Cooperative Purchasing and Digitization Programs: New Inroads to Actively Decolonizing South Asian Collections from the Global North and West

In the last decade, South Asian Studies Librarians have worked to decolonize collections in libraries, especially within North America. Several very exciting cooperative organizations have been founded,  to make materials available to the whole world and to keep materials from South Asia held in South Asia. In this presentation, I discuss the ways in which global north and western librarians and libraries invest money in digitization efforts to make available materials that may have deteriorated or been destroyed in various libraries in South Asia, thereby keeping accessibility to collections.  Utilizing the more traditional notions of Buch als Geist, Buch als Ware, as well as newer concepts like Bibliomigrancy as a framework, I look at the ways that librarians can actively partake in active decolonization efforts and making materials accessible for all.