LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

Mapping the World: collaborative support for research on overseas mapping

The aim of this project is to open up a major under-used resource for research in a wide range of disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences by targeted series-level cataloguing of post-1850 overseas mapping. This will facilitate remote access to key materials by converting map library catalogue records, which at present are held on cards and accessible only to researchers visiting the libraries in person. The areas of coverage include Africa, North and South America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand as well as much of Asia and the Middle East. The individual countries covered range from the tiniest Pacific islands to the vast areas of British Antarctica, from Mediterranean islands such as Cyprus and Malta to countries the size of Nigeria and Canada. Initially, different areas of the world were allocated to each partner but now each institution can also derive CURL records for areas already covered. For example, six libraries have completed work on Australia, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

UK union catalogue of Chinese books

The main aim of the project is to provide a single access point to all research material in Chinese in the UK, and to give a boost to this initiative by a focused programme of substantial retrospective record conversion, concentrating on the most recent (post-Cultural Revolution) scholarship in all fields. Will provide a single access point to all major Chinese language collections in the UK, namely the British Library, and the university libraries of Oxford (Bodleian Library), Cambridge, London (SOAS Library), Leeds (Brotherton Library), Edinburgh and Durham. Database currently contains approximately 190,000 records (probably representing at least 130,000 different titles) from Oxford, Cambridge, Leeds, the British Library, and Durham. Records from SOAS and Edinburgh will be added in the near future.

DOMIC: Documentaries on modern international conflict

DOMIC is a two-year project launched to improve cross disciplinary access to television documentary archives held in the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London. The project supported by Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP) began in January 2000. The archival collections to be covered relate to the Vietnam, Falklands and Gulf Wars, the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli Wars, conflict in the former Yugoslavia, chemical and biological testing and the development of nuclear technology and its impact on international relations and defence policies. Summary guides and detailed catalogues covering some 92,000 items are available on line.

Retrospective conversion of Asian and African collections 1978-1989

Based at the School for Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) project will facilitate the exploration of this research material by researchers and enable them to plan research visits to London more efficiently. It will facilitate the inter-library lending of material which is eligible for such use. It will reveal the wealth of resources that are held on closed access, such as microform and pamphlet literature. It will enable greater work on collaboration with other Libraries collecting in the same subject fields. Searchable through the SOAS web catalogue.

Kennedy Papers

The Kennedy Papers of Captain Malcolm Duncan Kennedy cover the period from 1917 to 1965, relating to Japanese economic, military and political matters.

Kennedy Collection

The Kennedy Collection consists of some 350 books relating chiefly to Japan and other Far Eastern countries.