The examination of Buddhist art and architecture as vehicles of national memory-making can be framed conceptually by the dialectical tension between their cult value as continuing foci of devotion and their exhibition value as evidence of cultural achievement. While rooted in the millenary process of the formation of national cultures, this prominence is more immediately the outcome of archaeological investigations, architectural restorations, and museum collections that were initiated in the late 19th century by colonial officials, and royal commissioners in independent Siam and Japan, and continued by postcolonial governments, often with international support.
Works of Buddhist art and architecture, in addition to having cultic use and artistic value, also enjoy prominence in the national heritage of several Asian countries regardless of the following Buddhism presently enjoys in each.
The scope of this undertaking will include a discussion of the adjunct and related literature from the museum world, identification of books, or types of books that have spiritual or cultural values to be considered, collection of cultural or religious viewpoints related to identified materials from members of one of those communities that create or use these items (Buddhist), and discussion of how such findings can inform the ongoing operations of special collections libraries and their mission as cultural memory institutions. The special collections library is perhaps the best place where such considerations can be made - it is a library dedicated to preserving not only copies of each work, but variant copies whose tangible and intangible properties may vary from one another - though some examples may apply to academic or public libraries as well. Using adjunct literature within the field of museum studies and ethnography, this paper proposes to discuss how simultaneous recognition of intangible and tangible properties of certain objects is relevant to the library. However, research and educational material may be found beyond the explicit materiality of books and the text they contain understanding and recognizing spiritual and cultural properties implicitly located within certain library materials may provide additional fields of research, as well as learning and collaboration opportunities. Certainly, the philosophy of the library to "enhance learning and ensure access to information for all" (ALA 2008) is paramount in directing resources and collection development in response to the needs of the user community. Within the world of library collection and preservation, the focus has historically been on the dual preservation of physical form and intellectual knowledge as represented through symbols (text), images, metadata, and organization of information.