Oberlin College Library Perspectives

Number 11, February, 1995

Focus on the Collections

East Asian Studies

The Oberlin College Library is one of a very few college libraries in the country to support East Asian studies with an extensive East Asian language collection and a full-time specialist librarian.

Jiann Lin came to Oberlin in 1969 and has been developing and cataloging the East Asian collection for twenty-five years. Assisting on a volunteer basis since 1993 is Emiko Custer, who has retired to Oberlin after a career as a classification specialist at the Library of Congress and as a foreign language cataloger at Los Angeles Public Library.

Oberlin began collecting East Asian materials in the mid-1960s. At that point Chinese and Japanese languages were being taught at Oberlin, the collection reflecting an early emphasis on Chinese language materials. Lin estimates that today eighty percent of the collection consists of Chinese language materials, with Japanese language materials increasing rapidly as more faculty have been appointed in this area.

The collection of East Asian language materials currently consists of some 20,000 volumes; approximately 500-750 new volumes are added each year. About fifty percent of the collection is devoted to literature. Modern literature predominates, with some emphasis on post-World War II novels, short stories, poetry, and drama. Another twenty-five percent of the collection focuses on history--in both the Chinese and Japanese languages, with the remainder of the collection including social sciences materials, reference sources, and works relating to the fine arts.

The East Asian collection supports an active interdisciplinary program with a focus on China and Japan. In addition to studying the languages of these countries, Oberlin students may choose related courses in art, ethnomusicology, history, literature, politics, and religion. As Lin shapes Oberlin's library holdings in this area, he sees continued growth for the East Asian collection. Not only are relations between Asian countries and the United States becoming increasingly important in economic, political, and cultural spheres, but Oberlin continues to enjoy its own long-standing relation with Asian countries--in part through the Shansi program.

Thus, Oberlin students have special opportunities in East Asian studies, not the least of which is a carefully selected and maintained East Asian language library collection.

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