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Starr News
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Fall 2004
Welcome to another academic year. We hope everyone is settling in well into what seems like a busier than ever season. After a hiatus of two years our newsletter is back once again to inform you of developments in the Starr Library. A lot has happened in the recent past in the library, including some important staff changes. We are now finally fully staffed for the first time in a long while, and can therefore direct our attention better than ever to necessary and desirable changes and improvements for the future. Through this newsletter we will keep you informed of the most notable issues and concerns. For more detailed information about the library, and up-to-the-minute Starr news, we encourage you to keep track of our homepage at:
The Starr Foundation Challenge Grant fundraising is still underway
In the fall of 2002 we announced receiving the Starr Foundation three-year $1.5 million challenge grant, to be used to support additions to the Korean and Tibetan collections, the digitization of unique materials, and improvements to the library's infrastructure. We have now entered the third year of the grant period and are still actively pursuing matching funds. If you have suggestions for possible fundraising channels that we may not be aware of, do contact our director, Amy Heinrich, by email at heinrich@columbia.edu.
Duplicate Sale
Would you like to expand your personal collection of professional literature, but don't like the book prices you see in the store? We are once again holding our well-loved duplicate sale. Every dollar spent is matched through the challenge grant, so buy for yourself while helping us at the same time! This year the sale will be on Thursday and Friday, October 28 -29, 2004, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. We have lots of goodies at very friendly prices waiting for you, so be sure to plan on checking it out and stock up.
Staff Additions
The last time we published this newsletter (in the fall of 2002), we reported mostly bad news about open positions and ongoing searches. Hee-sook Shin had accepted our offer to become our new Korean Studies Librarian, but had not yet joined us, and both the Chinese and Tibetan Studies positions remained to be filled. Only a few months later, our Japanese Studies position opened up as well. So we are more than delighted to be able to tell you that on the staffing front we have, this time around, nothing but good news to report!
As of September 2003, our team was enriched with Tenzin Norbu, who works part-time as our Tibetan Studies Librarian. He divides his time between his library responsiblities and his continued work as Tibetan language instructor in the EALAC department. Tenzin can be contacted by email at tn218@columbia.edu.
Late October 2003, Chengzhi Wang joined our team as our new Chinese Studies Librarian. He holds an MLS as well as a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and has come to us by way of Princeton University's Library of Public & International Affairs and Population Research. After almost a full year on the job, Chengzhi has settled in quite nicely, and many of you will already have had an opportunity to meet with him. Chengzhi can be reached by email at cw2165@columbia.edu.
Last but not least, since late June 2004 we also have a new Japanese Studies Librarian in the person of Sachie Noguchi. Sachie holds a Ph.D. in Library Science from the University of Pittsburgh, and brings with her many years of experience as Japanese Studies Librarian at that same institution, as well as years of experience nationally and internationally on behalf of Japanese resources. Sachie can be reached by email at sn2160@columbia.edu.
Chinese books gift
The Information Office of the People's Republic of China, in cooperation with the China International Book Trading Corporation (CIBTC), has selected our Library as one of very few influential and prestigious overseas libraries to receive gift books to a value of $7,000. Working with the CIBTC, Starr librarians have selected titles, largely in the fields of literature, history, art, religion, and ethnography, published by leading scholarly publishers in China such as the Peking University Press and the National Library of China Press. This gift will be a great help to us in filling gaps in our collections.
New Electronic Databases
Two new Japanese online databases have recently become available:
NACSIS-IR is now available through LibraryWeb. This is an academic information retrieval service developed and serviced by NII (National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo, formerly NACSIS). It consists of 39 databases providing bibliographic information in all fields: humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Among others, NACSIS-IR includes the file for Zasshi Kiji Sakuin in its entirety, i.e., from 1948 to the present. The same file available from Nichigai MagazinePlus—which is also accessible through LibraryWeb—covers 1974 to the present only. NACSIS-IR is available when the National Diet Library’s online catalog (which also includes Zasshi Kiji Sakuin) is not available afternoons on the U.S. East Coast due to maintenance work in Japan. To improve the users' skill in information retrieval, a practice database is provided to every database. To use this service, your browser has to be capable of handling Japanese language. One of NACSIS-IR's features is a "multifile retrieval method" which enables a multiple number of databases to be searched simultaneously using the same method as that for searching a single database. Furthermore, during an ongoing multifile search, databases can be added to those being searched while unnecessary databases can be deleted from the search.
