The South Asian Bibliographer

The South Asian Bibliographer, whose first issue appeared in New Delhi on March 13, 1998, continues the former Accessions List: South Asia, and its predecessors, published and distributed by the New Delhi and Islamabad Offices of the Library of Congress between 1962 and 1996.

The South Asian Bibliographer, as its predecessors, is a byproduct of the Cooperative Acquisitions Programs undertaken by the two offices in South Asia on behalf of the Library of Congress and other North American research libraries. It lists current books, new serials, maps, video and audio cassettes and other library materials published in the countries of South Asia which were selected and acquired for the program.

Reflecting the unique features of the Cooperative Acquisitions Programs, The South Asian Bibliographer is regional and multi-lingual in coverage and wide-ranging and broad-based in scope. The bibliography covers all countries of South Asia, from Afghanistan to Sri Lanka, and from Pakistan to Burma, including Tibetan language publications issued in India, Nepal and China. This is the only printed bibliography of current books devoted to the region as a whole.

All major languages of the region are represented in the bibliography in romanized format; approximately 60% of the titles listed have been published in English. Trans-national coverage of common languages such as Tamil, Bengali, Tibetan, Urdu and Sindhi permits cross-cultural comparisons and studies.

To meet the wide-ranging interests of the clientele of the Cooperative Acquisitions Programs, titles listed in this bibliography cover all subjects and areas of human endeavor, including science and technology, literature and the arts, the social and political sciences, history, religion and philosophy, medicine, and the law. It includes selected children's books and reprints of works of interest to the region. All types of publishing in the region are represented: the book trade, government and institutional publishers, non-governmental organizations of all types, international organizations, and author-publishers.

The bibliography does not represent the complete bibliographic output of the countries of the region. It includes only titles which were deemed to be of interest to scholarly research and general information in North America. It does not include text books, popular fiction, unrevised editions of formerly published works, translations of Western books, popularization of scientific and technical subjects and, in general, books intended for the lay reader.

Items included are cataloged following the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules and Library of Congress practice. Full MARC records for most titles listed will be available in the bibliographic utilities and in the LC online catalog. Library of Congress Control Numbers, ISBN and/or ISSN numbers are included to assist in retrieving records or ordering titles.

Subscriptions to The South Asian Bibliographer may be placed with Sage Publications Inc. in New Delhi, London, and Thousand Oaks, California, or with any authorized dealer.

Back files of the Accessions Lists formerly published by the Library of Congress are available in microfiche from the Library's Photoduplication Service, Washington, D.C., 20540-5230.