The South Asia Materials Project (SAMP) acquires and maintains a readily accessible digital and microform collection of unique materials related to the study of South Asia. Materials are collected both through the project’s duplication efforts and through the purchase of materials preserved by other groups, institutions, and companies.  SAMP cooperates with libraries and archives worldwide to preserve unique or endangered materials for the study of South Asia. SAMP’s members acquire and maintain digital and microform materials from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives. To provide convenient access to members, the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) houses and administers the collection.

Created in 1967 and initially affiliated with the Association for Asian Studies, SAMP has acquired or microfilmed more than 23,000 scholarly publications, newspapers, and government documents. Cooperation with national archives and libraries such as the British Library (particularly the Oriental and India Office Collections from the former India Office Library), the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, and the Library of Congress Field Offices in South Asia has helped build a diverse collection of texts including: reports from the British East India Company, journals from scholarly societies, personal papers of researchers, pamphlets, and posters. Additional acquisitions have included microfilms of the nineteenth-century Hindi, Urdu, and Panjabi titles held by the British Library as well as a collection of rare land settlement reports.  In 1990, SAMP began a special project to microfilm the 55,000 books in the twenty-two languages found in the Sahitya Akademi’s The National Bibliography of Indian Literature, 1901-1953, rarely held by North American libraries.

Some SAMP microfilm is available for purchase. For more information, see Microform Sales.

Meeting Minutes and other information related to the ongoing work of SAMP may be found in the SAMP Workspace.  The SAMP Workspace is a wiki tool that members can access to review and edit or add content. It is open only to SAMP Members.

Institutions located in South Asia are eligible to use the SAMP Fee Waiver Form  when pursuing membership in the South Asia Open Archives (SAOA) as long as the institutions meet the In-Kind contributions for SAOA membership. Institutions located in South Asia are eligible to use the SAMP Fee Waiver Form when pursuing membership in the South Asia Open Archives (SAOA) as long as the institutions meet the In-Kind contributions for SAOA membership.

For questions or information about SAMP, contact Marlies Bauhofer.