April 2006

1

Progress Report of the Asian
Division,Library of Congress

• Hwa-Wei Lee
• Chief, Asian Division, Library of Congress
• hlee_at_loc.gov

2
Asian Division

• The Asian Division, founded in 1928, is one of
  four area studies divisions under the Directorate
  of Collections and Services in the Library
  Services
• African and Middle Eastern Division
• Asian Division
• European Division
• Hispanic Division

3
Reorganization Completed

• Two sections
• Collection Services
• Scholarly services
• Five Area Collections
• China and Mongolia
• Japan
• Korea (South and North)
• South Asia
• Southeast Asia

4
Vision of the Asian Division

• To establish the collection of the Asian Division
  as the premier research and scholarly resource on
  Asia, in most Asian languages, that is compatible
  with the dynamics of knowledge and creativity of
  the Asian people.

5
Mission of the Asian Division

• The mission of the Asian Division is to make
  comprehensive collection resources and
  information services related to Asia available
  and useful to the Congress, the American people,
  and the scholarly community nationally and
  internationally.

6
The Size of Asian Collections (03/31/2006)
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Asian Collections in Other Formats

• Legal materials, maps, music, motion pictures,
  prints, and photographs are housed and cared for
  by other divisions in the Library in
  collaboration with the Asian Division
• the Law Library
• the Geography and Map Division
• the Prints and Photographs Division
• the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded
  Sound Division
• the Performing Arts Division
• the Manuscript Division, etc.

8
Collections not in Asian Languages

• Other Asia-related publications not in Asian
  languages are also housed in
• the Main Reading Room
• the Microform Reading Room
• The Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room
  
• The Performing Arts Reading Room
• the Science Reading Room
• some of the other area studies and special
  collections

9
Building Asian Digital Resources

• In the digital age, the Asian Division is moving
  ahead in supplementing its printed collections by
  a growing body of electronic resources from
  e-books, e-journals, e-newspapers, to a wide
  range of e-materials, both digitized from printed
  version or born digital.

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Types of Digital Resources

• Subscription of e-bibliographic databases.
• Acquisition of digitized full-text databases.
• Digitization of rare books and other collections.
• Capture of relevant web sites.
• Online access and reference services.

11
Subscribed to E-Bibliographic Databases

• At present forty-five of the Librarys 219
  subscription databases deal with Asia or Asian
  studies. Some of these are
• Aardvark (Asian resources for librarians)
• Asian Development Bank Economics Statistics
  (Economics and Research Department of Asian
  Development Bank)
• Asian Law Bibliographic Database (University of
  Melbourne)
• Bibliography of Asian Studies (Association for
  Asian Studies)
• Country Studies (Federal Research Division, the
  Library of Congress)
• Treaties and International Agreements (Oceana
  Publications)

12
Acquired Digitized Full-text Databases

• From China and Taiwan
• Peoples Daily ??????? - 1946-2004.
• China Data Online.
• Chinese Journals ????????? 7,240 titles.
• Chinese Core Newspapers ????????? - 1,000 titles.
• SuperStar Digital Library ??????? - 100,000
  titles.
• Si Ku Quan Shu ????????.
• the Academia Sinicas Chinese Civilization in
  Time Space??????????? and Taiwan History
  Culture in Time Space ??????????.
• The Encyclopedia of Taiwan ??????.

13
Acquired Digitized Full-text Databases

• From Japan
• Directory of Japanese Scientific Periodicals
  (from National Diet Library, covering 13,875 S/T
  serial titles).
• Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan (11,000 entries,
  based on the 1993 publication Japan an
  Illustrated Encyclopedia).
• Several Japanese rare books have been digitized
  and are available in full text from the Librarys
  OPAC.
• Full-text databases of five major Japanese
  newspapers including Mainichi, Sankei, Chunichi,
  Tokyo and Yomiuri Newspapers.

14
Acquired Digitized Full-text Databases

• From Korea
• Chosun Daily Newspaper Archive (covering articles
  from the Chosun Ilbo, the most widely read
  newspaper in South Korea)
• Korean Studies Database (by KRPIA, covering
  history, literature, and traditional medicines)
• Korean Studies Information Service System (KISS,
  a database of full-text articles from 6,000
  journals published by 1,200 Korean academic
  institutions)
• Law n B-Korean Law Database (Law and business,
  available for access in the Law Library reading
  room)

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Digitized Rare Books Other Collections

• The digitized Naxi ??collection is now accessible
  online http//international.loc.gov/intldl/naxiht
  ml/naxihome.html
• In collaboration with the Academia Sinica, some
  21,000 maps and 840 aerial photos have been
  digitized and will be incorporated into the
  historical geographic information system Chinese
  Civilizations in Time and Space???????????.
• In collaboration with the National Central
  Library in Taiwan a three-year project to
  digitize the Chinese rare books in the Library of
  Congress has been launched since May 2005.

