Head of South Asian Collections, British Library

Exciting news: The British Library has advertised a new permanent post - Head of South Asian Collections. 

The post will also be advertised on external websites (The Guardian, jobs.ac.uk etc.) today but you can find all details on our website

https://britishlibrary.recruitment.zellis.com/birl/pages/vacancy.jsf?latest=01002429

https://www.bl.uk/careers/apply-for-vacancies

The deadline for applications is 14 June 2021. 

The successful candidate will join the Asian and African Collections Department and will lead the South Asia team in developing, managing and promoting the collection of manuscripts, printed books, newspapers and digital resources from or relating to South Asia. They will be responsible for all projects and activities relating to these collections, and will lead in developing future major programs and partnerships.

South Asia Archives and Library Group Winter Meeting

SOUTH ASIA ARCHIVES AND LIBRARY GROUP

WINTER MEETING

31 January 2020, at the British Library, London NW1 2DB

Programme

13.25:    Welcome & introduction    Hedley Sutton & Antonia Moon, British Library

13.30  -  14.10:    ‘The Endangered Archives Programme: some examples from South Asia’    Graham Jevon, British Library

14.10  -  14.50:    ‘The Two Centuries of Indian Print Project’    Alia Carter & Priyanka Basu, British Library

14.50  -  15.30:    ‘The British Library’s 2019-2020 Buddhism Exhibition’    Jana Igunma, British Library

15.30  -  16.00    Refreshment break (at own expense)

16.00  -  16.30    Show’n’tell of selected collection items    Hedley Sutton, British Library

16.30  -    Business meeting

17.15    Close

Please notify Hedley.sutton@bl.uk, tel. 0207 412 7865 if you plan to attend the meeting. 

Antonia Moon and Hedley Sutton will be waiting at the Library’s front hall information desk from 13.00 to meet and greet, and accompany attendees to the venue.

Connecting Stories: Our British Asian Heritage

Exhibition opening at the Library of Birmingham on 15 July

This family-friendly exhibition, launching on 15 July, will tell the story of the close connections between Britain and India, Pakistan and Bangladesh from 1600 to the present day. It will show how those connections have influenced our food, culture, fashion, politics and heritage and made us who we are today.


The exhibition continues the partnership between the British Library and the Library of Birmingham, bringing together their rich and complementary collections to illustrate this important but little-known aspect of British and local history. There will be over 100 exhibits which highlight many different voices from the past.

Princess Sophia Duleep Singh is one of many people who will feature in the exhibition. Image from IOR/L/PS/11/52, P1608 (Image courtesy of the British Library Board)

Exhibits include letters, posters, photographs, advertisements, surveillance files, campaigning materials, oral history, and even a children’s game and a 19th century paper bag for Indian sweets. I and my co-curator of the exhibition, John O’Brien, hope that the variety of exhibits will prompt visitors to consider the many ways that history is recorded and how gaps and silences can be filled.

The exhibition aims to capture Birmingham's importance in global trade and as a centre of industry.


Mirror of British Merchandise, 1888 (Image courtesy of the British Library Board)

The Library of Birmingham collections include stunning images by local photographers past and present which will be showcased in the exhibition. The image below is from the Dyche Collection, 1950-c1975, MS 2912. (Image courtesy of the Library of Birmingham)

Capturing images of Birmingham’s richly diverse community is an important part of the exhibition and engagement programme. A selection of photographs will be included in the exhibition to give a vivid picture of Birmingham and all the people who live there today. Anyone in Birmingham can get involved now by sending their photograph via Twitter #brumpeeps. Exhibition visitors are also invited to ‘make their mark’ and share their own stories.


Please see the Library of Birmingham’s website for activities throughout the duration of the exhibition, such as family days, oral history training and talks at local libraries.


The exhibition and community engagement programme have been generously supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.


Penny Brook
Head of India Office Records at the British Library and exhibition curator


Further information


Asians in Britain web pages


The Library of Birmingham’s website for details of opening hours and events


#connectingstories
#brumpeeps

PhD placement with the India Office Private Papers at the British Library

The British Library is providing placement opportunities for PhD students from all disciplines to develop and apply transferable research skills outside the university sector. The placements support the professional development of researchers for future career paths both within and outside academia. The India Office Records section has proposed a placement which would enable a PhD student to be involved in a project to put the detailed catalogues of the India Office Private Papers (Mss Eur) foundation collections online.

