the cambodian Genocide Databases

 
the cambodian Genocide Databases:

Guidelines for Use after September 2001

Agreement between Professor Susan Cook, Director of the Cambodian

Genocide Program at Yale University, and Youk Chhang, Director of DC-Cam.

Overview

The Cambodian Genocide Databases (CGDB) represent an unprecedented effort to consolidate all available information on the genocide crimes committed in Cambodia between 1975-1979 and to organize that information into a set of databases that can be accessed anywhere in the world via the Internet. The four databases (biographic, bibliographic, geographic and photographic) where designed by the Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale University and developed by the School of Information System, Technology and Management at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia, under sub-contract to Yale University in the United State and in collaboration with the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) in Phnom Penh.

The information contained in the databases comes from a wide range of sources in several languages, including some published materials and many primary documents that were found during the course of the project.

The complex nature of this international effort requires that very careful consideration be given to the disposition of databases as the project enters a new phase. Currently, a centralized funding structure exists, under which the process of organizing the information and entering it into the databases has progressed according to the specific terms of formal sub-contracts established between Yale and the University of New South Wales. When these sub-contracts expire, new and explicit guideline governing future work on the database must be established. This documents attempts to clarify some of the central issues related to the future disposition of the databases, and in so doing, is meant to serve not only the intellectual, ethnical interest of the documentation work itself, but also the scholarly and institutional needs of the three partner organizations.

Copyright of the databases

The Cambodian Genocide Databases are a copyrighted product of The Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale University. As such, the presentation and the arrangement of the fact that compromise the databases are protected to the fullest extent possible under the copyright laws of the United State, and as such, may not be duplicated or copied without the express and written permission of the Director of The Cambodian Genocide Program. When The Cambodian Genocide Program ceases to function as an active research program at Yale University, this copyright will develop onto the Program's designated agent and permanent host: the Yale University Library's Manuscripts and Archives Department. Oversight of the CGDB will be transferred to the Associate University Library, presently Ann Okerson (ann.okerson@yale.edu).

Serving the CGDB on the Internet

As of September 2001, the master copy of the Cambodian Genocide Databases will be converted to a new format and house at Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University. The databases, as part of the Cambodian Genocide Program's web site, will be served on the Internet from Sterling Library's main server, accessible at the following url: wwww.yale.edu/cgp (subject to verification). The web site and databases will be maintained and serviced by Yale University Library staff, coordinated through the Library's Manuscripts and Archives Department. In addition to the CGDB in its new format, an ISIS version of the CGDB will continue to be made available on the Internet by a server located at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, under the supervision of the Genocide Studies Program, directed by Professor Ben Kienan. Both version of the CGDB will be searchable from the CGP web site, may add or amend material on the site. The Director of the Genocide Studies Program will have password access to web site, and may add or amend material on the site. 

Another version of databases, based on, but not limited to Yale's version of the databases (circa 2001), will be served at, or in cooperation with the documentation Center of Cambodia, under a separate name. This version will be formatted in Microsoft Access and may be expanded with new records as the documentation Center continues to obtain and process new information on the Cambodia Genocide. Yale University Library will provide a copy of the database in Access to DC-Cam.

The University of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia, may continue to serve the databases in their original CDS-ISIS format. The UNSW version should also bear a different name. All individual records in the CGDB will bear a CGP copyright note, in some form. The terms "Cambodian Genocide Program," "Cambodian Genocide Database," "CGDB," "CBIO," (Biographical Database), "CBIB," (Bibliographical Database), "CGEO," (Geographic Database) and "CTS," (Photographic Database) will be used only on the version(s) of the databases hosted by Yale.

Inquiries about specific database records will be directed to the documentation Center of Cambodia. General Inquiries sent to (cgp@yale.edu) will be fielded by the Southeast Asia Curator at Yale University Library, presently Rich Richie (rich.richie@yale.edu).

In addition to the static maps on the geographic database, Yale University will mount and serve an Interactive Map Serve (IMS) on the CGP web site. In addition, an IMS will continue to be served from the school of Geomatic Engineering at the University of New South Wales. Yale University will also provided DC-Cam with copies of maps and tables from CGEO (circa 2001) for display on DC-Cam's own web site. As the documentation Center of Cambodia continue to collect field data on genocide sites in Cambodia, copies of these data will be sent to UNSW and Yale in order to update all versions of mapping database. These different versions of the mapping database should not, however, be viewed as "mirror sites," as no mechanism for coordinating the simultaneous updating of the databases is in place.

Updating, correcting, or adding information to the databases

Subsequent to the addition of new records to the biographical database, as sub-contracted by the CGP to DC-Cam and UNSW, and scheduled to be mounted on the CGDB by September 2001, the documentation Center of Cambodia and UNSW may add new or corrected information to their versions of databases. Any new records, or information added to existing records, must contain source information, as per the CGDB Input Manual and will be copyrighted by the sponsoring institution. New records, or new information added to old records, will be electronically sent to Yale to update the CGDB, which will be considered the permanent archival version of the databases.

Any information used to update records existing as of 2001 will be made available to Yale University with the understanding that this information may or may not be used to update the CGDB at any time in the future. The documentation Center of Cambodia must also provided Yale with copies of newly created records, with the same understanding. If duplicated records are found that need to be combined, the records number from the records(s) to be deleted, should be recorded on the consolidated record.

[See note on updating the IMS in previous section.]

Signed and dated:

                                         6/21/2001

____________________ Susan Cook, for Cambodian Genocide Program

                                         6/28/2001

____________________ Ann Okerson, for the Yale University Library

                                         7/4/2001

____________________ Youk Chhang, for the Documentation Center of Cambodia

                                         10/10/2001

____________________ Helen Javis, for the University of New South Wales


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