10. Library Catalogs, East Asian Collections, and Interlibrary Loan
For information on libraries and collections at Harvard which hold East Asia-related material, please see the Harvard Library Collections section.
Library Catalogs at Harvard
HOLLIS
The online catalog for Harvard's libraries. For information about using HOLLIS to find materials in East Asian languages, please see HOLLIS Catalog CJK 中日韓 Scripts.
Note: Not all Chinese-language materials in HOLLIS have characters. Some materials can only be found by romanization. Please see the section on romanization for more information and conversion tables.
OASIS (Online Archival Search Information System)
Provides centralized access to a growing percentage of finding aids for archival and manuscript collections at Harvard. These finding aids are detailed descriptions of collections that contain a wide variety of materials, including letters, diaries, photographs, drawings, printed material, and objects.
Note: OASIS does not currently have CJK capability. All searches for East Asian terms must be entered in romanization.
VIA (Visual Information Access)
Union catalog of visual resources at Harvard, focusing on artistic and cultural materials.
Note: OASIS does not currently have CJK capability. All searches for East Asian terms must be entered in romanization.
Union Catalogs
Worldcat (First Search) (Harvard ID/PIN required)
Union catalog for a large number of libraries, including many non-US libraries. Most participants are, however, American. To view the interface in an East Asian script, please click on the relevant language icon at the bottom of the screen (e.g. 中文（繁體）or 中文（简体）. Provides a convenient list of holding libraries organized by location which may be printed out.
EVOCS - European Virtual OPAC for Chinese Studies
Allows simultaneous searching of major Chinese collections in Europe.
UK Union Catalog of Chinese Books
Incorporates Chinese records in original script from the British Library, the Bodleian Library, the Brotherton Library (Leeds), and the university libraries of Cambridge, Durham, SOAS (London) and Edinburgh. For more information about the catalog, see their project page.
Union Catalog of Premodern Chinese Books in Japan 全國漢籍データベース
(日本所藏中文古籍數據庫)
Searching possible using Chinese or Japanese entry. Advanced search function also allows limiting by holding collection.
Webcat Plus 国立情報学研究所図書情報ナビゲーター
Union catalog of university libraries in Japan. Good content description.
Libraries and Catalogs in Asia
The following is a selected list of research libraries in East Asia with significant Chinese holdings. It is not comprehensive.People's Republic of China
Beijing (Peking) University Library 北京大学图书馆
A number of catalogs are available from their site:
- library catalog: the main online catalog for the university library.
- digitized rare books catalog 北京大学数字图书馆古文献资源库: metadata searching only; full image available if searching from within the Beijing University network. Includes rubbings as well as texts.
- Original thesis/dissertation catalog 老版本北京大学学位论文库: theses and dissertations submitted to Beijing University between 1980 and 2004. Metadata searching is open to the world. Limited amounts of full text are available in pdf format if searching from within the Beijing University network.
- Thesis/dissertation full-text catalog 北京大学学位论文全文库: theses and dissertations submitted to Beijing University after 1981. Metadata searching is open to the world. Later holdings include abstracts, often in both Chinese and English.
Fudan University Library 复旦大学图书馆
Nanjing University Library 南京大学图书馆
National Library of China 中国国家图书馆
Home page of the National Library of the People's Republic of China
Shanghai Library 上海图书馆
Includes links to their online catalog, as well as to special collections such as images of the anti-Japanese war 上海图书馆馆藏抗战图片库and memories of the revolution 革命回忆录专题文库.
Chinese University of Hong Kong Library 香港中文大学
The CUHK catalog provides a function for searching across all Hong Kong university libraries. The University Library System Digital Initiative Page provides information about and access to a variety of specialized collections and databases, such as HK Literature Database 香港文學資料庫, Modern Chinese Drama 中國現代戲劇資料庫, ,Chinese Rare Book Collection 中文善本藏書, Oracle Bones Collection 甲骨特藏, Manuscript Collection 手稿 , Guodian Chu Jian 郭店楚簡資料庫, Zoumalou San Guo Wu Jian 走馬樓三國吳簡資料庫, and the periodical index HKInChip 香港中文期刊論文索引.
Academia Sinica 中央研究院
This site a gateway to research and collections on humanities, social sciences, and science. Their online catalog allows searching across the institute's collections, as well as providing links to information about specific libraries.
Fu Ssu-nien Library
The library for the Institute of History and Philology at Academia Sinica. The library has a dedicated catalog ( 傅斯年圖書館珍藏善本圖籍書目資料庫) for its rare books, old-style bindings, bronze and stone rubbings, and popular literature. Their catalog for the
Digital Archives System of Fu Ssu-nien Library 傅斯年圖書館數位典臧系統 is a gateway to a large number of digital collections. Depending on the collection, browsing, searching, or full images may be available. These include rare books and materials, archives from the library, seals, name authority file and associated mapping function, ancient contracts and Huizhou contracts. A listing of the Institute's own databases is also available.
National Central Library Unified Catalog 國家圖書館資料庫整合查詢
Allows integrated searching of a number of catalogs, webpages, and
databases, including the online catalog of the National
Central Library 國家圖書館書目資料檢索, a citation index for journals published in Taiwan
中華民國期刊論文索引, theses and dissertations 全國博碩士論文摘要檢索系統,
literature 當代文學史料（評論, 傳記, 作品, 翻譯）and government
publication 中華民國政府出版品 databases, etc. Options for selecting specific databases
for searching are available under the general search box.