The India Office Private Papers tell the story of trade with the east, politics, the development of empire and the road to Indian independence. They record the history of Britain as trade and empire permeated our society and the movement of people connected different worlds. They encompass a very broad sweep of subjects, and record many people whose lives were touched by the activities of the East India Company and the India Office.

The India Office Private Papers foundation collections have detailed printed lists but only summary information is available in the Library’s online catalogue, so the riches of these archival collections remain hidden.

Mahadaji Sindhia entertaining a British naval officer and military officer, c.1820
Add.Or.1  (Courtesy of the British Library Board)

These foundation collections include papers of key figures in the East India Company, India Office and Government of India such as Robert Orme (1728-1801) historiographer to the East India Company, and Colin Mackenzie (c1753-1821) Surveyor-General of Madras, then Surveyor-General of India. The foundation collections have particular strengths:

• Orme collection: war, politics and government in South Asia
• Mackenzie collections: discovery of South Asian history, geography, culture and antiquities
• Kaye and Johnston collections: exceptional variety of subjects contained within smaller collections including papers of William Roxburgh, Francis Buchanan-Hamilton and Thomas Stamford Raffles.

Further details about this opportunity to be involved in making these remarkable archival collections more accessible are on the British Library’s website. The application deadline is 4pm on Friday 19 February.

From the Mackenzie Collection of watercolours, 1819, WD1068 (Courtesy of the British Library Board)

Please note that the placement is to work on the India Office Records and Private Papers archival catalogues, not the visual material shown in the images in this blog article.

SAALG winter conference: British Library, 22 January 2016 - do come!

BL Qatar Project

We are pleased to announce the next SAALG conference, which will take place at the British Library on Friday 22nd January 2016. The theme of the conference is metadata, and we have invited curators from a range of institutions to tell us how, through metadata, they have made their collections accessible. Kolkata cemetery records, Arabic manuscripts, and colonial films all feature in the day. There will also be an introduction to the British Library’s Qatar project and a tour of the digitisation studios. See programme below.

SOUTH ASIA ARCHIVE AND LIBRARY GROUP
93rd CONFERENCE

To be held at the British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB on Friday 22nd January 2016 in the Conference Centre (Eliot Room)

A map is available online at http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/quickinfo/loc/stp/


PROGRAMME

Arrival and coffee: 10.30 – 11.00

11.00 – 11.10
Introduction and welcome

11.10 – 11.50
Clare Sorensen, Historic Environment Scotland, 'Scotland in India, India in Scotland : an unexpected archive’

11.50 – 12.30
Yasmin Faghihi, Cambridge University Library, ‘FIHRIST: metadata, collaboration and sustainability’

12.30 – 1.50
Lunch (provided) and networking

1.50 – 2.30
Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge, ‘Old media and new digital literacy: the Colonial Film Database’

2.30 – 3.30
Introduction to the Qatar Project at the British Library and tour of Qatar digitisation studio

3.30 – 4.00   
Tea

4.00 – 4.30
Business meeting

Conference ends

The fee for the day is £20.00, which includes lunch and refreshments. To make your booking, please email Antonia Moon at the British Library by Friday 8th January.

If you have to cancel your place after Friday 8th January 2016, you may be asked to pay an administrative charge.

Pamphlets from the former India Office Library recently added to the British Library's Online Catalogue

The British library has recently added catalogue records for a collection of about 540 pamphlets, received in the former India Office Library during the 1920s and 1930s. Catherine Pickett has written a piece for the Electronic British Library Journal which reveals that the majority of the pamphlets are South Asian imprints, some of which are very rare. For the full text of the article follow the below link

http://www.bl.uk/eblj/2012articles/article12.html

British Library European Studies Blog - Multiculturalism in 18th Century Portuguese India?

