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Online Burma Library hits the stree
- Subject: Online Burma Library hits the stree
- From: darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2001 13:22:00
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ONLINE BURMA LIBRARY HITS THE STREETS
The Online Burma Library (OBL), an online database with classified and
annotated links to thousands of full-text documents on Burma is now, at
last, up and running. It is on www.burmalibrary.org (soon to be accessible
on www.myanmarlibrary.org for those who prefer). PLEASE PUT A LINK TO OBL
ON YOUR SITE, AND ASK OTHERS TO DO THE SAME.
WHAT IT IS
OBL "is an evolving project designed to make full texts of Burma documents
accessible online to Burmese and non-Burmese researchers, academics,
educators, students, journalists, officials, diplomats, activists, colonels
et al. It functions as a linked, annotated catalogue to much of the Burma
material already on the Internet and will eventually house a number of
archives (in addition to the Burma Press Summary which is already on the
site) and directories such as the Burma Action Database (formerly Burma
Action Directory). As they become available, more links to documents in
Burmese and other languages will be included (there is already a fair
number of documents in French in the Multilingual section and some links to
Burmese-language sites). OBL is Text-based and frame-free for speed
(particularly important for users in the South with dodgy connections,
antiquated equipment and limited budgets)".
HELP WELCOMED
OBL is still at an early stage of development and, in terms of concept,
contents, structure, use, ease of navigation etc. is open to improvement.
Some people have specialised knowledge of one or more of the 40 or so main
areas the Library is divided into -- please make contact. The Librarian
invites on-going consultation and assistance in helping the collection grow
in quality and quantity.
ADDING TO THE LIBRARY
If people know of useful Burma documents in electronic form which are not
in the Library, please let us know. As well as unaccessed material on the
Internet, these could be conference papers, university dissertations,
reports and articles of all kinds and in every area. Some may be
sitting idly on your computer or on a floppy disk somewhere. Many
hard-copy books, reports and papers have been produced over the past years
by individuals, organisations and publishers who still have the electronic
versions of these texts and could enhance their public exposure and
reputation and contribute to increasing our understanding of Burma if they
were to put them online. One way would be to put them on a local website
and send us the URL (website address) or else email them to OBL. If any
librarians digitising their collections for public online access place
Burma documents online, please let us know. If there are important Burma
texts which do not exist in electronic form, they will be scanned in.
Eventually.
TECHNICALLY
The database is MySQL, used in combination with PHP. Use the Advanced
Search in combination with browsing and the alphabetical list. In the
coming months the documents will be further indexed and more keywords
placed in the summaries -- at the moment, many documents are only a title
and URL (any help with this welcome).
BURMA PRESS SUMMARY
The most important single document on OBL is The Burma Press Summary --
the searchable 17MB archive of Hugh MacDougall's excellent summary of "The
Working People's Daily" and "The New Light of Myanmar" from 1987 to 1996 --
containing many full texts of major SLORC/SPDC speeches, decrees, laws etc.
It is on Greenstone, a free, open source software designed for digital
libraries.You can do full-text searches of the whole archive -- there were
more than 1000 hits for Japan, for instance.
There's more blurb in the Introduction and Structural Overview at
www.burmalibrary.org.
Happy browsing and searching (and even reading)
One more thing: Pulling OBL together has been a rather large operation and
there are sure to be mistakes. Please let us know if you spot any.
The Librarian (David Arnott),
Online Burma Library
www.burmalibrary.org
Email darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx
David Arnott,
Burma Peace Foundation
85, Rue de Montbrillant,
1202, Geneva, Switzerland.
