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Bibliographic Databases: Catalogs
and Indexes
General Catalogs:
MIRLYN
MIRLYN is the University of Michigan's computerized library system.
Through it, one can access MCAT (Michigan's online library catalog),
the Big-Ten and other regional online catalogs, and a wide variety
of online periodical indexes. Although MCAT and some of the resources
in MIRLYN are available to all users, students, faculty and others
affiliated with the University will have access to restricted resources
and automated personal services if they use an "authenicated
signon."
OCLC
World Cat and RLIN
(both access restricted)
OCLC and RLIN are catalogs of virtually all of the libraries in
the United States (and some outside of the U.S.). Practically speaking,
all cataloged items, held by libraries in the U.S. will be
noted in one of these two databases. Therefore, if you're getting
frustrated that our library doesn't have a certain title, please check
OCLC or RLIN to see if some other library does and then make an ILL
request to retrieve the item.
Indexes with South Asia related records (all with restricted access):
ATLA
Religion Index is a good starting place to look for articles on
topics related to South Asian religion.
The Bibliography
of Asian Studies is perhaps the most helpful online index for
research on South Asia. The online version, however, is still quite
new and therefore, not all journals will have their most current articles
indexed or their entire archive indexed in the online version. Check
out their "About the BAS page" to determine the scope of
coverage.
Ethnic
Newswatch provides full-text coverage of sources that one might
not find elsewhere: newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic,
minority and native press. This can be a good place to search for
current South Asian diaspora information.
Historical
Abstracts, while quite broad in its coverage, does include many
references to studies on South Asian history.
JSTOR
is an online, full-text, fully searchable archive of journal articles.
Because of copyright issues, their holdings are at least five
years old--that is, one cannot find new articles or citations for
articles using JSTOR, but for older articles, this is a handy resource,
particularly as it means that one can get articles immediately without
having to come to the library.
South Asia specific databases:
Especially helpful for finding older materials, the University of
Chicago and the Digital South Asia Library maintain a number of online
catalogs:
India
Office 19th Century Publications Catalog
Library
of Congress Serials List
Official
Publications of India Catalog
Roja
Muttiah Research Library Catalog
Urdu
Research Centre catalog.
A growing resource of digital information related to South Asia is
the Digital South
Asia Library. This in an in-process project; check back often
for updates.
Another growing resource is the Digital Asia Library/Portal
to Asian Internet Resources which consists of an annotated catalog
to freely available web resources on Asia.
If none of these databases seems relevant to your research, check out
U of M's Networked
Electronic Resources page which has a considerable number of other
helpful database links.
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Bibliographic
Lists:
Online bibliographies:
There are a multitude of bibliographies being put online. Of particular
note are:
SARAI
and Asia
Source also list a number of helpful bibliographies.
Print bibliographies:
Many important print reference sources are found in the Area Studies
reference room on the first floor of the Hatcher Library.
Some sources of note and their locations are:
- Bibliography of South Asia, by D. Nelson (Metuchen, NJ:
Scarecrow Press, 1994)
Location: SAReference Z3185.N451 1994
- India, by I. Derbyshire (Santa Barbara, CA: Clio Press,
1995)
Location: SAReference Z3206.D36 1995
- Muslims in India: recent contributions to literature on religion,
philosophy, history and social aspects, by M. Taher (New Delhi:
Anmol Publications, 1993)
Location: SAReference Z3208.E85 T351 1993
- National bibliography of Indian literature, 1901-1953,
edited by B.S. Kesavan and V.Y. Kulkarni (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi,
1962)
Location: SAReference Z3201.N28
- South Asian bibliographer [serial]
Location: SAReference Z3185.L691
- South Asian bibliography: a handbook and guide, edited
by J.D. Pearson (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1979)
Location: SAReference Z3185.S72
- South Asian civilizations: a bibliographic synthesis,
by M. Patterson (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981)
Location: SAReference Z3185.P371
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Pathfinders: Internet Reference
Tools:
The megalink for all South Asia links, SARAI
has links to just about anything and everything one might want online
regarding South Asia. Included here are bibliographic tools, job announcements,
e-newspaper and e-journal links, a directory of scholars working on
South Asia and more. If you can't find a link using SARAI's subject
structure, try browsing the "in-process backlog."
