Preserve the SRIFIAS Library to Ensure Indiana University's Continuing Strength in Inner Asian Studies
9 Comments
T
Timur Kocaoglu
10 years ago
Featured
For the memory of one of the greatest scholars on Inner Asia (Eurasia) Prof. Denis Sinor, SRIFIAS should be kept alive at Indiana University also to mark the leading role that Indiana University has played for more than half century on Inner Asian Studies and the PIAC around the world thanks to Prof. Sinor.
I
Irina Selyutina
11 years ago
Featured
Dear colleagues, I share the deep concern of specialists in the field of Eurasian studies the perspective of closure SRIFIAS and its outstanding library resources. Request to the leadership of Indiana University to find a possible solution to the problem and preserve the unique Sinor Research Institute for world science.
Irina Selyutina,
Dr. of Philology, Institute of Philology, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences.
M
Mark Ellis
11 years ago
Featured
This library is a global treasure. You really cannot replace these collections once they are dispersed. Please find a way to keep it together for future researchers.
E
ESCAS
11 years ago
Statement by the European Society for Central Asian Stuides (ESCAS)
We have received the news about the uncertain future facing the Sinor Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies (SRIFIAS) at Indiana University, Bloomington (USA) with dismay and alarm. This institute has been a leading centre of Inner and Central Asian Studies, not only in the US but also worldwide. The SRIFIAS library and the centre have been important locations for high quality research and scholarly exchange for decades. Scholars benefiting from the facilities of SRIFIAS have made important contributions to knowledge in their fields, enhancing Indiana University’s positive global image in the process. Having such an institute should not be treated as a luxury: it plays an important role in generating much needed knowledge and expertise in a rapidly changing world. If implemented, the planned closure would lead to a serious impoverishment of the US academic landscape and to the irreversible disappearance of a prestigious centre of learning at a time when it is most needed.
The President, the board members and the Advisory Board members of the European Association for Central Asian Studies (ESCAS)
www.escas.org
G
Gulchekhra Sultonova
11 years ago
Featured
Gulchekhra Sultonova
Assosiate Prof. Dr. of History, Institute of History Academy of the Sciences of Uzbekistan
Fellow of Humboldt Foundation.
M
Marianne Kamp
11 years ago
Associate Professor of History, University of Wyoming
The special collections housed by SRIFIAS have been open to scholars for decades, and I had the opportunity to use that collection while I was doing dissertation research. I showed up, unexpectedly, but the staff (back when there was staff, in the early 1990s) let me in, and I was able to access rare materials useful to my research. I also ran into another scholar, the eminent Turkologist Dr. Ingeborg Baldauf, who happened to be in Bloomington using the SRIFIAS collection at the same time.
SRIFIAS is unique within the United States. For scholars studying these areas of the world, we know there is one collection that is more likely to house important materials than any other library or collection in the US, and that is SRIFIAS. When thinking about the disposition of my own collection of research materials at the end of my career, I have long planned to deposit them as SRIFIAS, specifically so that they will be available to other scholars in a reliable, ongoing, findable way. If there is no more SRIFIAS, then obviously, I will not be able to do that, and neither will the other Central Eurasia scholars out there. This collection is far more than a room in Indiana: it is a trust held for scholars worldwide. I urge you in the strongest terms not to abandon Indiana University's decades of support to this very unusual area of study. I urge you to provide support and funding for rehousing the SRIFIAS collection in a way that will continue to ensure its accessibility to scholars.
A
Amita Vempati
11 years ago
Featured
As the outgoing President of the Association of Central Eurasian Students, I hope that the resounding student support to keep the SRIFIAS will be reflected as a dedicated space in SGIS. If IU and SGIS are committed to the students of regional studies, they will surely recognize the uniqueness of the SRIFIAS as an unparalleled resource for scholars of Central Eurasia and for fulfilling their global and international aims. Through this petition, hopefully they will hear our voices as well.
H
Hushnud Abdurasulov
11 years ago
Featured
SRIFIAS belongs to everyone who does research and thus should survive for the benefit of international scholars
For the memory of one of the greatest scholars on Inner Asia (Eurasia) Prof. Denis Sinor, SRIFIAS should be kept alive at Indiana University also to mark the leading role that Indiana University has played for more than half century on Inner Asian Studies and the PIAC around the world thanks to Prof. Sinor.
Dear colleagues, I share the deep concern of specialists in the field of Eurasian studies the perspective of closure SRIFIAS and its outstanding library resources. Request to the leadership of Indiana University to find a possible solution to the problem and preserve the unique Sinor Research Institute for world science. Irina Selyutina, Dr. of Philology, Institute of Philology, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences.
This library is a global treasure. You really cannot replace these collections once they are dispersed. Please find a way to keep it together for future researchers.
Statement by the European Society for Central Asian Stuides (ESCAS) We have received the news about the uncertain future facing the Sinor Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies (SRIFIAS) at Indiana University, Bloomington (USA) with dismay and alarm. This institute has been a leading centre of Inner and Central Asian Studies, not only in the US but also worldwide. The SRIFIAS library and the centre have been important locations for high quality research and scholarly exchange for decades. Scholars benefiting from the facilities of SRIFIAS have made important contributions to knowledge in their fields, enhancing Indiana University’s positive global image in the process. Having such an institute should not be treated as a luxury: it plays an important role in generating much needed knowledge and expertise in a rapidly changing world. If implemented, the planned closure would lead to a serious impoverishment of the US academic landscape and to the irreversible disappearance of a prestigious centre of learning at a time when it is most needed. The President, the board members and the Advisory Board members of the European Association for Central Asian Studies (ESCAS) www.escas.org
Gulchekhra Sultonova Assosiate Prof. Dr. of History, Institute of History Academy of the Sciences of Uzbekistan Fellow of Humboldt Foundation.
Associate Professor of History, University of Wyoming The special collections housed by SRIFIAS have been open to scholars for decades, and I had the opportunity to use that collection while I was doing dissertation research. I showed up, unexpectedly, but the staff (back when there was staff, in the early 1990s) let me in, and I was able to access rare materials useful to my research. I also ran into another scholar, the eminent Turkologist Dr. Ingeborg Baldauf, who happened to be in Bloomington using the SRIFIAS collection at the same time. SRIFIAS is unique within the United States. For scholars studying these areas of the world, we know there is one collection that is more likely to house important materials than any other library or collection in the US, and that is SRIFIAS. When thinking about the disposition of my own collection of research materials at the end of my career, I have long planned to deposit them as SRIFIAS, specifically so that they will be available to other scholars in a reliable, ongoing, findable way. If there is no more SRIFIAS, then obviously, I will not be able to do that, and neither will the other Central Eurasia scholars out there. This collection is far more than a room in Indiana: it is a trust held for scholars worldwide. I urge you in the strongest terms not to abandon Indiana University's decades of support to this very unusual area of study. I urge you to provide support and funding for rehousing the SRIFIAS collection in a way that will continue to ensure its accessibility to scholars.
As the outgoing President of the Association of Central Eurasian Students, I hope that the resounding student support to keep the SRIFIAS will be reflected as a dedicated space in SGIS. If IU and SGIS are committed to the students of regional studies, they will surely recognize the uniqueness of the SRIFIAS as an unparalleled resource for scholars of Central Eurasia and for fulfilling their global and international aims. Through this petition, hopefully they will hear our voices as well.
SRIFIAS belongs to everyone who does research and thus should survive for the benefit of international scholars
Associate Professor of History, Miami University