[This document can be acquired from a sub-directory coombspapers via anonymous FTP and/or Coombsquest gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU] [Last updated: 11 October 1993] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ABOUT ELECTRONIC BUDDHIST ARCHIVES at Coombspapers, the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia The Electronic Buddhist Archives are designed to act as a world-wide repository of computer files with documents and materials of relevance to students and researchers of Buddhism, Taoism, Sufism and other Asian religions. They constitute an important part of a larger project, namely that of the COOMBSPAPERS SOCIAL SCIENCES RESEARCH DATA BANK created at the Australian National University, Canberra. The Coombspapers databank was established in December 1991 by the Coombs Computing Unit, ANU as the world's major electronic repository of the social science & humanities papers, bibliographies, directories, abstracts of theses and other high-grade research material dealing with the Pacific Region, SouthEast as well as NorthEast Asia produced (or deposited) at the Research Schools of Pacific Studies and Social Sciences, at the Australian National University. The Coombspapers databank (and therefore the contents of it's Electronic Buddhist Archives subdirectory) can be accessed (and it's collection copied) free of charge from anywhere in the world using Gopher software and/or the standard anonymous FTP (ftp = file transfer protocol) procedure by anyone with an access to the Internet computer network. It is hoped that the extraordinary ease and speed with which documents and materials forming the EBA collection can be located, copied, duplicated and transmitted from person to person, from Sangha to Sangha, from city to city, from continent to continent will foster daily regular exchange of information and ideas between students and practitioners of Buddhism all over this planet. Maybe, one day, this instantaneous communicational immediacy will facilitate the birth of a vast, harmonious and intricate Earth-wide Sangha. Since September 1993 the EBA has established fruitful co-operation with the DharmaNet International of Berkeley, California, USA. Teachers, students and researchers of Buddhism as well as teachers, students and researchers of other eastern religions are wholeheartedly invited to deposit with the Electronic Buddhist Archives of the Coombspapers databank any high-grade documents pertaining to Buddhist matters or studies as long as these documents are not already copyrighted by someone else and as long as the deposited documents may be freely disseminated via the AARNET/INTERNET and other academic networks. Any quality documents - such as bibliographies, research documents, abstracts of scholarly papers, journal and newsletters articles, lists of Buddhist centers and organisations, policy documents of such organisations, transcripts of lectures, sermons and teishos given by contemporary Buddhist teachers, translations of the modern day as well as ancient religious texts and commentaries, samples and specimens of fine Buddhist prose and poetry - all these documents may be sent electronically to the Coombspapers and be deposited there (using the ftp command 'put') in the /coombspapers/inboundpapers area of the Coombspapers electronic archive. There they will be evaluated by the administrators of the Coombspapers Social Sciences Research Data Bank and then, upon being accepted for the archive's collection, suitably named and placed in appropriate sub-directory. Individuals and Buddhist groups without a convenient access to the network may supply the archival materials on a computer disk (DOS or Macintosh) with all files saved as plain text (ASCII) documents. Also, an important point: the Electronic Buddhist Archives ARE NOT ABLE, unfortunately, to accept for the safe-keeping and dissemination the non-electronic (i.e. paper) documents. Finally, please note that the ANU's Coombs Computing Unit, who administers and maintains the Coombspapers archives, reserves the right to exclude from the Coombspaper electronic collection any document found to be unsuitable because of its scope, content, format or size. Please direct any inquiries or correspondence to: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek, Coombspapers Administrator, Coombs Computing Unit, RSPacS/RSSS, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia e-mail (INTERNET) coombspapers@coombs.anu.edu.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - end of file