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Under the supervision of its Curator,
and with Council contributions, Yale maintains one of
the most extensive Southeast Asia collections in the
United States.
The Southeast
Asia Collection is located primarily in Yale's Sterling
Memorial Library along with affiliated schools (Social
Science Library, Forestry Library, Law Library, and
Divinity Library). Materials in the Collection are in
both western and vernacular languages of the countries
covered, and primarily emphasize the social sciences
and humanities. (The
Economic Growth Center Collection, located in the
Social
Science Library, contains economic surveys, statistical
publications, development plans and censuses from over
100 developing countries, including those of Southeast
Asia.)
The Yale University Library began collecting material
on Southeast Asia in 1899, when Clive Day was appointed
to its faculty and a teaching program concerning Southeast
Asia was initiated (see Yale
SEAS History). It was due to this early start that
the library was able to acquire many of its now out-of-print
serials, especially from the Dutch East Indies. Historical
developments after the Second World War provided a further
impetus to the program, and in 1947 Yale established
its Southeast Asia Studies Program, the first area studies
program in the United States to embark on the study
of Southeast Asia in all disciplines. The library added
special staff to work in this area and to assure continuous
acquisition of this material, now designated as the
Southeast Asia Collection.
Yale has participated in the PL-480 Program for acquisitions
of Indonesian materials since its inception. The program
is now called the Library of Congress Southeast Asia
Cooperative Acquisitions Program and has expanded
to include Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei. The library
also has agents in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand,
and for a number of years received Cambodian materials
from a friend of the Library who was stationed in Phnom
Penh.
Two distinctive collections that have come to the library
are the Maurice Durand Collection, which is particularly
strong in the literature, history, and civilization
of Indo-China, and the Yeh Hua Fen Collection,
which consists mainly of books on Malaysia and Singapore.
The Yale Cambodian
Genocide Program, has studied the tragedy during
the Khmer Rouge revolution between 1975 and 1979, and
compiled information on the Pol Pot Khmer Rouge regime.
This information has been made accessible to Cambodians,
international scholars, and legal professionals. There
are four searchable databases: bibliographic, biographic,
photographic and geographic.
The Southeast Asia Collection Reading
Room is located on the third floor of Sterling Memorial
Library, room number 315. The Collection maintains print
and online archives of
periodicals and newspapers
from all parts of Southeast Asia. |
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