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How to Search East Asian Languages Catalogs
Before searching, you need to know that you have to search Chinese, Japanese, or Korean words in alphabetic form, called "Romanization or transliteration." Romanization is the conversion of a non-Roman script, such as Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, into Roman script. It is regarded as the required script in North America so far. You may be able to search in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean characters by using IME word processor if it is available for you; however, for the best searching result, please try searching in Romanization.
Romanization represents the sound of the Chinese, Japanese, or Korean character; the same Romanization may represent vastly different characters with different meanings. Thus, the following Romanization Tables provide examples of Chinese, Japanese, or Korean characters to distinguish the sound of the word for your information.
| Language | Conversion Table |
|---|---|
| If you know Japanese | Hepburn for Japanese |
| If you know Korean | McCune Reischauer for Korean |
| If you are familiar with Chinese Wade-Giles Romanization | Chinese - Wade-Giles to Pinyin |
| If you are familiar with Chinese Pinyin Romanization | Chinese - Pinyin to Wade-Giles |
| If you are familiar with Chinese Zhuyin | Chinese - Zhuyin to Pinyin |
Furthermore, please also consult the following two rules adopted by the Library of Congress for Pinyin Romanization.
- Chinese Romanization Guidelines (http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/chinese.pdf)PDF
- Romanization of Chinese Geographic names in descriptive and subject headings (http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pinyin/romx113.pdf)PDF
Take an example, you need to search Chinese words, "故宮博物院". If you choose to use Pinyin Romanization Table, from the search screen, you type in "gu" and Chinese word "故" will appear. If you are not looking for "故", but sound like "故", you can also use the same Romanization to search for that word because Romanization is representing the sound only which can be used for many words that have the same sound of "gu". Now, you need "故", so, you pick up the Romanization "gu" to continue your search, "gong"; "宮" "bo" "博" "wu" "物" "yuan" "院" and so forth.
Please try to use "Harvest Catalog Search" on the left panel for your search. For example, you type in "Zhongguo li shi" in the search box, select "Title begins" for search type, then press "Search". You will receive many titles begin with "Zhongguo li shi" that are in the Harvest Catalog (UC-Davis's online catalog.)
Or, you can try to search in Chinese by using IME Chinese word processor. For example, you can select IME Chinese word processor in the bottom of screen by changing "EN" to "Chinese." Then, construct the Chinese words "中國歷史" in the search box, select "CJK being" for search type, and press "search." You will receive many titles begin with "中國歷史" that are in the Harvest catalog.