16
Digitized Rare Books Other Collections

• In collaboration with the International Research
  Center of Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) in Japan
  four rare books in the Nara Ehon collection were
  digitized and are accessible online through LCs
  OPAC.
• Also in collaboration with Nichibunken some 3,000
  prints from the Japanese Ukiyo-e collection were
  digitized and will be available online in 2006.
• The complete set of 207 large-scale maps of Japan
  made by Inoh Tadataka ???? (1816-1819) were
  digitized and is now accessible from the
  Librarys webpage http//www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/

17
Capturing Relevant Web Sites

• The portals of the Asian Division are
  increasingly a useful web resource on all the
  Asian countries and regions. http//www.loc.gov/rr
  /asian/area_AD.html
• Planning is being made to begin web harvesting
  and archiving on special topics or events of
  importance. Example the tsunami disaster.

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Providing Online Access and Services

• The Librarys online public access catalog.
  http//catalog.loc.gov
• American Memory. http//memory.loc.gov/
• Global Gateway. http//international.loc.gov/intl
  dl/intldlhome.html
• The portals of the Asian Division
  http//www.loc.gov/rr/asian/area_AD.html
• QuestionPoint. http//www.oclc.org/questionpoint
• Asking a Librarian. http//www.loc.gov/rr/askalib
  /ask-asian.html

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The World Digital Library

• Proposed by Dr. James Billington in June 2005.
• To bring together online rare and unique cultural
  materials held by libraries and repositories in
  all parts of the world.
• Digitization will be done through public and
  private collaboration.
• On November 22, 2005, Google Inc. responded with
  an initial funding of 3 million.

20
The World Digital Library

• The current large-scale digitization projects
  undertaken by the Asian Division in collaboration
  with major libraries in Asia will be the first
  group of projects which will make up the World
  Digital Library.

21
Published Report on E-Resources

• Dr. Mi Chu Wiens article, World Digital Library
  and E-Resources in the Asian Division, Library of
  Congress, published in the February 2006 issue
  of the Journal of East Asian Libraries, No. 138,
  pp. 1-4.

22
The Friends Society of Asian Division

• It was established on January 20, 2004 as a mean
  of outreach to a broader user community.
• We now have more than 200 individual and
  corporate members.
• Through the generosity of Florence Tan Moeson, up
  to 15 research fellowships will be awarded each
  year.
• For information about the Friends Society, please
  visit the website http//www.lcasianfriends.org.
  

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The Florence Tan Moeson Research Fellowship

• Established through the generosity of Florence
  Tan Moeson, the Moeson Fellowship provides
  individuals with the opportunity to pursue
  research on East, Southeast, or South Asia
  (including the overseas Asian communities), using
  the unparalleled Asian collections of the Library
  of Congress in Washington, DC.

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Scholarly Programs Launched

• An International Symposium on the Significance of
  Admiral Zheng Hes Voyages (1405-1433).
• In the Footsteps of Marco Polo An International
  Symposium on Italy-China Cultural Exchangein the
  13th--17th Centuries.
• America Is in the Heart for the 21st Century The
  Carlos Bulosan Symposium - In Commemorating the
  Centennial of the First Wave Migration to Hawaii
  by Filipino Nationals.

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An International SymposiumOn the Significance of
Admiral Zheng Hes Voyages (1405-1433)In
Commemoration of the 600th Anniversary of Zheng
Hes First Voyage
Monday, May 16, 2005, 830 a.m. 430
p.m. Mumford Room (6th floor) Madison
Building The Library of Congress
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Asian Division, The Library of Congress Embassy
of Italy/Italian Cultural Institute, Washington
D.C. The Honorable Henry E. Brown, Jr. Present
In the Footsteps of Marco PoloAn International
Symposium on Italy-China Cultural Exchangein the
13th--17th Centuries
Thursday, March 23, 2006 830am-1200pm Members
Room LJ-162, Jefferson Building
Sponsored byThe National Italian American
Foundation - Frank J. Guarini Public Policy Forum
Alitalia

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The Asian Division Friends Society The Embassy of
The Republic of The Philippines Our Own
Voice Invite You to Attend
America Is in the HeartFor the 21st CenturyThe
Carlos Bulosan Symposium In Commemorating the
Centennial of the First Wave Migration to Hawaii
by Filipino Nationals
Friday April 28, 2006 915am-500pm Room
LJ-119 Jefferson Building
Carlos Bulosan is the literary icon of early
Filipino migrant experience in the United States.

SPONSORS Philippine American Writers and
Artists, Inc. (PAWA, Inc.) / The Asian Pacific
American Labor Alliance (APALA AFL-CIO) / Carayan
Press, San Francisco / Remedios G. Cabacungan
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• Thank You