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George Miller Southeast Asian Studies at ANU – Personal recollection Collecting Publications for Southeast Asian Teaching and Research in Canberra, 1968‐1997 W.G. Miller, 2018 A meeting in mid‐1968 of the Australian Advisory Council on Bibliographical Services (AACOBS) – a body made up of the heads of the major libraries in Australia – considered a detailed report written by Mr. T. D. Sprod on the “Acquisition of Indonesian Publications”.1 The report had been called for because, while there was a growing interest in Australian schools, universities and government in Indonesia, the report found that “the libraries of Australia have yet to achieve an adequate and uninterrupted flow of Indonesian publications into their collections”. Sprod’s thoroughly researched report canvassed the reasons for this sorry state of affairs and concluded that “no comprehensive and continuing supply of publications is likely unless an Australian officer is stationed in Indonesia”. It recommended among other things “That a cooperative Australian procurement office be set up under AACOBS sponsorship”.2 Several libraries, particularly the National Library of Australia (NLA), the ANU, and Monash, Melbourne and Sydney Universities had acquired some Indonesian material as best they could through field visits by academics, blanket orders with Indonesian bookshops and the purchase of microfilms, but these methods were intermittent or unreliable. The NLA in particular had developed a rich collection of Dutch‐language material on Indonesia of an historical nature, particularly through the activity of a staff member who had formerly been a resident of the Dutch East Indies, Mr. John van Pelt.3 My own involvement with the proposed procurement office began in 1968 because I was then a librarian at the University of Sydney library, had completed an undergraduate degree in Indonesian and Malayan Studies, and was, in September of that year, about to go to Jakarta on a Rotary Scholarship for twelve months. Mr. (later Sir) Harold White, the National Librarian, on hearing of my forthcoming trip to Indonesia, asked me to investigate the possibility of purchasing publications and dispatching them to Australian libraries. I undertook this task on an informal basis for twelve months. There is no point in repeating the frustrations of doing so within the cumbersome bureaucratic environment of Indonesia (and Australia) at that time; these have been outlined previously.4 1 Sprod, T.D., Acquisition of Indonesian Publications: A Report to AACOBS. (Hobart, June 1968) (Unpublished) 2 Sprod, Acquisition, p. 11. 3 An historical appraisal of Asian collections in Australian university libraries may be found in Baker, Dorothy M., An Historical Appraisal of Asian Studies Collections in Australian University Libraries. MA dissertation, University of Southern Queensland, 1995. 4 Miller, W.G. ‘The Establishment of a Southeast Asia Co‐operative Acquisitions Programme: Some Practical Problems’, pp. 276‐284 in Enid Bishop and Jean M. Waller (eds), Interest in research material for Southeast Asian studies was of growing world‐wide concern at that time, and fortuitously, a high‐level international conference was held at Puncak, Indonesia in April 1969, hosted by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and sponsored by The East‐West Center, Hawaii, and the Committee on Research Materials on Southeast Asia (CORMOSEA) of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS). Harold White attended from Australia, together with myself and Alan Smith from Monash. Not only did the conference give impetus to the improved collection and preservation of research material internationally, and to closer cooperation between libraries within Southeast Asia,5 through the presence of Australia’s National Librarian, it meant Australia was seen as a concerned and responsible partner in these initiatives and would continue to be involved in future developments. While in Jakarta during his visit, White asked me to join the National Library of Australia staff and to establish an acquisitions office in Indonesia on an official basis. There were several bureaucratic obstacles to be overcome, including the opposition of the Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Mr. Max Loveday, who once told me that he opposed the establishment of the programme because, he said, nobody read Indonesian in Australia. Nevertheless, with the perseverance of White and his successor, Mr. Alan Fleming, after several “pilot projects”, an Indonesian Acquisitions Office was firmly established finally in Jakarta in 1971 and has continued, sometimes falteringly and in various manifestations, until the present time (March 2018). It has been an important element in providing material for the development of Canberra as a research centre for the