Toyo Bunko 東洋文庫
The largest library and research institute devoted to Asian Studies in Japan. (English version also available). To search the library's holdings, please see their Online Search 図書のオンライン検索 page; searching is within specific collections, and not all materials may be searchable through the online catalog. Chinese materials catalogs include but are not limited to the Online Classical Chinese Title Search 漢籍オンライン検索, Chinese Periodicals Catalog 中国語逐次刊行物データベース, the Xuxiu Sikuquanshu Catalog 續修四庫全書 and the Chinese Language Materials Catalog 中文図書の検索（近代中国研究委員会収集）.
Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo 東京大学東洋文化研究所
Besides its own general catalog, the Institute also provides a number of databases, including its catalog of classical Chinese books 東洋文化研究所所蔵漢籍目録データベース, Digital Library of Classical Chinese books 漢籍善本全文画像資料庫,
and the Database of Journal Articles on Modern Chinese Literature 中国近現代文学関係雑誌記事データベース.
National Diet Library (NDL) Asian Language Materials OPAC 国立国会図書館アジア言語OPAC
Catalog to the holdings of the NDL for books in Chinese, Korean , Mongolian, Vietnamese, Indonesian , Malaysian languages acquired in and after 1986, and all periodicals and newspapers in Chinese and Korean. The catalog is viewable in Japanese or English.
National Diet Library (NDL) OPAC
National Diet Library bibliography since 1868. The English-language version has somewhat more limited functionality.
NDL Rare Books Image Database 貴重書画像データベース
East Asian Libraries and Collections
North AmericaC. V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University
Charles W. Wason Collection on East Asia, Cornell University
East Asian Collection, Duke University
East Asian Collection, Indiana University
Asian Reading Room, Library of Congress
East Asian Library and the Gest Collection, Princeton University
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Library, Smithsonian Institution
East Asia Library, Stanford University
Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Stanford University
Asian Library, University of British Columbia
East Asian Library, University of California, Berkeley
East Asian Collection, University of California, Irvine
Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Library, University of California, Los Angeles
International Relations and Pacific Studies Library, University of California, San Diego
East Asian Library, University of California, Santa Barbara
East Asian Collection, University of Chicago
Asia Collection, University of Hawai'i
East Asian Library, University of Kansas
East Asian Collection, University of Maryland, College Park
Asia Library, University of Michigan
East Asian Collection, University of Minnesota
East Asian Collection, University of Pennsylvania
East Asian Library, University of Pittsburgh
Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library, University of Toronto
East Asia Library, University of Washington
East Asian Collection, University of Wisconsin-Madison
East Asian Library, Yale University
EuropeEuropean Association of Sinological Librarians -- Libraries and Catalogs
Provides links to sinological libraries throughout the world, with especially
detailed coverage for Europe and East Asia.
Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections, British Library
SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) Library, University of London
Le département des Manuscrits (division orientale), Bibliotheque National de France
Includes special catalogs for East and Central Asian manuscripts, particularly from the Pelliot collections. See also the union catalog for France, Catalog collective de France
Institute of Chinese Studies Library, University of Heidelberg
Department of Oriental Collections, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
Contains links to their original online Chinese and Japanese catalogs, as well as to the new UK Union Catalogs.
Talen en culturen van China/Sinologisch Instituut, Leiden University
Includes links to their library collections and other research information.
Asian Studies Research Collection, Monash University
East Asian Collection, University of Melbourne
East Asian Collection, University of Sydney
Interlibrary Loan
If a book or article you need is not available at Harvard, it may be possible to obtain it through Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Worldcat may help you find your materials at another library. If they are not available through these catalogs, please consult library staff to see if there might be other ways to find them. For instance, the National Diet Library does not participate in Worldcat, but ILL is possible. For East Asian-language materials, FAS affiliates may contact Harvard-Yenching Library ILL services. For Western-language materials, please contact either Harvard-Yenching or HCL ILL services at Widener Library. You may also submit a purchase request suggesting that the library obtain a particular work.
For articles published in Taiwan, it may be possible to request a copy through the ReadNCL document delivery service. Depending on the material, it may be printed from online or the library may request that a copy be delivered by fax or mail. For more information, please consult reference staff at Harvard-Yenching Library.
Harvard-Yenching Library also maintains document delivery and exchange relationships with a number of libraries in East Asia. If you are not able to obtain a needed document through ILL, please consult reference staff at Harvard-Yenching Library or the librarian for the relevant collection (see Harvard-Yenching Library for contact information).
Family History Library
The Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints holds one of the world's largest collections of genealogies, including a very large number from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Their catalog may now be searched using characters as well as romanization. Materials are on microform and may be requested through the Harvard-Yenching Library. Typical loan period is about one month. For more information, please contact Sharon Yang .
Gateway Service Center of Chinese and Korean Academic Journal Publications
The East Asian Library at the University of Pittsburgh provides free document-delivery services for articles published in Chinese or Korean which are not held by libraries in North America. Service for Chinese documents is available to everyone; for Korean, only to students and faculty at the University of Pittsburgh.
Page Last Reviewed: March 10, 2009