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South Asian Cooperative Collection Development

Previous Workshops

Fall 2023 Workshop

In the 2023 SACOOP Workshop, we continued our commitment to diversifying our collective collection by exposing our local collections to each other through active documentation and discussions around our Niche and Hidden Collections.

Participants in the 2023 Workshop came together to update and refine the collection development statements related to their “Niche Collections” and to share details about local "Hidden Collections."  As we rely on each other for the depth and breadth created by our niches, we confirmed our commitments to the collection building and sharing enabled through those niches—local specializations in support of the national collection--and also to documenting the processes and outcomes of these collecting efforts.  At the same time, we also recognized that many of us have “hidden collections” already under our care but yet to be described and exposed.  At the Workshop, participants presented on their local prospective collection development (the “niches”) and collectively brainstormed strategies to begin revealing materials already in hand but unprocessed (the “hidden collections”). 

Fall 2022 Workshop

The Delhi and Islamabad Library of Congress Offices supply SACOOP libraries with over 2200 print government serials from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Close reading of the list of supplied serials reveals that many have not been received for years; many may have migrated into electronic publications while others may have ceased. The time is right to work together to think about the distribution of print government serials across our collective while also considering the currency of the metadata associated with them. Furthermore, the preservation and archiving of this insecure and perhaps unstable content in all forms deserves attention.

2022 workshop participants' “homework” was to grapple with and provide information about a subset of these titles. The results of this research will lead to more robust discovery through updated and enhanced metadata and also collective decisions on print retention and/or electronic preservation.

Fall 2021 Workshop

The 12th annual SACOOP workshop focused on information sharing and strategies for non-LC acquisitions. This idea grew from the CONSALD statement on collecting during COVID in which it was recognized that we are working together, not competing, that sharing strategies enhances our collection development practices, and that local vendors and publishers benefit from this support.  In preparation, workshop participants had “homework” in which they identified and shared information about vendors, publishers, and distributors (including those run through libraries, archives and museums) that can be partnered with to increase representation of marginalized voices in our collections.  Building on that homework, the workshop had 3 presentations by South Asia-based vendors at the workshop: Ali Kamran (Managing Director of Sang-e-meel), Ankur Mittal (Director of D.K. Agencies), and G. Sundar (Director of the Roja Muthiah Research Library).  

Fall 2020 Workshop

In this, the beginning of our second decade of collaboration, we turned to questions of collection description and processing as they enable collection development and use.  COVID-19’s demands for off-site work highlight just how important the processes of discoverability are for both our online and our physical collections.  We are left with concerns of knowing just what each of us already has (including in unprocessed backlogs) and how our well-meaning collection development objectives might be hindered by lack of local technical services support (such as options outside of LC supply chains, seeking niche specialization).  In the 2020 workshop, we strove to document our known needs for description, the technical support and decision-making already in place at our individual institutions, and what types of outsourced support we might desire.  Furthermore, we explored other existing models for collective cataloging and description. 

Fall 2019 Workshop

In this our 10th year, we returned to where we originally started and again reviewed our LCCAP profiles.  We reviewed all 2019 SACOOP participants profiles from both the Delhi and Islamabad offices with an eye to making make tangible and documented adjustments to our individual profiles in order to enhance and broaden the national collection.  In addition, we had presentations by 2 SACOOP participants on their “niche collecting efforts.”  

Fall 2018 Workshop

The 9th Annual South Asia Cooperative Collection Development Workshop was held on October 12, 2018 in Madison, WI. This was the third workshop centering on stewardship of our interdependent South Asian collections through shared print or print retention agreements. The specifically SACOOP agreement crafted in last year’s workshop met with less than total success at our individual institutions. The goal of the 9th workshop was to get our cooperative South Asian materials into print retention schemes--be it through the SACOOP Print Retention Agreement, a national level project, or a regional collaborative—and to document that commitment.

Fall 2017 Workshop

The theme of the 2017 workshop was Print Retention. Building upon previous workshops, we sought to emphasize retention as a part of our cooperative efforts, both in terms of vision for our maturing collaborative and in terms of documentation of our collective work. We are compelled to support those who are charged to winnow as well as those who are enabled to retain. Furthermore, we need to guarantee the perpetuity of our collection development, documentation and preservation efforts—at the local and the national level. Beyond discussions of retention, we also continued to learn about and promote each other’s collections, strategies and successes through “niche collection” presentations.

