The Libraries' East Asian Collection in Langson Library will be greatly enhanced due to a grant from the Korea Foundation from its Support Program for Korean Studies e-Resources and a gift of books from the Chinese government under the Window to China program.

The Korea Foundation grant of $2,780 provides a critical matching funding source for the Libraries to subscribe to e-Korean Studies, the most comprehensive Korean-language database with online access to journal articles, books, reports, lectures, reference works, and legal information. Available to UCI faculty, staff and students at www.e-koreanstudies.com, the newly acquired e-resource augments our Korean language collection that supports modern and contemporary Korea studies on campus. Featuring robust cross-database search capabilities, e-Korean Studies will make research on Korea much easier and efficient. To secure non-stop access, the Libraries plans to continue its application for the grant on an annual basis.

In addition, the Libraries has been granted the long-term benefit of receiving gift materials under Window to China, a government funded donation program that is currently operated by the National Library of China. Under the first donation program of this kind from the Chinese government, UCI Libraries is entitled to request and receive each year up to 6,000 Yuan worth of books, film DVDs, and other forms of research materials about China, in Chinese, English or bi-lingual languages. In early 2011, the Libraries received the first batch of 77 gift books. These materials, covering various humanities and social sciences areas, are being added to the East Asian Collection.

Established in 1990 to serve the campus research and instructional needs for East Asian Studies, the East Asian Collection has grown from the original 8,000 volumes of Chinese books to 118,500 volumes of books, journals, films and other forms of materials in Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages. The collection has been heavily used by East Asian studies faculty and students at UCI as well as by community users.

The Libraries will actively keep seeking external funding support to enhance the collection as financial challenges confront us.
For more information, please contact Ying Zhang, Research Librarian for East Asian Studies, at yingz@uci.edu or 949.824.0489.