Reflections and Aspirations
by Virginia Shih¹

2020 marks a milestone in the half-century of international collaborative accomplishments of SEAM (Southeast Asia Materials Project) under the governance of the Center for Research Libraries. SEAM is a global membership-based consortium of academic institutions interested in supporting Southeast Asian scholarly resources. SEAM plays a pivotal role in acquiring, preserving, and providing access to Southeast Asian primary and secondary sources, especially newspapers and journals, for institutional members via interlibrary loan. SEAM serves as the scholarly lifeline for the current vibrant Southeast Asian studies community to fulfill the teaching, research, and learning needs of our faculty and students to generate new scholarship.

During my years as Chair of SEAM (2011-2017), I focused on expanding SEAM membership through my academic and professional networking with the Southeast Asia scholarly community worldwide to recruit new institutional members for SEAM. It is my hope that SEAM will take a proactive role in promoting the use of SEAM resources in pedagogy, exploring project partnerships with institutions in Southeast Asia, and fostering fruitful collaborations within SEAM and beyond in the years to come.

Last but not least, I would like to acknowledge the visionary leadership of the late Professor Fred W. Riggs, the founder and the first chair of SEAM as well as all its subsequent chairs for their dedication and leadership to making SEAM what it is today!

^{1. Virginia Shih is Curator for Southeast Asia and Buddhist Studies at the South/Southeast Asia Library of the University of California, Berkeley.}