LES SOURCES CONTEMPORAINES DU LAOS / - EFEO-Vientiane

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Presentation
This outline of the work « Contemporary sources on Laos », which falls
within the scope of scientific collaboration of a larger Franco-Lao project,
covers the period from 1976 (the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos was
founded in December 1975) to August 2003 (the commemoration of the 20 th
anniversary of the [Lao] Institute on Cultural Research). Falling into another
section of this said project is a work entitled « An inventory of contemporary
sources of research on Laos ». It is a follow-up of two other works
Bibliography on Laos : Volume 1 (1666-1961) published by Pierre-Bernard
Lafont in 1964 (reprinted in 1978) in PEFEO (Vol. L), and Bibliography on
Laos : Volume 2 (1662 – 1975) published by the same author in 1978.
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As is the case for the two previous works, this inventory aims to serve
four main purposes :
1. To facilitate access to documents and research material for students,
researchers and experts in their search for data ;
2. To present to an informed public a list of publications and existing
documents ;
3. To offer national and international educational bodies an overview of the
situation (insufficiencies or advancements) in the various branches of
instruction or fields of knowledge on Laos - and the possibility of finetuning
their targets of research ;
4. To enable local and foreign librarians to complement or supplement their
data bases.
To this end, this bibliography of existing works has been made as
comprehensive as possible of accessible works. Published in nineteen Asian
languages and dialects and fifteen European languages, it encompasses all
scientific, technical, artistic and miscellaneous documents in electronic or
printed forms (manuscripts, reproductions, microfiches, microfilms, CDs,
DVDs, video cassettes, sound tapes, etc.)
Work on the first draft of this inventory commenced at the end of 1997
through 1999. Material from bibliographies, monographs, brochures and
articles from some 1000 scientific journals were collected. A section is
dedicated to references on modern day history, featuring press articles from
the years 1976-1986 ; a period when information on the country was difficult
to come by. In 1999, as the list of 5000 or so collected titles was being
prepared for publication, it became obvious that this compilation was but the
« tip of the iceberg » of information on Laos available from existing sources.
Therefore it seemed only sensible to enlarge this collection of mostly nonrecorded
documents with limited accessibility – namely, university
dissertations and theses, papers delivered at symposiums, the numerous
notes and reports issued by government bodies, international organizations