Collection Introduction

Where is the East Asian Languages Collection?

The collection is located in the Shields Library of the University of California-Davis (UC-Davis). After entering the front entry, turn right or left and walk through the hallway (the courtyard is in the center of this building), the collection is situated in the end of hallway section. The collection is open for browsing when the building is open. East Asian Librarian or library staff is on duty for the Reference Services every Monday through Thursday from 1:00pm - 3:00pm, by phone at (530) 754-7658, or by email at myalin@ucdavis.edu

What is in the East Asian Languages Collection?

The collection supports the undergraduate programs in Chinese, Japanese and East Asian Studies, and the graduate programs in Chinese history, art history, and comparative literature in the UC-Davis. Although there are some volumes of Korean materials in this collection at present time, systematical collection will be added in the future when programmatic needs arise. Language teaching manuals and readers, scripts for Chinese and Japanese movies, translated works that were originally written in English, and audio-visual materials, such as records and tapes on poetry reading, are usually not collected. Literature for secondary school level will be purchased only at faculty request as materials for student supplementary readings. Albums and portfolios of Chinese and Japanese art will be collected when funds permit. Bilingual dictionaries on all subjects will be collected.

Subject emphases of this collection are: History of East Asia, Languages of Eastern Asia, Fine arts, general works, and reference materials, such as dictionaries, catalogs of other East Asian collection, indices, and encyclopedias. Chronological emphases in history are: from the Qing dynasty to the early Republic period of China and from the Meiji period to the post World War II period of Japan; in literature are: the Modern and contemporary period of Chinese, and the Heian and the modern period of Japanese. Presently the geographical focuses are in the four regions: China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Taiwan.

This collection contains materials mainly in printed form and in Chinese and Japanese of non-Roman or vernacular languages. Microcopies are usually purchased to substitute for titles no longer in print. The collection includes monographs (books), periodicals (journals, magazines, and newspapers), serials (irregular periodicals), microfilms, and some electronic resources, for topics related to and publications from China, Japan and Korea. Materials of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean are inter-shelved in the stacks of the East Asian Languages Collection area. Current periodicals are kept in the lower level of the Shields Library, and older issues are kept in the Main Library Stacks. Multi-languages materials, for example, text of the book is written in Chinese and English, are inter-shelved in the stacks of the main Library collection.

How large is this collection?

The East Asian Languages Collection is one of the seven major collections of East Asian materials in the University of California system. As of June 30, 2004, there are 73,336 volumes of books and bound periodicals, of which 43,136 are in Chinese, 26,741 in Japanese, and 2,525 in Korean; also contains 197 titles of current periodicals, 330 titles of Chinese films, some titles of microfilms, and a few electronic resources.