Transcripts
East Asian Collection (English) transcript
By Michelle Hall
The East Asian collection is located on the 3rd floor of the Baillieu Library. It houses books and journals in Japanese and Chinese, and there are staff members who are fluent in each language. The East Asian office is staffed between 8:30 am and 5 pm Monday to Friday, but access to the collection is possible during the hours that the Baillieu library is open. All loans are handled at the loans desk on the ground floor.
The Chinese collection is the larger, with approximately 100,000 volumes. The Chinese collection of the East Asian Library is one of the best Chinese collections in Australia outside Canberra. The main areas of strength are language, history of China (from the Ming dynasty onwards), Buddhism and Taoism, Chinese literature, local gazetteers, customs and culture, Chinese medicine, reference and bibliographies. Of particular interest to researchers is the strong collection of microforms and electronic databases.
The Japanese collection is smaller, at approximately 19,000 volumes. The strengths of the collection are in the areas of linguistics, Japanese language teaching, art, architecture, history, women’s studies, anthropology and popular culture.
There are several collections of rare items. These include photographs, postcards, magazines and books from the time of the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. There is also an extensive collection of maps and books about Manchuria, especially Dairen and surrounds. Also of note is the collection of Japanese restoration reports. These are detailed reports of architectural restoration work on temples, shrines, and some houses. This is the only collection of such reports outside of Japan.
Other useful items includes a collection of newspapers on CD-Rom. We have the Yomiuri Shinbun from 1874-1960, the Asahi Shinbun from 1992-2005, and the Mainichi Shinbun 1994-2003. We also have the CD version of the early 20th century journal, Taiyo, and CD-adapted versions of some great artistic works including Rakuchu Rakugaizu, Edo meisho zue, and others.
A popular corner of the collection is the selection of manga comics. These are primarily donations but some are purchased for classes in popular culture.
Other Chinese and Japanese materials can be found in the Architecture library, video and DVDs, as well as teaching materials, are in the Education Resource Centre, and Law materials are in the Law library.