 

Fall 2016 Workshop

The 7th Annual South Asia Cooperative Collection Development Workshop was held on October 21, 2016 in Madison, WI.  In addition to celebrating and sharing our successes around our “niche collecting efforts,” we focused our attention on collection stewardship, challenging ourselves to consider if we have matured enough as a collaborative to begin committing to retain collections for the wider benefit and if so, how.

Fall 2015 Workshop

The 6th Annual South Asia Cooperative Collection Development Workshop was held on October 23, 2015 in Madison, WI. The session featured an action-oriented collective review of participants’ Cooperative Acquisitions Program profiles for Pakistan and Afghanistan, thanks to data supplied this year by the Islamabad Field Office of the Library of Congress. Distinctive niche collections assembled outside standard library supply lines were highlighted. Visitors beyond the circle of active workshop participants sparked a number of conversations on collecting practices, opportunities, and problem spots. As always the workshop’s thrust was toward reducing unnecessary duplication in the national collection and improving coverage and access to it.

Fall 2014 Workshop

The 5th Annual South Asia Cooperative Collection Development Workshop was held on Friday, October 17th in Madison, WI. The theme was collection assessment and promotion. We revisited SACAP monographic profiles to examine continued overlap/specialization and to identify possibilities for collaboration (using the 2014 spreadsheet as well as data based on region and subject), explored alternative collection assessment tools, and had presentations from two members about their local specialization.

Fall 2013 Workshop

The 4th Annual South Asia Cooperative Collection Development Workshop was held in Madison, WI on October 18th.  The theme of this year’s workshop was communication and the intent was to address how we communicate the successes, value, and impact of our work, both within our own cooperative structure as well as externally to faculty, administrators, and the library community.

Fall 2012 Workshop

This year, we focused our efforts on local specialization of collections. The outcome of this year’s exercise was to give shape and form to the varied and overlapping institutional commitments to collect in specialized areas that both support local institutional needs and uniquely contribute to the “national collection.”

Specifically, participating institutions committed to these areas of concentration.

Fall 2011 Workshop

Building upon the success of the 2010 Cooperative Collection Development Workshop, we held a second workshop in October 2011. In response to group feedback, the main theme of this workshop was be SACAP serials.

We believe in the importance of the serial literature from South Asia to scholars and researchers yet we also recognize the challenges they present. Looking across SACAP participants, we note that many titles are highly subscribed while others are not picked up anywhere. Thinking of the "national collection" and informed by our own local usage statistics, we believe we should take a fresh, collective look at our serial subscriptions. That said, we also realize that access to the literature is critical. If cooperation determines that that access is not to be local, we need to begin lobbying for better indexing and discovery tools or to create them ourselves so that successful interlibrary loan is actually feasible. It is this two-pronged approach to the serial literature--balancing the national subscribed collection and exploring improved access--that was addressed at the 2011 workshop. 

The following institutions have agreed to participate in 2011

  • Center for Research Libraries 
  • Cornell University
  • Duke University/TRLN 
  • Emory University
  • Library of Congress, Delhi Field Office 
  • Library of Congress, Islamabad Field Office 
  • New York University 
  • Princeton University 
  • Syracuse University 
  • University of California-Berkeley 
  • University of California-Los Angeles 
  • University of Chicago 
  • University of Hawaii 
  • University of Illinois 
  • University of Iowa
  • University of Minnesota 
  • University of Washington
  • University of Wisconsin

Fall 2010 Workshop

In conjuction with Madison's Annual Conference on South Asia, we held a "Cooperative Collection Development for South Asia Partnership Workshop" on October 15, 2010. The workshop was intended to help us make choices and decisions about our collection strategies that would ultimately strengthen and deepen the national resources on South Asia. We intended to do this by collectively exploring collection development by means of the SACAP acquisitions program tools.

The following institutions agreed to participate in the workshop

  • Center for Research Libraries 
  • Columbia University 
  • Cornell University
  • Duke University/TRLN 
  • Emory University
  • Library of Congress, Delhi Field Office 
  • Library of Congress, Islamabad Field Office 
  • Library of Congress, Washington 
  • New York University 
  • Princeton University 
  • Syracuse University 
  • University of California-Berkeley 
  • University of California-Los Angeles 
  • University of Illinois 
  • University of Iowa 
  • University of Michigan 
  • University of Minnesota
  • University of Virginia 
  • University of Washington
  • University of Wisconsin

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