* tmc * in patientia vestra habetis animam vestram * tmc *

Dear Reader,

The ASIAN STUDIES WWW MONITOR
(including all its subsidiary (and/or sister) pages on "coombs.anu.edu.au" server) has permanently ceased its publishing operations on Friday 21st January 2011.

All of the online resources reported here have been thoroughly checked at the time of their listing. However, it is possible that, with the with the passage of time, many of the originally reported materials might have been removed from the Internet, or changed their online address, or varied the scope and quality of their contents.

Fortunately, in several cases it is possible to access many of the older versions of the resources listed in the MONITOR. This can be easily done via the free services of the "The Internet Archive" http://web.archive.org/, a remarkable brainchild of Brewster Kahle, San Francisco, CA.

- with warm regards -

Editor, Dr T. Matthew Ciolek.

Canberra, 21 January 2011.


26 October 2009

India Water Portal (IWP)

http://indiawaterportal.org

4star
26 Oct 2009

IWP, Bangalore, India

Self-description:
"The India Water Portal is an open, inclusive, web-based platform for sharing water management knowledge amongst practitioners and the general public. It aims to draw on the rich experience of water-sector experts, package their knowledge and add value to it through technology and then disseminate it to a larger audience through the internet."

Site contents:
* Water Conflicts [external link];
* [Outreach to] Schools [external link];
* Sanitation [external link];
* Sign Up;
* Channels (Rainwater Harvesting, Agriculture, Drinking Water, Water Bodies, Urban Water, Groundwater, Watershed Development, Wastewater, Water Quality, Water for Industry, Rivers, Climate Change, General);
* Community (Directory, Solution Exchange, Bulletin Board, General Discussions, Ask The Experts, Events Calendar, Member Blogs, Upload Content, News);
* Directory;
* Blog (Announcements (528), Arghyam (43), "As It Flows" (15), Awards/RFPs/Competitions (90), Bihar Floods (26), Books (27), Climate Change (53), Coastal Waters (16), Community Radio (7), Conf, Wkshop, Training (178), Contribute (2), Dams (22), Ecosan (27), Guest Posts (108), Humour (22), IEC Material (11), Indian Languages (13), International Year of Sanitation (23), IWP (63), Jobs in the water sector in India (45), Kids (8), News (435), Others (64), Photos and movies on current water topics in India (62), River Watch (78), RWH (24), Software (20), Solution Exchange (18), Technology (172), Urban Water (71));
* Upload;
* Contact Us;
* Featured/Latest/Most Read;
* Videos;
* Photos;
* South India Floods
* Discuss
* News;
* Calendar;
* Search.

[A tri-lingual (English, Hindi, Kannada) web site - ed.]

URL http://indiawaterportal.org

Internet Archive http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://indiawaterportal.org

Link reported by: Justin Scott-Coe, H-Water Editor (jscottcoe--at--mail.h-net.msu.edu),
forwarded by h-asia--at--h-net.msu.edu

* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]:
News/ Online Guide/ Documents.
* Publisher [academic - business - government - library/museum - NGO - other]:
NGO
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]:
V. Useful
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000
- under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 3,000

Please note that the above details were correct on the day of their publication. To suggest an update, please email the site's editor at tmciolek@ciolek.com

15 October 2009

John Becker: Pattern and Loom, second edition, 2009, 400 pp. (1st ed. 1986) (a free E-book)

http://staff.hum.ku.dk/dbwagner/Pattern-and-Loom.html

5star
15 Oct 2009

Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Supplied note:
"Dear all, I have now placed this book on the Web for free download:

John Becker, with the collaboration of Donald B. Wagner Pattern and Loom: A Practical Study of the Development of Weaving Techniques in China, Western Asia, and Europe. Second edition, 2009, 400 pp. (1st ed. 1986)
http://staff.hum.ku.dk/dbwagner/Pattern-and-Loom.html

John Becker (1915-1986) was the youngest of the old guard in Scandinavian hand-weaving, and one of the last to know the traditional techniques from daily production. He was also an artist, had the beginning of an academic education, and was careful to draw on other experts as necessary, so that his book is unique: based on his own very extensive experience as a weaver, on personal examination of numerous artefacts, and on written sources in Scandinavian languages, English, French, German, Spanish, Flemish, Chinese and Japanese. In his practical research he wove replicas of ancient samples, and learned from this a great deal about the ancient techniques.

