East Asian Studies Research Guides: General Reference

This collection provides step-by-step online tutorials for how to navigate library catalogs, online databases and transliteration in East Asian Studies.

For all works in Western languages, articles and books, dealing with Japan, China and Korea (among others), search first the online version of the

This contains more than 700,000 records on all subjects (especially humanities and social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide from 1971 to the present. Through the 1991 printed version, the BAS included citations to western-language periodical articles, individually authored monographs, chapters in edited volumes, conference proceedings, anthologies, and Festschriften, etc. Since 1992, newly published individual monographs are no longer being added to the database, and users seeking monographs are urged to consult other general resources and databases.

The online BAS contains the full data of all printed editions of the BAS issued from 1971 up to the 1991 edition (published 1997), as well as tens of thousands of entries compiled since. For any particular journal, full information on years of coverage is provided through the Journal Title Browse function.

You can search by phrase in specified field, can combine searches, and can specify your desired display, with or without diacritics; a downloadable font is provided. You can limit your searches to specific countries. Subject searching is also provided, but subject ranges are broad and have changed over the years. If you need assistance, contact the Western bibliographer or inquire using this form.

The paper version is

For the years before 1971 see the

of which there are two: one for 1941-65, and one for 1965-70. Both have author and subject bibliographies. An electronic version should be available by spring 1998.

A guide to articles published in Japan, irrespective of language and subject, with the titles translated into English, is the two-yearly:

For some other richly annotated beginners’ guides to special subjects, do not forget to go to a series of similar looking red books called Guide to ... published by G.K. Hall. Published until now are

The concept of “rare books” can vary a lot depending on the context. In the following, we limit the meaning of “rare books” to those works whose location is listed in the online catalog as Special Collections - East Asian Library Rare Books. For other concepts, read further.

Online Catalog

Rare books can be found in the main catalog, where their location is listed as Special Collections - East Asian Library Rare Books. The specialized Chinese Rare Books Catalog allows browsing of Chinese rare books only, by author name and Chinese standard rare book subject (and it includes traditionally bound books located elsewhere.) The main catalog answers the question “does Princeton have book X in any form” (including rare items), while the specialized Chinese catalog answers the question “what ancient Chinese books does Princeton have?”

Outside visitors

Outside visitors are welcome to use the East Asian Library. For borrowing privileges regarding the normal collection, please contact the Access Office in Firestone Library:

Prospective users of the East Asian Library can apply for some limited funding at the link below; but note that competition is fierce.

Access to Rare Books

For access to the East Asian Library Rare Books Collection (defined as having the location Special Collections - East Asian Library Rare Books), physically held in Special Collections in the main Firestone Library, see the information, links and forms at the link below:

It is important to note that many traditionally-bound materials are located in Princeton’s storage locations (Annex or ReCAP), and are not located in Special Collections; retrieval may take several days; contact us! The online catalog will tell you what is where.

With few exceptions, users will be able to make digital photographs of books for their own personal use, after signing an agreement form at the Reading Room; this does not include publication rights, for which special permission needs to be sought, which is usually given without any fees.

Individual registration

All users are required to register once first; please read the FAQ listed above. Users from outside Princeton will have to obtain a special photo-ID at the Access Office; proper identification (government-issued ID, passport, or university ID card) is necessary (see at the link above the registration FAQ.)

Supporting Materials

Users may also benefit from the printed Pulinsidun da xue tu shu guan cang Zhong wen shan ben shu mu (2 vols, Guojia tushuguan chubanshe, 2017). This catalog contains all Chinese items at Princeton before 1796, and replaces an earlier catalog by Qu Wanli. For call numbers and location, it is best to verify in the online catalog, from where you can request items using the request button (after registration). For Korean rare books, there is the Miguk P'ŭrinsŭt'ŏn Taehakkyo sojang Han'guk komunhŏn = Korean rare books in the Princeton University Library (Kungnip Chungang Tosŏgwan, 2015.) There is no printed equivalent for the Japanese collection. For Manchu and Mongolian works, contact the EAL Director directly.

