South Asian Studies

In 1999, four universities in the Research Triangle Park area - Duke, North Carolina State, the University of North Carolina, and North Carolina Central - received funding for a Title VI Resource Center, the NC Center for South Asia Studies, for the continued development of South Asian studies on these four campuses.  Title VI center status marks the highest level of federal funding for area studies programs in the United States, and the grant enabled a rapid growth in the coordination and expansion of South Asia-related teaching and research that had been gathering momentum for a number of years prior to this development.  While cooperation among the libraries in the area of South Asian studies had likewise existed for quite some time, it was only natural that increased coordination regarding South Asia library resources take on a more formal role.  To this end, UNC and NCSU joined the Library of Congress Overseas Acquisitions Program for South Asia in 2000, with subject profiles carefully coordinated between the three universities.  Subsequently, Duke's South Asian Studies Bibliographer's duties were expanded to cover the development of South Asia resources at all four universities in the fall of 2001. He was joined briefly by a South Asian Studies Library Fellow to collaborate in this process a year later.  We are working to draw greater attention to the cooperative arrangement, as it provides library users with access to far more materials on South Asia than are available on any of the single campuses.  A student or faculty member at any of the four campuses can request an item held at any of the other campuses (through normal interlibrary loan procedures), and in the vast majority of cases it should be received within 24 to 48 hours.

In keeping with the cooperative nature of the collection development arrangements for South Asian materials between Duke, the University of North Carolina, and North Carolina State University, the following guide is designed for library users on all three campuses.  Historically, Duke has always been the largest collector of South Asian materials, as can be seen in the listings that follow.  Copies of selected items lacking at UNC and/or NCSU are being ordered.    

Although locations and call numbers are provided in this guide, users are encouraged to check their local online catalogs before consulting items in these listings.  The location of a given item may change, and a few of the items here have duplicate copies in different locations for the same university.  In interests of space, generally only one location is listed here.  

These subject guides will continue to be expanded in the future, so please feel free to write us with suggestions or comments on these pages. Questions about the cooperative arrangements between the Triangle universities, or about the collections at any single university, are most welcome.  We are also available for consultations on reference questions pertaining to the South Asia collections.