Brown University Library Collections - Academic Cluster Review Process

Library Support for Sanskrit
December 9, 1998

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Sanskrit is probably the most difficult of all the languages on which to report. It is taught through the Classics Department, but we do not keep any record of how we support this specific language aside from Greek and Latin, which are the main foci of that Department. At the same time, the language and its literature are of most interest to other departments, notably History of Mathematics, and Religious Studies, and some (or even most) of the material we purchase in or about Sanskrit is purchased on behalf of these. Thus, there is no way to estimate how much we expend to support Sanskrit language and literature, although we can make some estimate of the Library's holdings. The Collection Development Librarian for Classics (and thus for Sanskrit) is Ann Dodge (Box A, x1502, Ann_Dodge@brown.edu). It may also be worthwhile to note two other Collection Development Librarians, however:

It should be noted that no one on the Library staff has knowledge of Sanskrit, so we rely extensively on consultation with the faculty to build and maintain our collections.

The Library has some 700 titles in the PK classifications for Sanskrit language and literature, and some 400 of these titles are in Sanskrit (or contain significant passages in Sanskrit). But texts in Sanskrit can be found in other classifications. For example, in the part of the BL classifications for Vedic and Hindu religion, we have more than 200 titles in Sanskrit, and in QA (mathematics) and QB (astronomy) we have 36 titles. Moreover, in a field such as this, much of the important literature (both primary texts and secondary literature) is published in the major series produced by scholarly societies and academies, most of which are classed in AS in the Library. These are often not even analyzed (i.e., individually cataloged) in the Library's catalog, and are thus difficult for our users to discover. An example of this is a major publication by the faculty member who teaches Sanskrit, Peter Scharf. If one searches our catalog for this publication, by author or title, he/she would not find it. But that is because it was published in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, a vast series (classed in Q, in the Sciences Library) which we have not analyzed. This is an important issue for other fields as well, and one which the Library is beginning to address. But it is especially a problem for this particular subject and similar traditional fields of study.

Overall, I believe the Library has more than adequate resources to support the teaching and study of Sanskrit. Given the difficulties presented above, however, we must be careful to give this language sufficient attention, and to work closely with the faculty to be sure we continue to maintain the collections properly.

» William S. Monroe, Head, Collection Development