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SAMP Prospectus

Purpose of SAMP

The South Asia Materials Project shall acquire and maintain, for the common use of subscribing institutions, a readily accessible collection of materials in digital, microform, or any other format related to the study of South Asia. The collection will be formed and maintained as a cooperative enterprise through library subscriptions, which will entitle the subscribing libraries to access materials from the pool for their use locally. Materials will be collected both through the filming or digitization efforts of the project and through the purchase materials created and/or held by other groups, institutions and companies.

Organization

  • Any institution or nonprofit organization maintaining a library may become a subscribing member of the project by paying the appropriate annual subscription. A subscriber may drop out of the project simply by giving written notice of its intention to withdraw by March 15 of the subscription year.
  • The project will be administered by the Center for Research Libraries, which will bill and receive the subscription fees.
  • There shall be a SAMP Committee consisting of one representative from each subscribing institution wishing to be represented which shall meet annually in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies. The official business of this Committee will be conducted by email ballots.

  • It shall be the function of the Committee to:

    1. Establish annual fees.
    2. Determine and approve any major changes in acquisitions policy.
    3. Allocate funding for the acquisition of new material.
    4. Elect members to the Executive Committee from among its membership.
    5. Advise the Executive Committee as to its wishes in matters related to the acquisition of material to be added to the pool.
  • There shall be an Executive Committee that shall carry on the business of the Project between annual meetings, which shall consist of 4 elected members, one representative of the Library of Congress, one representative of the Committee on South Asian Libraries and Documentation (CONSALD), and a Project Administrator from the staff of The Center for Research Libraries. A Chairperson shall be elected from among the members of the Executive Committee to serve a two year term and to continue to serve as a member of the Executive Committee for one additional year after the expiration of his or her term as Chairperson. The elected members of the Executive Committee shall represent subscribing members of the project and shall be made up of two classes, serving two years each.  Each class shall contain a Librarian Representative and a Faculty Representative.
  1. Election of the Executive Committee
    The Executive Committee shall appoint a nominating committee at least sixty days prior to the annual meeting. The nominating committee shall solicit recommendations through written communications with the full membership and on the basis of these recommendations shall circulate a ballot with the nominees at least thirty days before the annual meeting. The new officers will take office immediately after the annual meeting. Should a vacancy occur on the Executive Committee between elections, the Chairperson of the Executive Committee may appoint a member of the SAMP Committee to fill the vacant position for the remainder of the unfilled term.
     
  2. Duties of the Executive Committee
    • To elect a Chairperson and Secretary from among the members of the Executive Committee who shall serve both the Executive Committee and the project.
    • To make recommendations to the full committee concerning policy.
    • To carry on the business of the project between the meetings of the full committee.
    • To circulate the minutes of each Executive Committee meeting and the annual meeting of the full committee to the subscribers in not more than 60 days after said meeting.
       
  • There shall be a standing committee named the South Asia Open Archives (SAOA).  The standing committee shall have the mission of creating and maintaining, for non-commercial open access, a collection of materials in digital format related to the study of South Asia.
  1. Composition of the South Asia Open Archives
    The South Asia Open Archives shall consist of SAMP members contributing through cash or in-kind assistance to the South Asia Open Archives to work toward its mission.  Simultaneous membership in SAMP is a prerequisite for membership in the South Asia Open Archives. South Asian institutions that become SAOA members through in-kind contributions (including digital volumes and staff time) may apply for a five-year SAMP fee waiver. 
  2. Governance of the South Asia Open Archives
    The South Asia Open Archives shall be governed by an Executive Board comprised of three South Asia Open Archives members, elected from the overall membership, each with a term of three years in staggered rotation, and two ex officio members, a designate from the SAMP Executive Committee and a representative from the Center for Research Libraries. A Chair or co-Chairs shall be determined by consensus of the South Asia Open Archives Committee Executive Board members, from among the South Asia Open Archives Committee Executive Board members, to serve a two-year term.

    Vacancies among the South Asia Open Archives Committee Executive Board members shall be filled through election by members of the South Asia Open Archives. Service as a member of the Executive Board of the South Asia Open Archives shall be limited to two consecutive terms. The South Asia Open Archives Executive Board members shall coordinate the activities of the institutions federated in support of a South Asia Open Archives initiative and report to SAMP annually on the activities of the South Asia Open Archives.

Rights and Obligations of Subscribing Members

  • Subscribers outside North America may be subjected to such restrictions as are necessary for guaranteeing the rapid and safe movement of borrowed film.
  • A subscriber will also have the privilege of purchasing for its own use, at the cost of printing, a positive microform copy from any negative acquired by the project, unless the negative is so restricted as to make duplication impossible.
  • Subscribers will receive regularly issued lists of materials acquired by the project.
  • The borrowing institution will pay transportation and insurance charges on materials borrowed and will reimburse the project for any damage or loss of film that occurs while the film is in the subscriber’s custody. Materials may be borrowed in accordance with CRL's lending policies.

Subscription Fees

  • A member of the project shall pay an annual subscription fee. The fee shall become due and payable in full on July 1st of the subscription year. The subscription year shall run from July 1st of each year to June 30th of the following year.
  • The subscription fee may be changed by a majority vote of subscribing members paying the full fee at the time the vote is taken.
  • Special fees may be established for foreign institutions and for smaller institutions. The SAMP Executive Committee may grant fee waivers for South Asian institutions that participate in SAOA and meet the SAOA requirements for Tier III membership. 
  • South Asian institutions will have full voting and participation rights as members of SAMP, regardless of their annual fee amount. 

Access to Project Material by Nonmembers

  • Positive microform copies acquired by the project will not be lent to nonsubscribers, and subscribers may not borrow such material on behalf of nonsubscribing libraries. However, nothing shall prevent a subscriber from borrowing such material for use in the subscriber's library by a visiting scholar from a non-subscribing institution.
  • Nonsubscribers may purchase a positive microform copy for their own use from any negative owned and controlled by the project in accordance with CRL's policies. Additional income to the project from such sales will be used to increase the scope of the project.

Ownership and Project Termination

  • The assets of the project shall be the property of the Center for Research Libraries with the understanding that subscribers to the project shall always have the right to access any materials acquired by the project and to buy their own positive print from any negative owned and controlled by the project for only the cost of making the positive print.
  • In the event of termination of the project, subscribers to the project shall continue to have the same right of access as above to all materials acquired by the project during its existence.

Amendment of Prospectus

  • A proposal to amend this prospectus may be made by any member of the SAMP Committee, but to be considered during the current year the secretariat must be informed of the proposed amendment at least 90 days prior to the Annual Meeting.
  • Not less than 60 days prior to the Annual Meeting, subscribers will be notified of the proposed amendment.
  • Within 60 days after the Annual Meeting ballots will be sent to all subscribers on the proposed amendment. In order to be approved the amendment must receive 3/4 of the votes of those responding within 30 days.

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Featured: Unique Urdu and Hindi Collection

Prof. Robert Phillips, lecturer for the Program in South Asian Studies at Princeton University, teaches courses in Hindi-Urdu and South Asian Studies, and has used both South Asia Materials Project (SAMP) and CRL resources to support different research, writing, and teaching projects.

Accessing Āmukha in SAMP’s holdings offered an opportunity to incorporate the crucial - but often less-collected - genre of the little magazine into his research on Hindi modernism and a subsequent conference presentation.

CRL Holdings