study of the Order Baru and Reformasi periods. The Office initially acquired publications not only for the NLA, but for several university libraries as well, including the ANU. The ANU was developing its Asian collections during the 1960s and 1970s under the leadership of its Asian Studies Librarian, Miss Enid Bishop (later Mrs. Enid Gibson). Bishop had previously worked for the NLA in New York and London, and studied Classical Chinese at ANU. Early collecting emphasis was on East Asian material, but there was also a consistent effort to improve the Southeast Asian collection using the best methods then available. Bishop gained a high profile in international “Oriental librarianship” through her editorship of the first nine numbers of the Bulletin of the International Association of Orientalist Librarians, founded at the 27th International Congress of Orientalists in Ann Arbor in 1967. International Cooperation in Orientalist Librarianship: Papers presented at the Library Seminars, 28 International Congress of Orientalists, Canberra, 6‐12 January 1971 (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1972); Miller, W.G. ‘Cooperative acquisitions from one Third World country: the Australian experience in Indonesia’, pp. 267‐276 in D.A. Clarke (ed), Acquisitions from the Third World: Papers of the Ligue des bibliotheques europeenes de recherche seminar 17‐19 September 1973. (London: Mansell, 1975) 5 Khoo Siew Mun (ed), Memorable Journey: Commemorating 25 Years of CONSAL (Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians) 1970‐95. (Kuala Lumpur: CONSAL X, 1996), pp. 20‐22. Among other initiatives, she compiled and published the first list of Australian theses written on Asia up till 1970.6 Canberra’s reputation as a centre keen to develop Asian collections was further enhanced in 1971 when, as part of the 28 International Congress of Orientalists, a quality program of library seminars involving many high‐powered overseas speakers was organised by Miss Jean Waller, Deputy Librarian at ANU, and Enid Bishop.7 A number of leading Southeast Asian librarians participated, further strengthening ties between Australian librarians and their Southeast Asian colleagues. The exciting flurry of activities around Southeast Asian librarianship continued in Canberra. An important development to come out of the Congress was the holding of a meeting in the NLA to consider the establishment of a Southeast Asian library group modelled on CORMOSEA in the USA and the South East Asia Library Group (SEALG) in the United Kingdom, as outlined in my article in the Australian Library Journal.8 Miss Dulcie Penfold, in charge of acquisitions in the NLA, carried forward this idea and the Southeast Asian Research Materials Group (SEARMG) was formally established at the Conference of the Library Association of Australia in Sydney the following August (1971). Ms. Barbara Guthrie from the ANU Library was the Secretary, (succeeded in 1973 by Robyn Stokes), while Tony Reid of the ANU acted as the first of a number of academic “Advisers” on the Committee. The SEARMG Newsletter provided a unique means of communication between librarians and users, as well as promoting current research activities between academics themselves in the years before the appearance of the Asian Studies Association of Australia Newsletter (later Review) which began only in March 1975. SEARMG Newsletter went on to publish 38 issues, the final number being in October 1990. Unfortunately for SEARMG, economic rationalism was in vogue in the 90s and the ANU library management, driven by a “user pays” philosophy, refused to continue to support the publication and distribution of the SEARMG Newsletter, as modest as it was. The Newsletter was considered marginal to the core activities of the library where service to users was to be restricted to those attending ANU. Staff in the Asian Studies Division of the Library were told not to extend assistance to researchers from other universities. Two important events took place towards the end of 1972 and in early 1973 that had significant consequences for the ANU’s Southeast Asian collections. Mr. Cecil Hobbs, the former Head of the Southern Asian Section, Orientalia Division, Library of Congress, was appointed in October 1972 for six months as a Consultant. His task was to produce a plan for the development of the Southeast Asian collection to support “Southeast Asian area 6 Bishop, Enid (comp), Australian Theses on Asia: A Union List of Higher Degree Theses Accepted by Australian Universities to 31 December 1970. Canberra: Faculty of Asian Studies, ANU, 1972 7 See Bishop and Waller (1972) 8 Miller, George, ‘Living with Asia – a role for the Librarian?”, Australian Library Journal, 19 (7), August 1970: 260‐264. studies” and to recommend ways of making the collection more
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