Electronic Buddhadharma Society
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The Electronic Buddhadharma Society (EBS) website is a site that records the origin, history, sponsors, and digital collection of the Electronic Buddhadharma Society of the Buddhist Association of the United States. EBS, which was founded in 1994, is dedicated to converting printed Chinese Buddhist texts into digital formats. It was one of the pioneers in developing methods of digital conversion of printed Buddhist texts, and is a collective effort supported by many individuals and organization sponsors.
The Electronic Buddhadharma Society (EBS) is affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Studies of World Religions (IASWR). IASWR was first established at SUNY on the Stony Brook Campus on Long Island, and later moved to the Woo-Ju Memorial Library in 1991. The Woo-Ju Memorial Library was once an internationally important research center for scholars of Buddhism. It concentrated on developing resources for the study of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam, and also included Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto, Sikhism, Jainism, and folk beliefs. The collection boasted materials in 32 Asian and 11 non-Asian languages, in approximately 70,000 volumes of books[1], numerous periodical titles, and 66,000 Tibetan and Sanskrit manuscript, xylographs, and monographs in microform. Around 2006, the library closed down mainly due to budget constraints, and most of the collection was moved to University of Virginia[2].
EBS was established in 1994 under the leadership of Mr. Chia-Tsin Shen[3]. The primary purpose was to initiate a Buddhist information storage program [4]. The project converted some of the important historical collections in the Woo-Ju Memorial Library into digital form.
The most important result of the effort is the “Sutra”, a digital object born of 10 years of endeavor. It includes 60 titles of historical significance related to the famous Diamond Sutra such as works written by a Chinese Emperor and by Buddhist masters and scholars from Tang Dynasty to present day; 72 titles related to Kuanyin Bodhisattva; thousands of titles relating to particular sects of Chinese Buddhism; and several Buddhist dictionaries. It is one of the most important digital resources in academic research for Buddhism. New materials are still added to the site from time to time.
[1] Prebish, Charles S. 1999. Luminous passage: the practice and study of Buddhism in America. Berkeley: University of California Press. P.29-30. “Buddhist Association of the United States”.
[2] Jane Edmister Penner , “University of Virginia: Report for ALA Midwinter Meeting 2006 ”. Retrieved 4/20/08 www.loc.gov/library/bigheads/source/uva-rr-jan06.doc
[3] Who’s who in America. 1998. Chicago: A.N. Marquis
[4]Electronic Buddhadharma Society. (2005). Retrieved http://www.baus-ebs.org/origin-1.htm