The Editor Visits
the East Asiatic Library
 

[ OME think of libraries as ivory towers—hushed, book-
encrusted retreats insulated from the world, inhabited by
librarians more familiar with the life of the Middle Ages
or Ancient Rome than with the tumults of today. Yet if there
is anything which has struck us on our visits to the various Co¬
lumbia libraries, it is the way life has of breaking into even the
most cloistered and esoteric of them. In the Medical Library, for
instance, the rise and fall of the Nazi regime could have been
charted in terms of the changing quality of the German jour¬
nals received during the years 1933-1945. The East Asiatic Li¬
brary is similarly a faithful barometer of political pressure areas
in the Far East, and the Librarian, Howard P. Linton, could
keep up with events in that part of the world without opening
a newspaper—simply by studying the vicissitudes of the flow of
Oriental publications into his Library.

The outbreak of World War II was heralded by the disappear¬
ance of Japanese periodicals from the mails. They did not appear
again until 1948. Since then, the circulation of materials in the
Japanese language has risen about 400 percent, which is twice
the increase in the use of Chinese items. Some of this increase
represents the interest of Americans whom the war introduced
to Japan; now Mr. Linton wonders whether the circulation of
Korean books (only 30 in 1952-53) will start to cKmb.

The descent of the Bamboo Curtain around China has also
been felt in the East Asiatic Library. Very wisely, the Library
takes the position adopted by President Eisenhower in his Dart¬
mouth College speech last June 14: that the best way to aid
scholars in a democracy which challenges and is challenged by a
totalitarian regime is to bring them the most extensive and up-

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