John Becker died in July 1986 at the age of 71, while the first edition of this book was in press. After the publication of an edition of a few hundred, the cliches from which it was printed were destroyed; reprints have therefore not been possible. When his widow Kirsten Becker died in 2003 I inherited the copyright to the book, and the original publishers have kindly relinquished their rights, so a new edition is now possible. In this new edition I have done the typesetting and layout myself, and I hope that readers will find that the sizing and cropping of the illustrations, and their placement in relation to the text, are now more satisfactory than in the original edition.

Publication of a 400-page book in this on-line form is obviously not ideal - I am negotiating with a Danish publisher for a printed edition.
Regards Don Wagner."

Self-description:
"Free download (400 pages, pdf, 23.5 Mbytes)."

Table of contents:
Preface ix
Introduction 1
Part I: Patterned weaves of Han China, 206 BC -- AD 220 7
Patterned weaves of Han China 9
1. The monochrome patterned weaves 16
2. Gauze weaves 35
3. The polychrome silks, jin 55
Part II: Patterned Weaves of Early Western Asia 81
4. Western Asia 83
5. Weft-faced compound twill or samitum 111
Part III: Patterned weaves of the Mediterranean region 145
6. Lampas 147
7. Double-faced weft weaves 196
8. Patterned double cloth 221
9. Damask 248
Part IV: The eclectic pattern weaves of Tang China 287
10. The eclectic pattern weaves of Tang China 289
Part V: Weaving implements 309
11. The development of mechanical patterning: 'The' drawloom 311
12. Our drawloom -- some weaving implements 346
Bibliography 363
Index 376

URL http://staff.hum.ku.dk/dbwagner/Pattern-and-Loom.html

Internet Archive (web.archive.org) [the site was not archived at the time of this abstract]

Link reported by: Donald B. Wagner (dwag--at--alum.mit.edu)

* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]:
Study
* Publisher [academic - business - government - library/museum - NGO - other]:
Academic
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]:
Essential
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000
- under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 30

Please note that the above details were correct on the day of their publication. To suggest an update, please email the site's editor at tmciolek@ciolek.com

01 October 2009

The Endangered Archives Programme: [Recent] Asia Projects

http://www.bl.uk/about/policies/endangeredarch/asia.html

4star
01 Oct 2009

Endangered Archives Programme, Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections, The British Library, London, UK.

Self-description:
"The Endangered Archives Programme. The Programme's aim is to contribute to the preservation of archival material that is in danger of destruction, neglect or physical deterioration world-wide. The main means by which the Programme achieves this is through the creation of digital or microfilm copies of endangered materials and the relocation of the originals to a safe local archival home. Grants are awarded to applicants for these purposes on an annual recurring basis."

