Virtual Library South Asia (2005-2015)

Savifa – the virtual library South Asia was cooperatively developed by the South Asia Institute and Heidelberg University Library from 2005 until 2015. Until 2010 it was financially supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

The virtual library was designed as an interdisciplinary portal and provided for researchers in South Asian studies and Indology an integrated research for print and electronic information resources.

SavifaDok, the Open Access compliant repository, provided scholars of South Asian studies with a platform to publish and archive their work electronically. A directory of South Asia scholars aimed at promoting the communication and exchange of information among the scientific community. Our E-Toc-Alert service informed regularly about new content of selected academic journals and the quarterly newsletter Masala reported on new developments relating to Savifa and the Special Subject Collection.

The most important aim in the last phase of the project was to provide a stable basis to guarantee the availability and further development of the portal without funding by the DFG.

In July 2015 the two virtual libraries CrossAsia – Virtual Library East and Southeast Asia and Savifa – Virtual Library South Asia have merged under the CrossAsia roof. The name Savifa has been given up and the services previously accessible on Savifa have moved to CrossAsia after re-designing the layout in order to present a graphically and functionally consistent portal.