Readers of the SAALG blog may also be interested in a post recently added to the British Library European Studies Blog by Barry Taylor, Curator of Hispanic Studies. He discusses a Portuguese pamphlet in the British Library which reported the 'happy news of the conversion of a yogi, who in the religious house of Bom Jesus in Goa received holy baptism on 8 September 1735' (Lisboa Occidental: na Officina Joaquiniana da Musica, 1737) BL shelfmark: RB.23.a.21030.

For the full post including an image follow the link below:

http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/european/2013/07/multiculturalism-in-18th-century-portuguese-india.html

SAALG 88th Conference and British Library Exhibition - Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire

Participants of the 88th SAALG conference held at the British Library on Friday 8th February enjoyed a fascinating day of talks examining the Mughals, which culminated in a visit to the British Library's current wonderful exhibititon Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire.  

If you have not yet visited the exhibition it is running until 2nd April 2013 and is well worth a visit. It is the first of its kind to document the entire historical period of the Mughal dynasty, from the 16th to the 19th century, through more than 200 exquisite manuscripts and fine paintings drawn almost exclusively from the British Library's extensive collection.

A newly identified portrait of Dara Shikoh (1615-59), the favourite son and heir-apparent of Emperor Shah Jahan (r.1627-58) attributed to the artist Murar, circa 1631-32. This portrait features in the only surviving album compiled by Dara Shikoh, a passionate connoisseur of the arts and scholar of religion. The album was personally dedicated by Dara Shikoh to his beloved wife Nadira Banu Begum in 1641-42; they were married in 1633. Image Copyright of British Library

To enhance your visit you can also visit the British Library's exhibition blog  or view images available on the British Library's Facebook page . The information here complements the exhibition book by J. P. Losty and curator of the exhibition, Malini Roy, which is also a very informative and beautifully presented read.

If you were unable to make it to the SAALG conference we can highly recommend the British Library's Mughal Study Day which is being held on Saturday 9th March, which also includes a visit to the exhibition. For the full program and booking information click here.

SAALG is incredibly grateful to the British Library for hosting our conference and enabling those who attended to learn more about and engage with the sumptuous world of the Mughals. More blog posts will follow here summarizing the SAALG talks and highlighting related pieces from the exhibition, but if you can make a visit to see it in person before April please don't miss out.

With thanks to the British Library Press and Policy office for providing content and images http://pressandpolicy.bl.uk/ 

88th SAALG Conference - Friday 8th February 2013 - The Mughals

SAALG is very pleased to announce that its next conference will take place on Friday 8th February at the British Library. The day will focus on The Mughals and will include talks on Mughal, music, art and the Mughal imperial library. There will also be a fantastic opportunity to view the current British Library exhibition Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire with highlights presented by the curatorial team.

A folio from the Royal Asiatic Society's manuscript Persian 239 which bears the seals
of several Mughal Emperor's and is displayed in the current British Library exhibition 

The full program for the day is:

10.15 - 10.45    Arrival, networking and refreshments
10.45 - 11.00    Welcome by Dr Malina Roy (Curator of Visual Arts, British Library)
11.00 - 11.40    The 'Spurious' Jahangirnamah: A Preliminary Study. Dr Saqib Baburi (Teaching Fellow, Department of the Study of Religions, SOAS)
11.40 - 12.20    The Mughal Imperial Library. Ursula Sims-Williams (Curator of Iranian Collections, British Library and Honorary Librarian, Ancient India and Iran Trust)
12.20 - 13.00    SAALG Business Meeting
13.00 - 14.00    Lunch
14.00 - 14.40    'Cultivation and connoisseurship: the social history of musical manuscripts in Mughal India' Dr. Katherine Schofield (Lecturer, Music Department, Kings College London)
14.40 - 15.20    'Image and essence in the Akbarnama' Emily Hannam (MPhil Student, Khalili Research Centre, University of Oxford)
15.20 - 16.00     Guided tour of highlights of the British Library Exhibition 'Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire'
16.00 - 17.00     Additional time to view the exhibition

The conference fee including the visit to the exhibition is £15 payable on the day. Although lunch is not included the British Library has a number of food and drink establishments on site and so there will still be an opportunity to network with colleagues during the break. For more details visit http://www.bl.uk/whatson/planyourvisit/fooddrink/index.html

If you would like to attend please email Helen Porter, SAALG Chair at hp@royalasiaticsociety.org for a booking form or more information, by Friday 1st February.

