Palm leaf manuscripts

What a great support this list is. For those who might wish to
contact the people who have had some experience with these
manuscripts I would like to list all those who replied to me:

    John Dean - Cornell University, New York
    Bob Muens - Library of Congress, Washington DC
    Susan Batton - Los Angeles, California
    Leyla Lau Lamb - University of Michigan, Michigan
    Carol Clausen - National Library of Medicine, Maryland
    Dr. Nigel Seeley - British Library, England
    Scott Gerson - Queens University, Canada

Thank you for your suggestions. Mostly to house in drop spine boxes
or clamshell boxes.

I haven't as yet looked closely at all of the manuscripts i.e
unwrapped them from their Kraft wrappings. They are catalogued with
most of them described as the Sacred Book of Cambodia written in
Laos Pali characters. Of the others one is a modern Nepalese
Manuscript in Sanscrit, one Sidha Medicine, South Indian System,
two in the South Asia Devangari script. Some have beautiful bamboo
woven covers.

My intention is just to house them as they have lain unused in the
South South East Asia Library for 40 years and we do not at the
moment have anyone interested in researching them--just the
Librarian wanting to store them properly. Thank you for all your
information.

The following are some articles that people suggested that I read:

    Agrawal, O.P.,
    Conservation of Manuscripts of Southeast Asia.
    Butterworth

    Batton, Susan,
    <URL:http://www.asianart.com/articles/batton/>.
    (A talk she gave at WAAC) 1999

    Dean, John
    Conservation of Palm-Leaf Manuscripts
    in Paper Conservation News (Number 89, 1999)

    The Preservation of Books and Manuscripts in Cambodia
    American Archivist  (53, No 2), 1990,

    The Preservation and Conservation Needs of the Upper Regions of
    Southeast Asia
    Libri (47, No. 3) 1997.

    Lawson, P.
    Palm leaf manuscripts and their conservation.
    Library Conservation News (16): 4-7 and (17): 4-5-1987

Gillian Boal
Rare Book Conservator
Conservation Treatment Division
Preservation Department
U.C. Berkeley
Room 9, Doe Library
California 94720
510-643-7932


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 13:57
                   Distributed: Tuesday, May 16, 2000
                       Message Id: cdl-13-57-004
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