Starr News

Fall 2000

Welcome to all new students, faculty, and scholars, and welcome back to everyone else. Now that we have all settled into the new semester it is time to bring you up-to-date on what is going on in the library. As you will see we have had quite a summer, and the fall promises to offer at least as many activities. Since this newsletter only appears twice a year we want to encourage you to keep track of our website, where you will find all the most up to date information, such as hours and service changes. A new "Starr News" section including late breaking news, and the latest issue, as well as an archive of this newsletter are also available there. Our URL is:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/eastasian/index.html

Technical Services Area Renovation

Over the past summer, the technical services area - the non-office staff area on the west side of 300 Kent - was completely renovated. The last time this area had received attention was in the early 1980s, just before computers started to have a major impact on how libraries function. Our cataloging staff had for many years worked in a cramped, inadequate space, ill-equipped for the tasks at hand. From the middle of July through the middle of August this area received a complete overhaul. All the old furniture and old carpeting was removed and the entire area was rewired, after which new carpeting, new furniture, and new equipment were installed, resulting in a much more streamlined, airier and lighter workspace.

Reference Collection Shift

Also over the summer, the entire reference collection was shifted. The reference shelves had been extremely overcrowded in some areas. Due to this fact, as well as the installation of the LibraryWeb terminals last year, access to large parts of the reference collection was inconvenient. After the periodical re-shelving of last spring, substantial additional shelf space became available to improve access to reference materials. Call numbers start, as before, on the north side of the reading room, near the library entrance. However, the numbers are now arranged through the last alcove on the main floor north, before continuing to the mezzanine level. The south side of the reading room is similarly arranged; the call numbers start in the alcove on the main floor next to the stained glass window and continue through the narrow shelves behind the reference desk, after which the remainder is shelved on the south side mezzanine. The library catalogs that used to be shelved under the display cases have in turn been moved to the shelves behind the LibraryWeb terminals. Sheets with exact call number ranges for each space are available at the circulation desk.

Kent-Philosophy Restoration

On Monday, September 11, work began to prepare the East Asian Library's stacks for the restoration of the foundations of Kent and Philosophy Halls. The foundation walls will be strengthened and waterproofed, and drainage in the buildings as a whole will be renovated. In the long term, this work will improve the climate control in Starr's book stacks, and therefore help us keep our materials safe and dry, so we are eager to have the work done. In the short term, however, there will be disruption in the stacks.

The books closest to the east wall of room 108 in the stacks (call numbers ND1054.5 through PE68.J3) have been temporarily moved to the overflow holding section in room 105, diagonally across from the elevator. All folios in the Library of Congress classification system, previously on the north and west walls of room 108, have been moved to shelves in the Rare Book and Special Collections reading room, which is open whenever the Library is open, so they can be browsed.

Rare Book and Special Collections Reading Room hours will remain from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and from 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but the Kress seminar room will be used as the reading room.

We are sorry for the inconvenience caused by these shifts in our collection, and ask you for your patience in bearing up under work that will eventually improve conditions for our resources. If you have trouble locating materials you need, please ask library staff for help.

Nurimedia Korean Studies DB Series

LibraryWeb now has a link to the Nurimedia Korean Studies DB Series, a full-text collection of Korean classical books, including Samguk sagi, Samguk yusa, Parhaesa, and Koryosa (on Korean history from the "Three Kingdoms" period through the end of the Koryo Dynasty in the late 14th century), as well as the Palman Taejangyong (Tripitaka Koreana) and Tongguk Yi Sangguk chip (Yi Kyu-bo's literary works), in Korean translation and in the classical Chinese-language original.

To use this service you need a browser that can display Korean fonts. The authentication method is IP-based. Access via the proxy server is not in place, therefore this service is not available via non-CU Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The URL for the connection screen of Nurimedia Korean Studies DB Series page is:
http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?AQN7595

Our local database coordinator is Korean Studies Librarian HyoKyoung (HK) Lee. If you have any questions about the database, or if you need instruction in its use, feel free to contact her during her reference desk hours (Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 4:00- 5:00 PM), or make an appointment by email or phone (hl303@columbia.edu; 854-1507).

Wade-Giles/Pinyin Conversion

As some of you may have heard, October 1, 2000 was Day One of the national project to convert all bibliographic records that use the Wade-Giles system of transliteration to Pinyin, used in most other areas that transliterate Chinese language. The project as a whole will take a year to complete, but has begun with catalogers of Chinese language materials starting to use Pinyin.

The records in CLIO for Columbia's Starr East Asian Library holdings are still in Wade Giles; they will all be converted at one time, and reloaded into the system, at some point in the next several months. We will try to give you some advance warning. Until that time, you should continue to use Wade-Giles to search for materials, but to make sure you do not overlook very new materials, or materials that are being newly cataloged, you will also then have to do a Pinyin search.

Sheets listing corresponding methods of transliteration are available among the Library flyers near the entrance.

Online Serials Check-in Complete

With the beginning of the fall semester, we began checking in current issues of Western- language periodicals online in CLIO. Since Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Tibetan periodicals were already being checked in online, this completes the conversion of this process. This means that the most up-to-date information on all periodical holdings can now be found in CLIO, and the old Kardex files for all but the Chinese periodicals have been removed from the reading room. To find out whether the library has received a given issue of a periodical title, do a title search in CLIO, i.e. t=[title] and check the holdings information.

Exhibitions

For the first part of the semester a small exhibition in the reading room display cases paid attention to the historical summit talks which took place this summer between the North and South Korean leaders Kim Jong-Il and Kim Dae Jung - the latter of whom was recently awarded the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize - and the subsequent family reunion visits between the two countries.

As this newsletter goes to press, this exhibition is about to be replaced by one highlighting another recent East Asian Nobel Prize winner, Gao Xingjian, the Chinese author who was awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature. The exhibition provides some background information on Gao, as well as examples of some of his writings in translation.

Primary Public Service Contacts:

Library Director: Amy V. Heinrich. 305M Kent. (212) 854-1508. heinrich@columbia.edu 

Access Services: Kenneth Harlin. 319M Kent. (212) 854-1501. harlin@columbia.edu 

East Asian Studies: Ria Koopmans-de Bruijn. 310 Kent. (212) 854-1505. rkb7@columbia.edu 

Chinese and Tibetan Studies: Frances LaFleur. 307M Kent. (212) 854-3721. lafleur@columbia.edu 

Japanese Studies: Mihoko Miki. 308M Kent. (212) 854-1506. miki@columbia.edu 

Korean Studies: HyoKyoung (HK) Lee. 310M Kent. (212) 854-1507. hl303@columbia.edu