South Asian Studies Collection

The UW-Madison South Asia Collection is well-integrated into Memorial Library. While most items are easily accessible through the Library Catalog and can be found in the stacks, rarer and older texts are housed in Special Collections, Tibetan language texts in all formats are in the Tibetan Collection on the 4th floor, and some lower-use items are housed in the off-site shelving facility. Although the collection is directly geared toward the teaching and research of the faculty, students, and staff of UW-Madison, all scholars are encouraged to visit Memorial Library and use the South Asia Collection.

As one of the largest South Asian collections in the country, we provide access to works from and about all regions of South Asia. We strive to promote a global academic culture that equally values primary language research, translation of works, and secondary analysis.

Read more about the South Asia Studies Collection

Finding Books and Serials

The South Asia Collection is discoverable through UW-Madison’s Library Catalog. The Library Catalog is the online catalog of all books, newspapers, periodicals, and films that UW-Madison owns.

For more help finding Periodicals, Newspapers, or online sources, visit our Research Guides:

• South Asian Periodicals Guide
• South Asia Newspaper Guide
• Guide to Free South Asian Resources

For general tips on using Library Catalog, see the libraries’ Library Research Tutorials.

There are many different ways that a language can be transliterated (written in a different script). Most libraries in the United States, including UW-Madison, have agreed to use the Library of Congress’ system for transliteration. In order to “spell” a word correctly when searching our catalog, make sure to check the ALA-LC Transliteration Tables first. Each language is transliterated slightly differently.

Research Guides

Introductory

The Introductory Research on South Asia guide provides links to indexing databases, catalogs, governmental information and other resources for the researcher new to South Asia Studies.

Periodicals

The South Asian Periodicals Guide lists periodicals with South Asian content to which UW subscribes. UW Libraries actively and aggressively support periodical literature from from South Asia. In 2010, we subscribed to over 900 periodicals from South Asia, covering a wide range of subjects from current events and governmental information to research reports and association proceedings to scholarly journals. Furthermore, we try to maintain representative linguistic coverage across the disciplines.

Newspapers

The South Asia Newspaper Guide provides information on newspaper and news magazines published in the geographic region of South Asia. Current and historic holdings in print, electronic, and microfilm formats are divided by country of publication as follows: India; Bangladesh; Nepal and Bhutan; Pakistan; and Sri Lanka. Titles available in electronic format are displayed under the Electronic Titles tab and cross listed in appropriate country of publication page. The guide also includes information on indexes and additional resources that serve as useful tools for identifying and locating newspaper articles.

Online Resources

The Guide to Free South Asian Resources includes news sources, online books, visual resources, government information, and links to academic associations and listservs.

Purchase Recommendations

Users may submit individual purchase requests by filling out the Purchase Recommendation Form.