Sharing the Asian Treasures

The Asian Collections

at the Library of Congress

The Asian Division

February 2018

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Introduction

» Asian reading room

Provides public access to aroud 4 million physical items in over 130 Asian languages

Covers East, Northeast, Southeast and South Asia

Researchers can use collection materials in print, microform, and digital formats and confer with reference librarians to answer research questions

» Asian Division is a custodial division managing Asian collections and Asian reading room services

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Asian Reading Room

Thomas Jefferson Bldg.

LJ-150

Monday – Friday8:30 – 5:00

www.loc.gov/rr/asian

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Asian Collections in Other Divisions

» Asia-related materials in other formats are housed other divisions in the Library in collaboration with the Asian Division. These divisions are: Main reading room

Law Library

Geography and Map Division (G&M)

Prints and Photographs Division (P&P)

Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (MBRS)

Music Division

Manuscript Division (MSS)

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Area Studies Collections

»The Asian Division, founded in 1928, is one of four Area Studies divisions in Library Services’ Collections and Services directorate: African and Middle Eastern Division

Asian Division

European Division

Hispanic Division

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Asian Collections

Chinese

Japanese

Korean

(South and North)

Mongolian - Tibetan

South Asian

Southeast Asian

Sharing the Asian Treasures

The Beginning …

Charles Wilkes

(April 3, 1798 – February 8, 1877)

Exchange of Publication Act, 1867.

LC Annual Report 1928, Appendix II, p. 271

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Size of Asian Collections

AD Collection at the end of FY2017

Monograph

Volumes

Journals

Titles

Inactive

Journals

Microfilm

Reels

Microfiche

Sheets

Journals

Issues

China 1,177,773 6,104 10,826 21,693 4,649 205,472

Japan 1,215,375 8,039 9,451 14,657 21,828 110,837

Korea 317,351 2,367 5,598 5,098 345 97,418

Mongolia 10,726 78 99 168 3,919 1,181

South Asia 331,879 1,601 2,120 19,080 337,231 66,968

Southeast Asia 260,120 2,736 8,462 14,124 187,778 68,845

Tibet 13,397 59 37 823 14,763 538

Total 3,326,621 20,984 36,593 75,643 570,513 551,259

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Building Asian Digital Resources

» In the digital age, the Asian Division is moving ahead in supplementing its physical collections by acquiring a growing body of electronic resources, including e-books, e-journals, e-newspapers, and electronic databases, both digitized from printed materials or born digital.

» On going digital projects on all Asian collections

Sharing the Asian Treasures

The Chinese Collections

» LC started the Chinese collections in the 1860s

» The collection has since then grown to over 1,100,000 volumes as of 2016.

» Special Collections

Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing dynasties (960-1911) editions (4,000 + titles)

• Rare books

• Local gazetteers

• Buddhist Sutras

South Manchurian Railway Company Collections

Gamble Collection

Pre-1958 Collections (40,000 + titles) now searchable through LC online catalog

Sharing the Asian Treasures

The Chinese Herbal and Materia Medica (A 1655

edition)

Gamble Collection

Special Collections

Greetings of the Chinese to the Americans

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Chinese Electronic Resources

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Crosby Stuart Noyes Kanichi Asakawa Shiho Sakanishi

1875

The Japanese Collection

19c

20c

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Japanese digital collectionfor example …

• Illustrated Tale of Genji (1654) and Tale of Genji manuscript book (ca. 17c).

• Japanese four rare books in the Digital Nara Ehon collection (Shizuka, Shigure, Soga monogatari, and Homyodoji).

• 2,000 prints from the Ukiyo-e collection from the Prints and Photographs collection.

• The complete set of 207 large-scale maps of Japanmade by Inoh Tadataka (1816-1819).

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Japanese Censorship Collection

Digitized materials in the Japanese Censorship Collection are currently available for viewing onsite, with the collection’s public domain materials also accessible from offsite. The collection contains over 1,000 marked-up copies of government censored monographs and galley proofs from Japan’s imperial period, mainly from the 1920s and 1930s.

Sharing the Asian Treasures

The Korean Collection

The Library began to collect the Korean materials in 1950 when the Korean War broke out .

The collection is now one of the largest and most comprehensive collection outside of East Asia.

As of today, the Library has over 317,350 volumes in the Korean language , as well as about 21,000 Japanese and 10,000 English language books on Korea with over 7600 periodical titles and 250 newspapers dating from the 1920s to the present.