Site contents:
EASTERN ASIA
* China (# Survey on surviving dongjing archives in Jianshu, Tonghai and Mengzi, # Preservation through digitisation of the Tangut collection at the Institute of Oriental Studies, St Petersburg Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, # Preservation of the last hieroglyphic manuscripts in China : Shui archives in Libo, Guixhou, # Salvage and preservation of dongjing archives in Yunnan, China: transcript, score, ritual and performance, # Preservation and digitisation of Yi archives in public and private collections in Yunnan, China, # Digitisation of Yi archives in south dialect in Yunnan, China);
* Mongolia (# Preservation through digitisation of rare photographic negatives from Mongolia, # Preservation of rare periodical publications in Mongolia, # The treasures of Danzan Ravjaa);
SOUTH EASTERN ASIA
East Timor (# Preserving East Timor's endangered archives, # Preserving East Timor's endangered archives: stage two);
Indonesia (# Retrieving heritage: rare Old Javanese and Old Sundanese manuscripts from West Java (stage one); # Digitising Cirebon manuscripts, # The MIPES Indonesia: digitising Islamic manuscripts of Indonesian Pondok Pesantren, # Endangered manuscripts of Western Sumatra. Collections of Sufi brotherhoods, # Digitising 'sacred heirloom' in private collections in Kerinci, Sumatra, Indonesia, # Riau manuscripts: the gateway to the Malay intellectual world, # Acehnese manuscripts in danger of extinction: identifying and preserving the private collections located in Pidie and Aceh Besar regencies, # Digitising private collections of Acehnese manuscripts located in Pidie and Aceh Besar Regencies, # Locating, documenting and digitising: preserving the endangered manuscripts of the legacy of the Sultanate of Buton, South-Eastern Sulawesi Province, Indonesia, # The digitisation of Minangkabau's manuscript collections in Suraus);
* Laos (# Archive of Buddhist photographs in Luang Prabang, Laos, # Buddhist archive of photography in Luang Prabang, Laos -- major project, # Buddhist archive of photography in Luang Prabang, Laos -- major project phase II);
* Myanmar (# A pilot project aimed at the preservation of Pa'O religious and literary manuscripts);
* Thailand (# Thai rainbow archives project: a digitised collection of Thai gay, lesbian and transgender publications);
* Vietnam (# Assessment and preservation of the old Vietnamese Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient archive in ancient ideographic Nom script);
SOUTHERN ASIA
* Bhutan (# Digital documentation of manuscript collection in Gangtey, # The digital documentation of manuscripts at Drametse and Ogyen Choling, # The digital documentation of manuscripts in Thadrak, Tshamdrak and Nyephug Temples);
* India (# Survey, conservation and archiving of pre-1947 Telugu printed materials and paintings in India, # Rescuing text: retrieval and documentation of printed books and periodicals published prior to 1950 from public institutions in Eastern India, # Retrieval of two major and endangered newspapers: Jugantara and Amrita Bazar Patrika, # Archiving texts in the Sylhet Nagri script, # Digitising archival material pertaining to 'Young India' label gramophone records, # Archiving 'popular market' Bengali books, # Digital archive of early Bengali drama, # Digital archive of north Indian classical music, # Digital music archiving: digital archive of North Indian classical music phase II (special collections) and digital archive of recorded Bengali songs, # Preserving Marathi manuscripts and making them accessible, # Preserving more Marathi manuscripts and making them accessible - major project, # Preserving early print literature on the history of Tamilnadu, # Strategies for archiving the endangered publications of French India (1800-1923), # Preserving memory: documentation and digitisation of palm leaf manuscripts from northern Kerala, India, # Rescuing Tamil customary law: locating and copying endangered records of village judicial assemblies (1870-1940), # Endangered Urdu periodicals: preservation and access for vulnerable scholarly resources, # Locating and identifying Lepcha manuscripts as a first step towards their preservation, # Digitisation of the manuscripts and xylographs held by the Tibetan Yungdrung Bon Library of the Menri Monastery in Dolanji, India, # Study and collection of Hakku Patras and other documents among folk communities in Andhra Pradesh);
* Iran (# Faces and places in Iran. Iranian photography at the turn of the 19th century, # The Golha radio programmes (Flowers of Persian Song and Poetry));
* Nepal (# Feasibility survey of documenting selected 18th-20th century written heritage from Nepal, # Preservation through digitisation of rare negatives and photographs from Nepal, # Preservation of historic and rare Nepali monographs and periodicals, # Preservation of historic ephemera and manuscripts from Nepal);
WESTERN ASIA
* Armenia, # Preservation through digitisation of the endangered Armenian rare books and making them accessible on the Web (phase 1);
* Azerbaijan (# Pages of Azerbaijan sound heritage, # Voices of the living past: the 'ashug' minstrel music of Azerbaijan);
* Georgia (# Digitising the photo documents of Georgia's central state audio-visual archive);
* East Jerusalem (# Preservation of historical periodical collections (1900-1950) at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Library in East Jerusalem).

URL http://www.bl.uk/about/policies/endangeredarch/asia.html

Internet Archive http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.bl.uk/about/policies/endangeredarch/asia.html

Link reported by: Catherine Collins (catherine.collins--at--bl.uk)

* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]:
Corporate info.
* Publisher [academic - business - government - library/museum - NGO - other]:
Library
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]:
Useful
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000
- under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 30

Please note that the above details were correct on the day of their publication. To suggest an update, please email the site's editor at tmciolek@ciolek.com