Finally, the printed Chang Bide/Wu Zhefu, Pulinsidun da xue Geside Dong fang Tu shu guan Zhong wen jiu ji shu mu catalog (1990) contains mostly Qing items. It may contain items not yet in the on-line catalog.

Requesting that a work be digitized

For this, use the form below:

Special Collections staff will contact the relevant librarian to assess the item. It may be beneficial to first, or also, contact the EAL Director, and give a short paragraph stating the reason for your request (especially important if otherwise the material is already widely available in other formats.) They may return to you with further questions (the work may be too large), but usually some scanning will be accommodated. Note that demand is high, and that there is a rather long waiting period; however, there is no cost involved.

Restrictions on access

For any particular requests (or access to items not in the on-line catalog), please contact the EAL director. In your request, please include the following information:

• Image to be used and way to be used (inside the book/ as a cover); please state whether you need an image in a particular format, or have one already
• Title of the book with projected publication data
• Projected run, price, targeted audience (e.g., academic)

In practice, the use of most of the material held in the rare book collections of the East Asian Library, will fall into the “waived fees” category, as does the use of images freely downloadable from Princeton’s Digital Collections at DPUL. We do ask you to use the credit line “Courtesy of the East Asian Library and the Gest Collection.”

Microsoft Input Method Editors for CJK

On Windows, East Asian languages and input methods may be configured in settings.  The specific name of the control panel varies in different version of Windows, but opening settings and searching for the term "Lanugage" will get you to the relevant section (which may be called "Time & Language", "Region & Language", "Keyboard & Language", etc).  Note that there is a distinction between the "Display Language" (the language used in menus and other parts of the Windows system) and "Preferred Languages", which are used to input text.  To input East Asian text, simply add the desired languages as "Preferred Languages".  Multiple possible Chinese keyboards are available, but installing "Chinese (Simplified, China)" will allow you to input pinyin and convert it to either Simplified or Traditional Chinese.

You can accept the default options offered for each language, but can also optionally turn off "handwriting", "text-to-speech", etc. if they are not needed.  This will speed up the installation. However, it is recommended to include the "Langauge Pack", which will install expanded dictionaries and other useful features for text input.

After adding languages, the bottom right of the desktop will include an icon that can be clicked to switch languages.  It will probably say EN or ENG for English by default. You can switch to another language by clicking on it and selecting a language from the menu.

Chinese

For Simplified Chinese, make sure "中 (Chinese)" is selected rather than "英 (English)" in the settings palette which shows once the input system is selected. Right-clicking this icon will bring up a menu with other options, such as full or half-width numbers, Chinese or Western punctuation, and Simplified or Traditional Chinese.

Start typing pinyin. Type phrase by phrase, not character by character, since artificial intelligence may correct earlier characters depending on what you type subsequently. Your inputted characters will be underlined with a broken line when still in changeable mode. Use the left arrow key to move in front of characters you want to change: a window with more choices for that syllable pronunciation will show up, which you can choose using your number keys. By hitting "enter" you confirm your choices, and the underline will disappear.

Japanese

For Japanese, make sure to select "hiragana あ ", rather than "A (English)". Right-clicking this icon will bring up other options, such as katakana input.

Start typing. Type phrase by phrase, not character by character. Your Western letters become first hiragana; by pressing the space bar, they are changed into the first option for characters. Press the space bar again for more options: a window with more choices for that syllable pronunciation will show up, which you can choose using your number keys. Phrases are transformed phrase by phrase; to change the length of the phrase which is taken as a unit, press shift-left arrow (to shorten it) or shift-right arrow (to lengthen it.) By hitting "enter" you confirm your choices, and the underline will disappear.

Korean

For Korean, make sure you select "hangul 가 " instead of "A (English)". The keyboard used is the 2-Beolsik by default. If you need to change hangul into characters, move the cursor before the syllable you wish to convert, and click the "han" character button in the palette. Note that Korean syllables are not underlined, and that hitting the space bar actually enters a space.