> for manuscript and book materials? How did this one get

> started? Who pays for it? Given the existence of this

> program, it would behoove the Indian research library system

> to make proposals to these or other libraries to suggest a

> joint, systematic, and even more successful approach.

>

> David

>

> p.s. The article is also interesting for its historical

> data. E.g., the first NRI newspaper was started in 1887:

> "In 1887, in Singapore, a Tamil language newspaper, the

> Singai nesan was started. It is the first I have documented

> which was published by and for a diaspora community."

>

>

>

> 1. quotation from

>

> "South Asian Newspapers," by

>

> Irene Joshi

> South Asia Librarian

> University of Washington Libraries

>

> presented as part of the

> Symposium on Access to and

> Preservation of Global Newspapers

> May 27-28, 1997, Washington DC

>

http://www.lib.washington.edu/Southasia/iconpaper.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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