Tel/Fax (+41-22) 733 2040
Email darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx
--=====================_9842393==_.ALT
Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
<html>
<font size=3D3><br>
ONLINE BURMA LIBRARY HITS THE STREETS <br>
The Online Burma Library (OBL), an online database with classified and
annotated links to thousands of full-text documents on Burma is now, at
last, up and running. It is on
<a href=3D"http://www.burmalibrary.org/"; eudora=3D"autourl">www.burmalibrary=
.org</a>
(soon to be accessible on www.myanmarlibrary.org for those who prefer).=
PLEASE PUT A LINK TO OBL ON YOUR SITE, AND ASK OTHERS TO DO THE=
SAME.<br><br>
WHAT IT IS <br>
OBL "is an evolving project designed to make full texts of Burma=
documents accessible online to Burmese and non-Burmese researchers,=
academics, educators, students, journalists, officials, diplomats,=
activists, colonels et al. It functions as a linked, annotated catalogue to=
much of the Burma material already on the Internet and will eventually=
house a number of archives (in addition to the Burma Press Summary which is=
already on the site) and directories such as the Burma Action Database=
(formerly Burma Action Directory). As they become available, more links to=
documents in Burmese and other languages will be included (there is already=
a fair number of documents in French in the Multilingual section and some=
links to Burmese-language sites). OBL is Text-based and frame-free for=
speed (particularly important for users in the South with dodgy=
connections, antiquated equipment and limited budgets)".<br><br>
HELP WELCOMED <br>
OBL is still at an early stage of development and, in terms of concept,=
contents, structure, use, ease of navigation etc. is open to improvement.=
Some people have specialised knowledge of one or more of the 40 or so main=
areas the Library is divided into -- please make contact. The Librarian=
invites on-going consultation and assistance in helping the collection grow=
in quality and quantity. <br><br>
ADDING TO THE LIBRARY <br>
If people know of useful Burma documents in electronic form which are not in=
the Library, please let us know. As well as unaccessed material on the=
Internet, these could be conference papers, university dissertations,=
reports and articles of all kinds and in every area. Some may be=
sitting idly on your computer or on a floppy disk somewhere. Many=
hard-copy books, reports and papers have been produced over the past years=
by individuals, organisations and publishers who still have the electronic=
versions of these texts and could enhance their public exposure and=
reputation and contribute to increasing our understanding of Burma if they=
were to put them online. One way would be to put them on a local website=
and send us the URL (website address) or else email them to OBL. If any=
librarians digitising their collections for public online access place=
Burma documents online, please let us know. If there are important Burma=
texts which do not exist in electronic form, they will be scanned in.=
Eventually.<br><br>
TECHNICALLY <br>
The database is MySQL, used in combination with PHP. Use the Advanced Search=
in combination with browsing and the alphabetical list. In the coming=
months the documents will be further indexed and more keywords placed in=
the summaries -- at the moment, many documents are only a title and=
URL (any help with this welcome).<br><br>
BURMA PRESS SUMMARY <br>
The most important single document on OBL is The Burma Press Summary --=
the searchable 17MB archive of Hugh MacDougall's excellent summary of=
"The Working People's Daily" and "The New Light of=
Myanmar" from 1987 to 1996 -- containing many full texts of major=
SLORC/SPDC speeches, decrees, laws etc. It is on Greenstone, a free, open=
source software designed for digital libraries.You can do full-text=
searches of the whole archive -- there were more than 1000 hits for Japan,=
for instance. <br><br>
There's more blurb in the Introduction and Structural Overview at <a=
href=3D"http://www.burmalibrary.org/"=
eudora=3D"autourl">www.burmalibrary.org</a>.<br><br>
Happy browsing and searching (and even reading)<br><br>
One more thing: Pulling OBL together has been a rather large operation and=
there are sure to be mistakes. Please let us know if you spot any.<br><br>
The Librarian (David Arnott), <br>
Online Burma Library <br>
<a href=3D"http://www.burmalibrary.org/"=
eudora=3D"autourl">www.burmalibrary.org</a> <br>
Email darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx<br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
David Arnott, <br>
Burma Peace Foundation<br>
85, Rue de Montbrillant, <br>
1202, Geneva, Switzerland.<br>
Tel/Fax (+41-22) 733 2040<br>
Email darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx</font></html>
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