Overview

UNC-Chapel Hill's collection of East Asian research materials covers all the subjects of current research in Chinese studies being undertaken at the university together with enough material in other branches of Chinese culture and thought to launch beginning inquiries. The collection also provides material in support of Japanese-language training and English-language coverage of Korean subject areas. The Library cooperates closely with the Library at Duke University which, at mid-century in mutual accord with UNC-Chapel Hill, decided to emphasize Japanese culture and thought and, more recently, to create a Korean-language collection to support a Korean studies program. The two collections combined represent the largest East Asian library concentration in the Southeastern United States and among the top twenty East Asian libraries in North America.

To June 30, 2004, East Asian materials in the Academic Affairs Library (AAL) at UNC-Chapel Hill reached 131,230 volumes, of which 125,160 volumes are in Chinese, 5,674 volumes in Japanese and 374 volumes in Korean. In addition, there are approximately 60,000 items in western languages dealing with East Asia.

The University Library holds a total of 630 current serials in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. There are 10 current Chinese-language newspapers, and one Korean newspaper. Many of the serial titles are acquired by large exchange programs maintained with libraries in East Asia.

Besides the print collection, the library has 11,485 items in microform and the library Non-print collection has nearly 575 films from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan , and Japan to facilitate class instructions. Furthermore, UNC has been a member of the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) since 1976. UNC-affiliated users are eligible to borrow East Asian materials held at both CRL and Perkins Library of Duke University

The largest volume of material is in Chinese language and literature, the literature component including both classical and modern Chinese literature. The next largest part of the collection is devoted to Chinese history, including basic materials on early history up to the Ming dynasty which began in 1368. Collections for later historical periods, from late Ming to the post revolutionary periods provide even more thorough coverage. Within the modern period the collection provides substantial holdings in Chinese military history and Chinese Communist foreign affairs. Chinese philosophy, religion, art, political science, economics, and other areas of study continue to grow, although more slowly than history and literature. There is also a solid accumulation of works on traditional Chinese medicine. The focus of current acquisition is in areas of East Asian popular culture, women's studies, media, etc. Besides print materials, electronic resources have gradually emerged as one of the major resources for the collection. On May 15, 2002, the Academic Affairs Library purchased the first Chinese electronic database, China Academic Journal Database (CAJ). This resource has full display and retrieval capability in Chinese vernaculars.

Cooperative Collection Development with Duke Library