Ancient India and Iran Trust Library

• Institution Details
• Description of Collections
• Collections held in Ancient India and Iran Trust Library
• Subjects and Material Types
• Management Information
• Catalogue Information

Institution Details

Ancient India and Iran Trust Library

• Library home page
• Opening hours
• Access regulations
• Contact details
• Contact e-mail
• Catalogue
• Cambridge University Library Union Catalogue

Location in the UK

London & South East

Description of Collections

Scope

Ancient India & Iran Trust Library covers most aspects of South and Central Asian and Iranian studies. The four main constituent collections are the Bailey, the Van Lohuizen, the Allchin and the Bawden. The Bailey library specialises in Asian languages, with a focus on Iranian and the emphasis on comparative linguistics; the van Lohuizen in the art and archaeology of South and South-East Asia; the Allchin in the pre- and protohistory and archaeology of South Asia (this library has not been transfered yet to Brooklands House premises); and the Bawden in Mongolian studies. Bailey library and the other three complement one another in that the Bailey covers the field of language and the remaining three the culture and civilization in general. As regards the type of material, the library has collections of books/monographs (this collection numbers 20,000 volumes), periodicals, offprint articles, transparencies, photographs, and manuscripts (of which, so far, only Persian, Armenian and Malay have been catalogued). The Trust recently acquired the slide collection of the late Prof. and Mrs Howard Wilson (this is on Oriental (mainly religious) art and numbers 25,000 slides).

History & development

The Library was formally established with the creation of the Ancient India & Iran Trust in 1978. It originally comprised the libraries of Prof. Sir Harold Bailey and Prof. J. & Dr. J. van Lohuizen; it has been recently augmented by the library of Prof. Charles Bawden, and awaits the arrival of the library of Drs R. & B. Allchin. More libraries have been promised to the Trust by other scholars (mainly art-historians and/or archaeologists of the region).

User focus

The Library caters for research workers, students and members of the public, and is for reference only.

Collections held in Ancient India and Iran Trust Library

• Allchin library
• Bailey Library
• Bailey Manuscript Collection
• Bawden Library
• Lady P. Betjeman (Chetwode) collection of transparencies and photographs
• Prof. and Mrs. Howard Wilson collection of slides
• Van Lohuizen Library

Subjects and Material Types

Regions

Central Asia and the Caucasus, East Asia, Near & Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, South East Asia.

Countries

Afghanistan, Armenia, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Sri Lanka.

Languages of material

Arabic, Armenian, Burmese, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Modern (1453-), Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Kurdish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Mongolian, Norwegian, Ossetian; Ossetic, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Sanskrit, Sinhalese, Spanish, Swedish, Syriac, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish.

Subjects

Archaeology, Arts, Geography, History, Language, Literature, Religion, Travel.

Languages as linguistic focus

Abkhazian, Akkadian, Altaic (Other), Arabic, Aramaic, Armenian, Avestan, Awadhi, Azerbaijani, Balinese, Baltic (Other), Baluchi, Belarussian, Bengali, Braj, Caucasian (Other), Chinese, Chuvash, Coptic, Dravidian (Other), Elamite, Finno-Ugrian (Other), Georgian, Greek, Modern (1453-), Hebrew, Hindi, Hittite, Hungarian, Indic (Other), Indo-European (Other), Indonesian, Iranian (Other), Javanese, Judeo-Persian, Kawi, Khmer, Khotanese, Kurdish, Magahi, Malay, Maltese, Manchu, Marathi, Miscellaneous languages, Moldavian, Mon-Khmer (Other), Mongolian, Nepali, Newari, Oriya, Ossetian; Ossetic, Pahlavi, Pali, Persian, Persian, Old (ca.600-400 B.C.), Prakrit languages, Pushto, Romany, Sanskrit, Semitic (Other), Sinhalese, Sino-Tibetan (Other), Slavic (Other), Sogdian, Syriac, Tajik, Tamil, Tatar, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928), Uighur.

Material types

Archival materials (includes non-published & mixed material), Audio materials (includes cassettes & CDs), Books, Computer files (includes CD-ROMs & other electronic material), Manuscripts, Maps (includes all types of cartographic material), Music (only includes printed & manuscript music), Serials, Visual materials (includes photographs, prints, drawings, videos & films).

Management Information

Annual intake

The intake of individual items (purchased or donated): from 300 to 600. The library also has received and expects future gifts of private libraries that average from 2,000 volumes upwards.

Content date range

1850 to present

Interlibrary loan code

CA/S-4

Interlibrary loan procedure

The library is for reference use only and does not lend books out or arrange inter-library loans.

Co-operative agreements

• The Library collections are catalogued and searched through the "Union Catalogue of Departmental & College Libraries" of the University of Cambridge.

Catalogue Information

Catalogue

The catalogue forms a part of the Union Catalogue of the Cambridge University Library Online Catalogue System. For general information about the Ancient India & Iran Trust Library collections consult the pamphlet 'The Ancient India and Iran Trust', 2nd edition, 2000, (available from the secretary of the Trust)

• Cambridge University Library Union Catalogue

Catalogue transliteration

Systems of transliteration are the same as those used by the Library of Congress for all languages.

© NACIRA