Untold lives: officers of the Bengal Army

I recommend readers of the SAALG blog look at Hedley Sutton's post of 19th March 2012 on the British Library's Untold Lives blog -  http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/untoldlives/
Entitled 'British Army officers - names, nationalities, fatalities and a phantom', it looks at the appendices to Lives of the officers of the Bengal Army, 1758 - 1834 by Major V.C.P. Hodson (OIR355.332) and makes very entertaining reading.

Untold Lives - Sharing Stories from the Past

The Untold Lives blog has just been launched by the British Library. Our collections contain stories of people’s lives worldwide, from the dawn of history to the present day. They are told through the written word, images, audio-visual and digital materials. The Untold Lives blog shares those stories, providing fascinating and unusual insights into the past and bringing out from the shadows lives that have been overlooked or forgotten. The blog will include stories that will be of interest to readers of the SAALG blog. There is already a story about East India Company warehouse labourers, and tales of Austrian and German missionaries and madams in India will appear in the blog soon.

We hope to inspire new research and encourage enjoyment, knowledge and understanding of the British Library and its collections. In addition to stories from the past, we will give glimpses of the hidden life of the Library and provide information about events and exhibitions. The blog will contain many links to act as signposts to research information and online resources that you can explore for work or pleasure.

The Untold Lives blog is managed by the History and Classics department but will include contributions from colleagues across the Library as a whole and from partners in collaborative projects such as Making Britain.

Changes to the British Library's website

Recently we introduced a new home page and search facility on our website. This new home page, which is the result of extensive user testing, has new navigation labels, a rotating carousel of images and dropdown menus to help users find our full range of web content and services much more easily.
While the new home page looks quite different, the rest of the website is unchanged. So there is no need to edit your bookmarks or favourites. Meanwhile, a major project to redevelop a new website from scratch is already underway.
The new search ('Explore the British Library') is a major change, as it now allows users to search much more than our web pages and main catalogue. It retrieves twice as many journal article records as before, as well as sound recordings, 'trade literature', theses, datasets, archived UK websites, maps and music scores - adding up to over 60 million items.
Web page and catalogue results appear in separate tabs, and it is is easier to refine your results than before.
Please let us know what you think webeditor@bl.uk
You can also tweet your comments using #BLnewhomepage

The Southeast Asia Library Group and early printing in Burma

Street in Wuntho by Felix Beato, 1889-1891.
(Cambridge University Library Y3029A-014)

This is a post to introduce the Southeast Asia Library Group. A  pan-European group, SEALG hosts an annual meeting, publishes an annual newsletter and maintains a JISC mail list  as well as linking to some incredibly useful Southeast Asian digital collections, cataloguing tools and members' initiatives on its website.

In its latest newsletter San San May (Curator for Burmese, British Library) writes about early printing in Burma (see pages 32-40) and includes a list of books held at the British Library which were printed at Maulmain, Tavoy or Rangoon before 1855.

SEALG's next meeting will be held in Cambridge,  9th-10th September, in collaboration with the 26th ASEASUK conference.  For further information, go to SEALG's home page, and look under the Meetings tag.  Alternatively, contact Jana Igunma (Henry Ginsburg Curator for Tai, Lao and Cambodian) at the British Library.

For a British Library resource guide to their Southeast Asian collections, see: http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/seasia/searesources.html

Science and environment in India 1780-1920

The India Office Records in the British Library document the activities of the English East India Company and the British administration of India from 1600 to 1947. This guide makes a great part of this material relating to science and the environment material newly accessible via sign-posted routes into the archives and detailed lists of the principal records. It also gives the historical and archival context of the documents, outlining the British involvement in science in India and explaining how the records are organised.

The guide is arranged into the following sections: plant and botanic gardens; agriculture; forests and forestry; animals and animal husbandry; geology; meteorology; health and disease; irrigation and water control; communications and the built environment; ethnography; landscape and topography.