This book is the first comprehensive guide to East Asian collections in American and Canadian libraries. It covers fifty-five collections and deals primarily with materials in East Asian vernacular languages, mainly Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The guide also covers materials in both book and nonbook form.
Description given to each collection emphasizes subject strengths, areas of specialization, special materials and collections, access services, interlibrary loan service, library automation, network and consortium participation, contact information, library catalogs, and other publications. In addition to printed materials, this guide includes rare items such as old manuscripts and inscriptions, rubbings, oracle bones, and fine printing. Entries are arranged alphabetically by name of the parent institution. A list of geographical collections and a general index aid access to the material. The work will be useful to scholars, researchers, and students in East Asian Studies and to East Asian librarians.