2011-2012 - Center for Khmer Studies

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THE cKs LiBRARY: REAcHinG GLoBAL fRonTiERsA monk browsing the bookshelves in the cKs libraryfor the past four years, the CKS Board and LibraryCommittee have been concentrating their attention onour new building: choosing and discarding plans,selecting builders and materials, picking woods, colors,designs, and generally trying to make the space as usefuland pleasant as possible. A year after its opening, thebuilding can be considered a resounding success - morereaders have filled the increased number of seats. We nowhave both an official and unofficial reading room; while theofficial one has almost doubled in size, the terrace of thenew building is often just as crowded. Its popularity hasmuch to do with the availability of WiFi and the sereneviews of greenery and frangipani trees that enhance thepeaceful atmosphere. Scholars have also begun to use ournew, spacious carrel room for their research, whilst seminarsand meetings take place in a bright and airy seminarroom.into The Digital AgeThanks to the generosity of Board members and friends ofthe library, as well as the energy and competence of ourlibrarians, and the hard work of the CKS staff and director,operations on the ground are going well. With the newbuilding completed, we can now turn our attention frombricks to bytes, as we plan to extend the reach of the library8 in focus
easily accessible to more people wherever they are aroundthe globe. It will also allow us to discover what is uniquein our inventory, and thus to design an intelligent digitizingprogram to make it more widely available.A center for Global AcquisitionsWhile CKS does its best to reach out, sometimes it is niceto be reached for: The Library of Congress has a worldwideacquisition policy, and we are at present discussingthe prospect of becoming the Library of Congress’s officialagent for the area of Indochina. This has come aboutthrough our membership in CAORC, the Council ofAmerican Overseas Research Centers, and being consideredfor this role is a tribute to CKS and our librarians.Retaining A Local EdgeIn its wisdom, the CKS Board decided that our next acquisitionsshould concentrate with particular energy on mapsand documents that concern local history. Siem Reap iswhere we are headquartered. It has changed enormouslysince CKS was founded in 2000, and will surely changefurther. It is therefore an obvious subject for us to document,using all forms of media available. Some acquisitionshave already been made; besides often being objectsof beauty, maps are particularly relevant here, where, forinstance, discussions between the Kingdom of Siam andthe French Quai d’Orsay to establish the borders ofCambodia went on for more than fifty years - borders thatare still challenged by Thailand today.With so much to look forward to, we are ready to embracethe challenge of the digital age that lies before us.Jacques Hennessy, ChairmanCKS Library Committeeinto the ether. Our catalogue is already available online,but it stands alone, and must be consulted specifically by aresearcher. Our next step would be to integrate it into acomprehensive research tool such as Webcat. This is a catalogueof catalogues, which can tell the user where thebook he or she is searching for is available. For example, ascholar might discover that the only existing copy of theNational Bank of Cambodia’s report for 1960, or twentyyears of records of water levels in the Tonle Sap, both ofwhich are absolutely necessary to finish their research, areon our shelves. Thanks to Webcat, we can expect a visit inperson, or possibly a remote request for a particular item.In short, such an integration of our catalogue will make itResearch Librarian, Mam Vannary in the cKs reading roomin focus 9
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Page 7: Thank You to our 2010-2011 Annual D
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Page 13 and 14: Recent ProjectsIn keeping with our
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Page 23 and 24: gested by Lerner (Felton and Lerner
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Page 27: from the Cambodian War, and then th

2011-2012 - Center for Khmer Studies

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