NACSIS-ELS is another information service provided by the National Institute of Informatics. Users can retrieve page images of the texts in its databases of academic journals and magazines, as well as bibliographic information. This service is available only in the C.V. Starr East Asian Library. Ask for help at the reference desk or contact Japanese Studies Librarian Sachie Noguchi. Users are free to search through the list of articles and journals. However, some databases charge fees for printing the page images of an article. (Note: The Library absorbs these printing fees unless the printing costs become excessive).
Hopefully soon to be available again in the Library is Nikkei Telecom 21, which will also be available only in the C.V. Starr East Asian Library. Nikkei Telecom 21 is the full text database for Japanese daily newspapers. The subscription of this database was suspended in 2001, but we are now in the process of reviving our subscription because of user requests.
The Library has also subscribed to the following four major Korean databases and online encyclopedia since last year. All these databases are available on and off-campus with CU login authorization.
DBPia: a full text database including over 570 Korean scholarly journals. The journal titles are arranged by 11 subject categories and all journals are available from the first issue.
KISS: a full text database of Korean scholarly journal articles, university publications and research papers published by over 1,200 research institutions in Korea. The database covers all subject areas published since 1945. It also provides 1,300 full text electronic books in the fields of humanities and social sciences.
KRPia: a collection of 71 full text databases related to Korean Studies in a variety of subjects such as Korean history, literature, arts, oriental medicine and classics.
Korea AtoZ: a collection of over 150 full text databases in a variety of subjects related to Korean Studies. The databases are arranged into 14 categories and include many classical works. This database is available through LibraryWeb.
EncyKorea: an online version of the Korean Cultural Heritage Encyclopedia. This encyclopedia covers many subjects including cultural heritage such as arts, language, society, nature, history and more. It not only contains text, but also images and maps.
Table of Contents (TOC) project
Due to space limitations, a lot of library materials are sent to offsite storage. Unfortunately, bibliographic access to these materials is sometimes difficult to find for library patrons, especially for such materials as multi-volume sets which are cataloged as one title, and for which we have not created analytic records. In order to enhance the accessibility of those materials, the library has developed a table of contents project which provides online access to the complete table of contents (TOC) of these materials. The table of contents of each volume is scanned and a pdf file is created from the scanned image. The pdf file is then loaded onto the library server and linked to the relevant bibliographic record. Several multi-volume sets have been completed so far. For an example, look up the title Hanguk minsokhak yongu nonjo in CLIO and click on the "Online link" provided in the bibliogaphic record, or login to the "Request from offsite" option and connect directly to the TOC of a specific volume. Thus far, the pilot version of this project has included Korean material only. In the near future, we plan to start adding this feature to records of Chinese materials as well. The project will be ongoing.
Exhibitions
Godzilla: He has been with us for a while, as we are sure everyone has noticed, and he will stay around for another few months. Hosted by the Starr Library, curated by Professor Gregory Pflugfelder, and sponsored by the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture, Godzilla conquers the globe: Japanese movie monsters in international film art is a hit. The exhibit was organized to mark the 50th anniversary of the original Godzilla movie. It will stay on through December 2004. A one-day symposium, Global fantasies: Godzilla in world culture will take place in conjunction, on Saturday December 4, 2004. See the Donald Keene Center website for further information.
Oracle Bones: Although more modest in physical size, the display of a selection of our famous Chinese oracle bones is nonetheless of great importance. The small exhibit in our main reading room provides a rare opportunity to a broad audience to view first-hand and up-close these precious treasures, including the large specimen used to illustrate so many a textbook on Chinese history. In addition to the brief labels accompanying the display, further information about the oracle bones can be found in a small essay on our website.
Jewels in her Crown: And speaking of treasures, the exhibition space of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML) is currently given over to an exhibit of 250 treasures selected from all of the Columbia Libraries special collections. The exhibit was organized in conjunction with Columbia's 250th anniversary, and includes a fair selection of Starr's other treasures, displayed fabulously in RBML's octagonal room. An electronic version of the Jewels exhibition is available online.
Primary Public Service Contacts:
Library Director: Amy V. Heinrich. 305M Kent. 212-854-1508. heinrich@columbia.edu
Access Services: Kenneth Harlin. 319M Kent. 212-854-4318. harlin@columbia.edu
East Asian Studies: Ria Koopmans-de Bruijn. 310 Kent. 212-854-1505. rkb7@columbia.edu
Chinese Studies: Chengzhi Wang. 307M Kent. 212-854-3721. cw2165@columbia.edu
Japanese Studies: Sachie Noguchi. 308M Kent. 212-854-1506. sn2160@columbia.edu
Korean Studies: Hee-sook Shin. 310M Kent. 212-854-1507. hs2148@columbia.edu
Tibetan Studies: Tenzin Norbu. 304A Kent. 212-854-1509. tn218@columbia.edu
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