Mission Statement
The Southeast Asia Digital Library (SEADL) provides free and open access to a variety of materials created in and about Southeast Asia. SEADL supports researchers, educators, and members of the public by aggregating and contextualizing these unique digitized materials in a single online environment that can be easily browsed and searched. Founded on the value of collaboration, SEADL facilitates partnerships between institutions around the world to preserve and share Southeast Asian cultural heritage for all who seek it.
SEADL contains digital versions of books, manuscripts, periodicals, and more, as well as multimedia items such as videos and oral histories. All items are robustly described to enrich their usage. In addition to primary source materials, SEADL also offers indexes of online secondary sources related to the region.
Please contact the SEADL team with your questions, concerns, and press inquiries.
Staff Profiles
Hao Phan, MA, MLIS
Southeast Asia Curator, Northern Illinois University
Director, Southeast Asian Digital Library
Emily Zinger, MLIS
Southeast Asia Digital Librarian, Cornell University
Project Manager, CORMOSEA
Annie Oelschlager
Digital Library Web Developer, Northern Illinois University
Technical Manager, CORMOSEA
Matthew Short
Digital Collections and Metadata Librarian, Northern Illinois University
Karen Stoll Farrell, MA, MLIS
Head, Scholarly Communication, Indiana University Bloomington
Digital Initiatives Chair, CORMOSEA
Jeffrey Shane, MA, MAIA
Southeast Asia Reference Librarian, Ohio University
CORMOSEA Chair
Gregory Green, MA, MLIS
Curator, Echols Collection, Cornell University
Member, Digital Initiatives, CORMOSEA
Institutional Support
SEADL is cooperatively supported by CORMOSEA. As an advisory committee, CORMOSEA guides SEADL’s operations and ensures that the repository’s growth supports the teaching and research needs of scholars in North America and beyond. SEADL is hosted by Northern Illinois University (NIU) Libraries.
History & Funding
In 2005, the US Department of Education’s Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access (TICFIA) program awarded a four-year, $780,000 grant to CORMOSEA to create SEADL. Administered by Northern Illinois University, this grant enabled free access to archives of textual, still image, sound, and video resources—covering both historical and contemporary resources from Southeast Asia—through this digital library. In 2009 SEADL received a second round of funding from the TICFIA program, supporting the development of nine new digital initiatives.
In 2019 Ohio University Libraries, a CORMOSEA member, was awarded a LuceSEA grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to financially support SEADL. This five-year grant of $1.2 million will allow SEADL to undertake a number of new digital initiatives and to build a sustainable plan for the future.
SEADL continues to work with institutions throughout the United States and other international partners to build a network of digital projects and resources freely available to those interested in the region. The success of SEADL would not be possible without the support of the following partners:
- Associação dos ex-Prisoneiros Politícos do Timor-Leste, Timor-Leste
- The British Library
- The Center for Research on Plurality in the Mekong Region (CERP), Thailand
- Center for Vietnamese and Southeast Asian Studies, USSH, Vietnam
- Chiang Mai University Library, Thailand
- The Endangered Archives Programme, The British Library
- Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Office of Culture, Khon Kaen University, Thailand
- The Internet Archive
- Lontar Foundation, Indonesia
- Lyrasis
- The Mandalay Marionettes Theater, Myanmar
- Metro TV, Indonesia
- MQTV, Indonesia
- National Library of Cambodia, Cambodia
- Pa’O Literary and Cultural Council Committee Library, Myanmar
- Salon Natasha, Vietnam
- School of the Art Institute of Chicago
- University of San Carlos Cebuano Studies Center Library, the Philippines
- Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation, Vietnam