It includes 550 rare titles (3,500 volumes) of rare books, many of which were obtained in the 1927.

Sharing the Asian Treasures

The North Korean Collection

Contains the biggest collection of North Korean serials that disappeared during the Korean War (1950-1953).

The North Korean materials have been vital to scholars and government officials trying to understand policies related to North Korea.

Provides users with greater access to old and new North Korean materials in the same place.

There is a high demand from readers for access the Library’s North Korean collection.

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Special Collections at the Korean Collection

NK Children’s Books

NK Serials

Sharing the Asian Treasures

The Mongolian Collection

» The Mongolian Collection also began with gifts from William W. Rockhill in 1899.

» It contains many original blockprints and manuscripts acquired in the early 20th c.

» In 1992 the Library renewed efforts to acquire current publications. Currently the collection contains nearly 10,000 monograph volumes and 4,000 microfiche sheets.

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Selected Samples in the Mongolian CollectionThe Sutra of the Great Liberation, 18th c.

Sharing the Asian Treasures

The Tibetan Collection

» The first Tibetan books arrived at the Library in 1899 as gifts from William W. Rockhill.

» The rare collection now has 3,600 volumes, including several sets of the Kanjur and Tanjur.

» The Library’s Office in New Delhi began acquiring Tibetan books in the 1960’s and currently acquires them from Bhutan, China, India, and Nepal.

» The cataloged collection, famous worldwide, has about 17,000 Tibetan volumes in both traditional and Western format.

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Selected Samples in the Tibetan CollectionVajrapani Thang-ka – A unique form of Tibetan art

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Selected Samples in the Tibetan Collection The Tibetan Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom, 18th century

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Tibetan Oral History and Archive Project (TOHAP)

» A digital archive of oral history interviews documenting the social and political history of modern Tibet

» Gift from Dr. Melvyn C. Goldstein

» https://www.loc.gov/collections/tibetan-oral-history-project/about-this-collection/

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Naxi Manuscript Collection

3,342 manuscripts collected by Joseph Rock, Quentin

Roosevelt II, and Virginia Harrison

Pictographic language of the Naxi people of Yunnan

Acquired between 1920’s and 1940’s.

185 digitized at

http://international.loc.gov/intldl/naxihtml/naxihome.html

Sharing the Asian Treasures

The South Asian Collection

» 1904 = Start of collection with purchase of German Indologist Albrecht Weber’s library

» Establishment of overseas offices in India (1962) and Pakistan (1965)

» Materials from 7 countries in 100+ languages

As of 2016, approx. 309,000 monographic vols.

15% Hindi, 14% Urdu, 9% Bengali, 7% Tamil

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Strengths of South Asia at LC

» Material in classical languages: Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit

Manuscripts in South Asia rare books collection

» Vernacular language material, viz. books, journals, newspapers (after 1962)

See research guide: www.loc.gov/rr/asian/saguide.html

» South Asia Literary Recordings Project

See website: www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/delhi/salrp/

» Databases and e-resources

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Sample of South Asia Databases

» Primary sources – colonial India

British Online Archives, East India Company, Empire Online, South Asia Archive

South Asian Newspaper Collection

ProQuest Historical Newspapers (Times of India)

» Primary sources – contemporary South Asia

Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan 1947-1980

Archives Unbound collections

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Southeast Asia Collection

• U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842

Top five collections by size:

• 1865: Books from the Malay world

became the first Asian collection in

LC.

Bahasa

Indonesian

52%

Thai

20%

Vietnamese

15%

Malaysian

7%

Burmese

6%

• Establishment of Jakarta’s office:

Materials collected from mainland

and insular SEA, via vendors, sub-

offices in Bangkok, Manila, and

Kuala Lumpur, and acquisition trips.

• As of 2017• 260,120 monograph volumes

• 2,736 serial titles

• Number of languages represented in

the Southeast Asia Collection: 11

countries in 41 languages.

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Mainland Southeast Asia

Number of monographs

(volumes)

Pre-1975 collectionBurmese WW2 collection Thai manuscripts

Special collections: 0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

45000

Thai Vietnamese Burmese Lao Khmer

Mainland

Sharing the Asian Treasures

Insular Southeast Asia

Number of monographs

(volumes)

Inscribed bamboo Balinese lontars Farquhar Letters

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

Indonesian Malay

(Malaysia)

Philippines Malay

(Brunei)

Tetum

(Timor Leste)

Insular

Special collections:

Sharing the Asian Treasures