SAOA Membership
Membership in SAOA is open to institutions committed to the collaborative development of open-access South Asian resources.
The foundation of SAOA is inter-institutional collaboration and its impact is achieved through an inclusive diversity of members. Fostering meaningful collaboration while recognizing difference necessitates a variety of pathways to membership, but the benefits are the same for all members. Simultaneous membership in SAOA's parent body, SAMP (South Asia Materials Project), is a prerequisite for membership in SAOA and all membership terms are for a period of five years.
Member Categories
All institutions that can are strongly encouraged to support SAOA at the Category 1 level. SAOA is committed to the principles of and opportunities afforded by open access, yet relies on robust funding, content contribution, and staffing support to complete its mission. Given the varying resources among institutions and our commitment to inclusion, SAOA has created membership categories in order to invite participation from as wide an array of institutions and stakeholders as possible.
Below are general criteria to differentiate membership categories, to help institutions advocate for the most appropriate level:
- Category 1 members might include:
- Library staff dedicated to South Asia
- Robust annual South Asia library materials budgets
- Historically strong South Asia collections
- Significant South Asia-related courses, research, and programs
- Category 2 members might include:
- Limited staffing for South Asia
- Moderate materials budgets
- Some South Asia-focused courses or active scholars
- Category 3 members might include:
- Minimal or no budgets or staffing for South Asia
- Some South Asia teaching or research interest
- Significant or unique South Asia holdings
Contributions
- Category 1: $25,000 over five years. Optional contributions may include digital assets or staff time.
- Category 2: $20,000 over five years, with optional digital/staff contributions.
- Category 3: $10,000 over five years or 500 digital volumes and/or staff time.
Benefits
- Stand for election to the SAOA Executive Board
- Serve on Content Curation, Infrastructure, or Funding Working Groups
- Vote in Executive Board elections
- Contribute to SAOA decisions and strategy
Staff Time (In-Kind Contributions)
Institutions may contribute staff time to support SAOA operations. Contributions include metadata creation, program support, scanning, QA, or similar work, approved by the Executive Board before membership is finalized.
Digital Content (In-Kind Contributions)
Institutions with existing digital content or digitization capacity can contribute to SAOA’s collections, particularly if they lack infrastructure to share the content publicly.
- Contributions must align with SAOA Selection Guidelines, and be reviewed by the Executive Board.
- Digitization must meet SAOA Digitization Guidelines.
- Content must not already be publicly available on a stable platform.
To join SAOA, institutions must submit a Participant Commitment Form establishing a five-year membership.
SAOA welcomes inquiries from interested institutions and seeks to grow a diverse, collaborative community.
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