The Asian
Studies World-Wide Web Virtual Library links to comprehensive
pages dedicated to each of the South Asian countries. Found among
these pages are links to information regarding art and architecture,
business, religion, politics, history, newsgroups, and on and on.
For a wealth of information regarding South Asian women and issues
relevant to them, check out SAWNET
(South Asian Women's NET). Among others, found here are links to political
and charitable organizations, health information, new books by and
about South Asian women, brief biographies, and legal information.
Try these starting places for information about various South Asian
religions:
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Maps:
Online maps:
Reliefweb,
a project of the United Nations, has up-to-date maps, especially for
those regions currently in the news.
The University
of Texas' map collection has a number of good digitized maps,
including historical ones, for all of the South Asian countries.
The Atlas Mutual Heritage
database has a wealth of images and archival information related to
the Dutch East India Company, including a number of historical maps.
Print maps/atlases:
The U of M's Map
Library has a considerable number of maps and atlases of South
Asia.
A couple of atlases of note, not found in the Map Library are:
- Atlas of the languages and ethnic communties of South Asia,
by R. Breton (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 1997)
Location: GRAD PK1541.A1 B842 1997
- A historical atlas of South Asia, edited by J. Schwartzberg
(New York: Oxford, 1992)
Location: SAReference G2261.S1 H51 1992
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Other libraries
with South Asia related collections:
The U of M has an official consortial agreement with other Committee
for Institutional Cooperation (CIC) Libraries. Those with notable
South Asia holdings are:
The catalogs of all of the CIC libraries can be searched at one time
using MIRLYN
under the "combined Big Ten/Other Universities" option.
Many rare or expensive items are collected by the Center
for Research Libraries on behalf of its member libraries. This
is a good place to check for newspapers and microfilm related to South
Asia.
For video resources, check out Berkeley,
Virginia
or Wisconsin.
SARAI
also has a quite comprehensive list of libraries with South Asia collections.
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Romanization tables:
In order to have a unified online catalog, all bibliographic records
are written in the roman script. This means that records representing
items not written in the roman script have been transliterated (also called
"romanized"). The transliteration code is a relatively straightforward
and regular one-to-one system for most languages. Like most libraries
in the United States, we use the Library of Congress' transliteration
tables as our code. When using the code to search for an item in Mirlyn,
follow the code but ignore the diacritics (the lines and dots around the
letters). Mirlyn will search the catalog without paying attention to the
diacritics.
Transliteration tables for the current, actively collected South Asian
languages: (uses Adobe
Acrobat)
If you need transliteration tables for other languages (Malayalam, Telugu,
etc.), please see the Library
of Congress' Romanization Tables page. For assistance with or interpretation
of the tables, please contact
us.
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Call number
browse:
Many researchers do not always find the exact
materials they want through catalog searching. Instead, they find one
book's call number, go to the shelves to retrieve it and discover that
the book they're really interested in was on a nearby shelf. In effect,
the original call number gives the researcher a point at which to approach
the stacks, from which the researcher can browse through many other related
items.
Due to shelving shortages, many of the non-European
languages materials related to South Asia are housed in the Buhr
Shelving Facility. Although one can go to Buhr to pick up or read
materials, one is not allowed to go into the stacks to browse through
materials as one might in an open-stack library. Therefore, those researchers
who prefer a browsing technique need a new approach. One effective way
to identify books of interest without being able to approach the shelves
directly is to perform call number browses in the online catalog.
For example, if one has used MIRLYN
to find the book Paratiyar kavitaikal with the call number PL4758.9.S887
P34 1967, and one wants to find items similar in nature that might be
shelved in Buhr, use the first part of the book's call number to do a
call number browse search. In MIRLYN, select LC call number search and
type "PL4758.9.S887" in the search box. The books that would
appear on the shelves near Paratiyar kavitaikal appear. It is important
to note that this is the entire University Library system shelf list and
therefore, one would need to check the location status to determine in
just which library the book is shelved.
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