Cataloging Seminar at MUST

On May 1st, 2012, the ACMS hosted a workshop "Basic Cataloging Workshop" presented by visiting librarian Dambiinyan Enerel. Enerel is a Catalog Librarian and Assistant Professor at Middle Tennessee State University. This seminar covered basic cataloging techniques as well as the MARC format, a widely used standard for bibliographic information. The workshop included information on cataloging not only books and serials, but a variety of other materials such as CDs and DVDs as well. Participants included librarians from 10 different university and public libraries in the area.

The ACMS in partnership with Tod Nomin Gerel and the Digital Library for International Research has completed the digitization of hand-made Buddhist manuscripts written in both Oirat clear script and Mongolian old script.  Access to extant texts for analysis is necessary in order to contribute to a ‘definitive’ history of the Oirat.  Almost all of the scholarship on the Oirats is based on either Russian or Chinese sources. Being able to access the scant information that exists on Oirat culture and history, in their own voice, provides important insights into this little understood but important transition area, and into the religious, literary, linguistic, and historical cultural heritage of the Western Mongols within a greater ‘Khalkha’ Mongolia.

This is one of several projects being carried out by member centers of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers.  These digitization projects were funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access program and administered by the Digital Library for International Research.

The Tod Nomin Gerel collection can bee seen at: http://www.dlir.org/tngc-about

The ACMS invites students and scholars to enroll in an eight week Intensive Mongolian Language Program from June 11 to August 10, 2012 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The purpose of this summer language program is to provide Intermediate-level students of the Mongolian language with an opportunity to enhance their communicative competence through systematic improvement of reading, writing, listening and speaking skills, in an authentic environment. Classroom and supervised outside-the-classroom activities will help students achieve more fluent, accurate and multi-functional communication. The program entails 8 weeks of intensive study of the Mongolian language, over a 9-week period, at the Intermediate level of language learning which is equivalent to approximately 9 semester credit hours. For more information see: www.mongoliacenter.org/language.

The ACMS Speaker Series had its first lecture of the New Year on January 26, 2012.  Michael Aldrich, author and Managing Partner at Hogan Lovells, presented Old Peking as a Mongolian Capital of China.  Please see the Speaker Series webpage for more detail and information on upcoming speakers.

The American Center for Mongolian Studies is pleased to announce the spring semester of Mon 102: Introduction to Mongolian Language and Culture, an online Mongolian course being offered at University of Maine at Augusta (UMA) from January 9 to May 5, 2012. The course is co-organized by UMA, University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), and ACMS. The course is open to anyone (you do not need to be a student at UMA or UAF to participate), and it is the second semester in a two semester offering of beginner Mongolian.

The class is divided into two cohorts. The first cohort, having participated in a previous semester of the course, builds on the previous semester's work with 13 new lessons and two exams aimed at reaching the high-beginner/low-intermediate level. The second cohort, having participated in no previous semester of the course, begins with lesson one of the course completing 13 lessons and two exams in all to gain an introductory undestanding of the Mongolian language in preparation for the second semester.

Enroll by January 3, 2012 to ensure a place in the course.

MON  102 - Introduction to Mongolian Language and Culture

Three Credits, Three Instructors, No Textbook
Register through University of Maine at Augusta
http://www.uma.edu/enrollmentservices.html
1-800-868-7000

No prerequisites
Taught totally online
Highly interactive weekly assignments
No required times for student meetings

Students will interact with fluent Mongolian speakers
using a variety of web-based tools to gain practical
competence speaking, reading, writing, and listening in
Mongolian at the Beginner Level.

Email info@mongoliacenter.org with questions or for additional information.