Throughout 2017 Leiden will be the leading centre for Asia in terms of research, teaching, collections and expertise. The Leiden Asia Year was prompted by the building of The Asian Library on the roof of the University Library, which will be opened in September 2017. Leiden University, the municipality of Leiden and cultural partners are all committed to making this year a succes.
Read more about the Leiden Asia Year initiative on www.leidenasiayear.nl.
The 7th International Indology Graduate Research Symposium (IIGRS) took place from 15th – 17th October 2015 in Leiden. The conference was part of the celebration of 150 years of Sanskrit at Leiden University. The participants of the conference did also visit the special exposition ‘Sanskrit Manuscripts and Old Books‘ at the Leiden University Library.
(Azië, nummer 156)
Interview with Kurt De Belder, director of the Leiden University Libraries, about the history of the large Asian collection and the next step towards the realisation of the Asian Library as a knowledge hub.
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The Asian Collections Project has again reached a new milestone. More than 30,000 Chinese and Japanese book titles that were previously difficult to find, are now easily retrievable in our Catalogue and available for borrowing. In total this project covers more than 210,000 titles, apart from more than 2 kilometers of journals.
(Leidsch Dagblad – Friday August 28, 2015)
The biggest research library on Indonesia is now situated in Leiden. Leiden University also wants to strengthen its ties with this country. The plans with Indonesia were presented at the symposium on August 28. The strong bond between Leiden University and Indonesia can be traced back to the 19th century, when the university started to become the centre of academic research on the Dutch East Indies.
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During the symposium in Jakarta on August 28, we bid farewell to the director KITLV-Jakarta Roger Tol. The ambitions, plans for the future and cooperation between Indonesia and the Netherlands were discussed during the symposium.
Today we welcomed Commission Ten of The Indonesian House of Representatives in the Leiden University Library. This Commission is responsible for education, youth affairs, sports, tourism, art and culture in Indonesia. After a presentation about the UBL and The Asian Library, some unique objects from our Southeast Asian Special Collections were put on display for our guests to study.
Indonesia is of great importance to Leiden University for research and education. Therefore the new KITLV director in Jakarta is also the permanent representative of Leiden university in Indonesia. The responsibilities of the new director are broadened and include support from Jakarta for the initiation of research programs in collaboration with Indonesian partners, and attracting Indonesian students to Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD programs at Leiden University.
The International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS), the premier international gathering in Asian Studies and Asia-related research, has awarded the ICAS Book Prize (IBP) 2015. The prize recognizes the best English-language books and dissertations in Asian Studies of the past two years, focusing on the humanities and social sciences. The Asian Library at Leiden University sponsors the ICAS Book Prize.
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Leiden University Libraries has donated 2400 historical photos of Asia to Wikimedia. The importance of the donation is improved access to the history of Indonesia and India. The photos may be used in Wikipedia articles and are easily accessible to an international public.