Q What is the AAA Bibliography of Modern and Contemporary Art Writing project?
The 'Bibliography of Modern and Contemporary Art Writing' project (henceforth Bibliography Project) was initiated in 2011 by Asia Art Archive to compile an extensive database of published art writing in South Asia. For an overview of the project, visit here
Q How does the Bibliography Project work?
The Bibliography Project is a reference tool for researchers who are looking for information pertaining to published texts on modern and contemporary arts of South Asia. It is the first of its kind to provide a consolidated database in this field, and in various languages. The Project contains an annotated listing and searchable catalogue of 12,000+ published writings that include books, periodicals, newspapers, catalogues, and theses.
Writings from over twelve languages are already online. Texts from these languages are presented on this website in Romanised form (transliterated from source language into English script), along with provisional translations for each of the titles. This, we hope, will ensure wider access to the vastly disparate languages brought to this common platform.
Q Does the website have access to full-text articles or e-books?
No, this is not a digitisation project. The Bibliography Project is an annotated listing and search catalogue only. We do provide annotations for each text, including details of 'where we found it', thereby pointing you to where you can find the publication.
Q Are the translations authorized by the publisher/author?
Most texts do not have translations of their titles mentioned within the publication. It is for this purpose that the Bibliography Project has chosen to both, transliterate (Romanise) the titles of texts, as well as provide provisional translations for them in English. These translations and transliterations have been made by our researchers. Those translations made by our researchers are placed within parenthesis (). In case of translated titles mentioned in the publication itself, they are without parenthesis.
While such translations as well as Romanisations might be provisional, we believe they are important since they convey if not precisely, at least a tentative meaning of the text.
Q Search Tips
The website offers two search options:Basic Search and Advanced Search.
Q Search Results page
Use Filter Options to narrow your search and filter results to a specific type of content (Reference Type, Author, Year, Language, etc.)
Use sorting options to view search results by relevance, or by year (oldest to recent, or vice-versa)
Click 'See More' for further details of each text/record.
Q Browse by Author
The Browse by Author feature allows users to browse an alphabetically sorted list of all authors listed in our bibliography collection. Clicking the name of each author takes users to the Search Results page showing a list of all texts written by that particular author.
Q Browse by Periodicals
The Browse by Periodicals feature allows users to browse a complete list of periodicals listed in our bibliography collection. Users can choose to browse this list alphabetically or by language. When sorting by language, bi-lingual, tri-lingual, and multi-lingual periodicals are mentioned under a separate heading. Clicking the name of each periodical takes users to the Search Results page showing a comprehensive list of all articles compiled from that particular periodical.
Q Data Visualization
Asia Art Archive has been working towards infographic models such as data visualization in collaboration with Mitchell Whitelaw. The data visualization feature on our website allows users to explore comparative patterns, trends and correlations with regard to the vast range of texts presented by the Bibliography Project.
Q Cite This and Export to EndNote
The online Bibliography enables users to cite texts that are found within the collection. In other words, apart from seeing details of each text in the form of data, users can avail of the option to see publication details of texts according to a standard academic format of citation.
The Bibliography also contains a built-in feature that can export bibliographic data into the library/bibliography/reference management software, EndNote. This option will work only for those who have the Endnote software downloaded on their systems.
Q Bookmarks
Registered users can save texts they find useful for future reference by clicking the bookmark icon that is found next to each text/record. Users can see and edit all their saved bookmark, the link to which can be found on the top-right corner of the website in a drop-down provided with the user's profile.
Q Crowdsourcing
One of the many advantages of an online bibliographic resource is that it can keep updating and growing. Much of this can be facilitated by user contributions. AAA is working towards a model of crowd sourcing that will enable users to contribute texts/entries, thereby allowing this rich resource to be an actively enriched repository.
Some of our efforts in this direction include conducting workshops with students, researchers and young scholars, curating thematized bibliographies on our website, and other collaborative projects with institutions.
Q Can't find a particular text listed in this bibliography?
As the Bibliography Project is still in the process of uploading more titles, we will appreciate your patience until March 2015.
However, given that the Bibliography Project had conducted research for only a little over two years, there may be a number of titles not covered so far. Since we see this to be the starting point for a growing database, we will appreciate your inputs. If you know of a text that is absent from our bibliography, please write to us with details of the text so that we may enter it in case we haven’t covered it already. For this, please visit our Contact Us page and fill out the form with the subject 'Contribute'.
Q Can't find texts of some languages in this bibliography?
The 13 languages that the Bibliography Project has focused on
During the course of our bibliography compilation, we have come across a few texts in languages such as French, German and Spanish, which you will find in our online Bibliography. However, these are very few records and by no means represent a substantial contribution to writings on modern art in India from those languages. If you are looking for languages other than the ones that we have compiled, they have not come under the purview of our Bibliography Project, but we would most certainly welcome contributions from you. To do so, please visit our Contact Us page.
Q Do you have Have details of texts that aren't available on this bibliography? Do you want to annotate existing entries? Here's how.
While we are working towards a crowdsourcing model for user contributions, please visit our Contact Us page and select the 'Contribute' option from the mailing form, and send us details.
Note that bibliographic details you send us for each text must be verified and complete, and annotations are welcome. In addition to this, cross-check our bibliography thoroughly using spelling variations to check if the text isin fact absent, in order to avoid repetition.
QDid you find an error in one of the entries?
Please visit our Contact Us page and select the 'Correction' option in the form and send us details of the entry and the specific mistake you spotted.
Q Why are some artists/authors' names misspelled or why do they have multiple spellings?
The Bibliography Project has attempted to maintain the original spellings as written in the publication(s). Multiple spellings, or ways of writing names of authors may come across different texts.
For authors/artists mentioned in publications of languages other than English, we use the most widely used spelling in English.
QIs there a problem with the website other than those mentioned above?
Do get in touch with us at: sneha@aaa.org.hk or, sabih@aaa.org.hk
Copyright 2015. Asia Art Archive
