Asian Reading Room (Area Studies, Asian Division, Library of Congress)

http://www.loc.gov/rr/asian/

30 Sep 2010

Library of Congress, Washington, DC, USA.

Self-description:
"From an 1869 presentation of 933 volumes to the United States by the Emperor of China, the collections of the Asian Division have grown to represent one of the most comprehensive collections of Asian language materials in the world. Housed in the John Adams Building, the collections of the Division include most subject fields, covering an area ranging from the South Asian subcontinent and Southeast Asia to China, Japan, and Korea. Complementing these collections are important materials on Asia in other areas of the Library. These include legal materials, films, manuscripts, maps, music, and photographs maintained in other Divisions. In addition, extensive Western language materials on Asia are housed in the general collection and are available by request in either the Asian Reading Room or the Main Reading Room. [...]
The Asian Reading Room is the primary public access point for researchers seeking to use the Asian collections of the Library of Congress in the many languages of Asia. The reading room covers the area from the South Asian subcontinent and Southeast Asia to China, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia. With over 2.8 million books, periodicals and newspapers, a large number of manuscripts, and electronic media, the collections are the most comprehensive sources of Asian language materials outside of Asia. Area Specialists and Reference Librarians provide in-depth reference assistance on questions concerning Asia. Western language materials about Asia are part of the general collection but can be requested in either the Asian Reading Room or the Main Reading Room."

Site contents:
* General Information (About the Reading Room, Asian Division Teams and their Collections (# China/Mongolia Team, # Christianity in China, # Japan Team, # Korea Team, # South Asia Team, # Southeast Asia Team), Search Our Catalogs, LC Calendar of Events, Asian Division Friends Society, Webcasts of Past Asian Events);
* Using the Reading Room (Library of Congress Security, Research Orientation to LC, About the Visitor's Center, Copies (Photoduplication), Interlibrary Loan, Policy Access to Rare Materials);
* Digital Projects (Korean Bibliography, Soviet-Korean Bibliography, Philippine Bibliography, Naxi [Naxi people,Yunnan, SW China] Manuscript Collection);
* Databases (LC Subscription Databases, Chinese e-resources, Japanese e-resources, Korean e-resources, Korean Serial Database);
* Publications (Annotated catalog on Robert Morrison, Asian Collections 2007 Illustrated Guide, A World of Books, Indonesian Bibliography, Romanization Tables);
* Ask a Librarian;
* Find [= Search] in (Asian Reading Room Pages, Researchers Web Pages, All Library of Congress Pages).

URL http://www.loc.gov/rr/asian/

Internet Archive http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.loc.gov/rr/asian/

Link reported by: T. Matthew Ciolek (tmciolek--at--coombs.anu.edu.au)

* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]:
Study / Online Guide / Corporate Info.
* Publisher [academic - business - government - library/museum - NGO - other]:
Library
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]:
Essential
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000
- under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: No statistics is available

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Please note that the above details were correct on the day of their publication. To suggest an update, please email the site's editor at tmciolek@ciolek.com

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