About these catalogs

Catalogs

There has been a rapid increase in the availability of electronic resources at Princeton. Almost all are available to you through the Library Web Computers; some of these may be available from your home. Since the situation regarding which databases are available, as well as regarding the specific interface used changes almost weekly, no detailed guidelines are given here. Check always the instructions given on screen carefully; they are likely to be more up-to-date than any handout can be.

Although everyone has different needs and might ask different types of questions, one fact has to be kept in mind. Currently, the one Western database made with the East Asian scholar in mind, and consequently, with adequate coverage of East Asian subjects is the Bibliography of Asian Studies. Other Western databases vary widely in East Asian coverage. Do not assume that the other databases are comprehensive as regards East Asian needs.

Main Catalog

The electronic Main Catalog (also called Voyager), which will also tell you whether currently items are checked out, currently holds:

  1. Full bibliographic entries for all post-1980, and most pre-1980 Western works. Since these are authoritative bibliographic entries, you can use them for citations in bibliographies.
  2. Full bibliographic entries for Chinese, Japanese and Korean works cataloged since 1984. Again, since these are authoritative bibliographic entries, you can use them for citations in bibliographies. Characters for these works are to be found in the card catalog, usually under the title.
  3. Many short interim records for other CJK books, which have circulated previously. These entries may be incomplete, and might contain spelling errors etc.You should not use these records for citations in bibliographies. You can find the authoritative catalog records for these items in the card catalog (for CJK books).

Not in the Main Catalog are many pre-1984 multivolume CJK booksets and/or serials. You can find the authoritative catalog records for these items in the the CJK card catalog. They are currently being added to the Main Catalog when circulating.

Most records are now in pinyin, although for complete results a follow-up with searching in Wade-Giles is recommended. Spell proper names together in pinyin, add a hyphen in Wade-Giles, and spell all other syllables separately. Ex.: Zhongguo li shi di tu ji. Be flexible: decisions on what constitutes a name may have varied in time (Chang jiang or Changjiang). Also, former practice transliterated the particle "de" as di. In such ambiguous cases, it may be useful to use the "Guided Search" settings in the Main Catalog.

There is more information on the pinyin project in the News section, and on general search strategies.

For full information on the catalogs, see the sections in the General East Asian Library Guide.

OCLC/WorldCat

A most useful general database is the OCLC/WorldCat database (called in the interface available on the Library Web Computer "Eureka"), the combined electronic catalog of thousands of libraries (into which the former RLG, the Research Libraries Group, has been included). For East Asian Studies, this means that all American East Asian holdings are available on OCLC.

When using the RLIN database, please note the following:

Use show non-Roman charactersto show Chinese, Japanese or Korean.

Libraries may differ in whether retrospective electronic conversion has taken place for CJK books.

There are hundreds of millions records in OCLC, which makes search strategies different from those doable on the local Main Catalog. In particular, avoid too general a search.

Electronic Databases

Bibliography of Asian Studies

The on-line version of the Bibliography of Asian Studies

http://bas.umdl.umich.edu/b/bas/

contains more than 520,000 records on all subjects (especially humanities and social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide from 1971 to the present. Through the 1991 printed version, the BAS included citations to western-language periodical articles, individually authored monographs, chapters in edited volumes, conference proceedings, anthologies, and Festschriften, etc. Since 1992, newly published individual monographs are no longer being added to the database, and users seeking monographs are urged to consult other general resources and databases.

The online BAS contains the full data of all printed editions of the BAS issued from 1971 up to the 1991 edition (published 1997), as well as thousands of entries compiled since. To quickly bridge the gap in coverage from 1991 to the present, the BAS staff have identified the most important 100+ periodicals in Asian Studies, and have given these high priority for indexing to make their coverage as up-to-date as possible. For any particular journal, full information on years of coverage should be provided through the Journal Title Browse function, although this part seems often out of sync with the rest of the database.

You can search by phrase in specified field, can combine searches, and can specify your desired display, with or without diacritics; a downloadable font is provided. You can limit your searches to specific countries. Subject searching is also provided, but subject ranges are broad and have changed over the years. If you need assistance, consult the Western bibliographer.

Asia-Studies Full-text Online

Database for the study of modern Asia-Pacific. As the exclusive licensee for the region's most prestigious research institutions, Asia-Studies.com brings together thousands of full-text reports covering 53 countries on a multitude of business, government, economic, and social issues.

China: Trade, Politics and Culture

This database is based mainly, but not exclusively, upon the holdings of the Library of the School for Oriental and African Studies and the British Library. It consists of all kinds of English-language textual and visual sources relating to China and the West, with key documents relating to the Chinese Maritime Customs service, letters, diaries, color paintings, maps, drawings, photographs, and fully searchable missionary periodicals such as the Chinese Recorder. Important subjects treated include the Amherst and Macartney embassies, the Opium, Boxer, Russo-Japanese and Sino-Japanese wars, events such as the Taiping Rebellion, and the Rape of Nanking, and the missionary movements.

Japanese literature in translation

This is a database for finding translations from Japanese into many languages.

America , Asia and the Pacific: the Edward Sylvester Morse Collection

This English-language multidisciplinary collection contains the diaries, sketches, travel journals, scrapbooks, publications and correspondence of the polymath and collector Edward Sylvester Morse, known for his work in natural history (zoology, evolution, astronomy, methodology), ethnography (material culture, music, games, printing, Ainu, religion) and art history (including archaeology, architecture) bridging Japan and America from the 1880s to the 1920s.

Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925) was one of the earliest and most important mediators between American and Asian societies, and one of the first Americans to live in Japan (he became Chair of Zoology at the new Imperial University of Tokyo). In addition to his scientific interests, in 1882 he turned his attention to ethnology and the documentation of life in Japan before it was transformed by Western modernization. An accomplished draughtsman, his pencil and ink drawings, enliven his diaries and correspondence and make his papers a pleasure to read. Morse’s collection of Japanese pottery is still a prized possession of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and his ethnological specimens form the core of the oriental holdings at the Peabody, where he was Director from 1880 to 1916.

MagazinePlus

This is the major collection of Japanese databases. MagazinePlus currently indexes 8,500 journal titles in the humanities, social sciences and sciences, and includes over 5.2 million items from 1975 to the present. It is updated weekly. It consolidates five separate databases (the Zasshi Kiji Sakuin (an index to academic journas), the Jânaru Indekkusu (an index to general journals), Joint (an index to periodicals on economics), KSK (an index to 60 foreign journals on industries), and the Gakkai Nenpô and Gakujutsu Ronbunshû (an index to yearbooks of academic societies).

Web Oya-bunko

This database indexes more than 400 popular journals in Japanese not covered by MagazinePlus, and has more than 2 million entries. Coverage is from 1988 to present, updated monthly.

On the East Asian Library computers, please use the Microsoft Input Method Editor for Japanese. You can access also these databases from any computer which has a fairly recent browser installed, alongside any Japanese input enabler such as the Japanese Language Kit, UnionWay or Twinbridge. To use these databases from outside campus, you might have to log in through the Library Proxy Server at http://pulproxy.princeton.edu/.

GeNii Gakujutsu Kontentsu Portaru

A portal site of academic information which includes books and journals as well as research projects, research institutions and researchers

JapanKnowledge

JapanKnowledge includes major Japanese encyclopedias, language and biographical dictionaries, who's who databases, maps, and much more.

Jitsū

This is an electronic high-level Japanese dictionary, made by Shirakawa Shizuka’s. The dictionary can be accessed from within the Japan Knowledge database, or directly.

Nikkoku Online

The “Nikkoku Online” is the online version of the Nihon kokugaku daijiten, the standard dictionary of the Japanese language. Included are 500,000 entries, with over one million usage samples (with sources indicated). It is searchable by complete and partial match. The dictionary can be accessed from within the Japan Knowledge database, or directly.

Yomiuri Shinbun

Full text data from the Yomiuri Shinbun are available in two sets: from Meiji until 1970, and from 1986 for current articles. The latter is called Yomidasu Bunshokan. It includes the national edition since 1986, and local editions since 1998. It also includes a Who's who, and the English-language Daily Yomiuri. The former Yomiuri Shinbun is a full text database from Meiji to 1970; you will need to contact Yasuko Makino or Martin Heijdra for the password. There are some issues remaining with printing to the shared public printers, and uncommon private ones; please let us know.

Kikuzō II bijuaru for libraries

A searchable newspaper database for the Asahi shinbun. It covers texts (in image format) from the Asahi Shinbun from 1945 to 1984, texts (in text format) from 1985 until present, and texts and images from November 2005. The 1945-1984 articles are searchable by headings and assigned topics only, the articles from 1984 are fully searchable. The weekly journal Aera and the news column of Shūkan Asahi are included, as is the latest edition of Chiezō, the annual dictionary of new words. To log-in, click on "スタート画面へ (SSL)". At this moment, access is for one concurrent user only; please make sure to log out when you are done.

Ren min Ri bao (China Daily)

All issues 1946-2006 of the Chinese national newspaper Ren min Ri bao (The China Daily) are available on-line to Princeton users. For later issues please go directly to the current Renmin Ribao site.

The database contains the full text-online; in addition it has the original pages in PDF format. If you just need to search the database and print out the text from the browser, you do not need to have special settings. However, to access and print the original pages in pdf format, a complicated (and time-consuming) installation process is necessary, and particular versions of Acrobat Reader are needed; see instructions below. Without going through that process, clicking on the pdf icon will result in empty pdf files.

You need to be on campus, or use VPN etc. to access these sources. The second computer from the left in the catalog room has the necessary software for printing installed.

INSTRUCTIONS

Administrative privileges are needed.

  1. Change the Windows XP system default language to Chinese PRC.
    (choose in the Control Panel->Regional and Language Options->Advanced->Language for non-Unicode programs "Chinese PRC". ) You can reset this back to English US after you finished the complete installation process below.
  2. Make sure your Adobe Reader is version 8.0; upgrade if necessary.
  3. Install the necessary Asian FontPacks for Adobe Reader 8.0, making sure that the FontPack80_zh_CN.msi is installed. (Other East Asian languages depend on your personal choices.) The Asian FontPacks can be downloaded from the following URLs:

    簡體中文http://download.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/8.x/8.0/misc/FontPack80_zh_CN.msi
    韓文 http://download.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/8.x/8.0/misc/FontPack80_ko_KR.msi
    日文 http://download.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/8.x/8.0/misc/FontPack80_ja_JP.msi
    繁體中文 http://download.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/8.x/8.0/misc/FontPack80_zh_TW.msi

  4. Download the Renmin Ribao fonts pack for (PDFonts.exe) and a Adobe Reader 8 special patch (PDClientPatch4AR8.zip) from
    ftp://ftp.twinbridge.com/Public/PDSetup/PDPatchAR8/ . Note that the size of the FontPack is very large (307 MB!) and will take some time to download.
  5. Install the fonts pack by double-clicking on it. The fonts installed will also be available to your usual programs.
  6. Unzip the PDClientPatch4AR8.zip file. Then run "apple.exe", and then run "patch8.exe"
  7. Make sure that the “Display PDF in browser” checkbox in Adobe Reader 8.0 is *unchecked*. Restart your machine to apply the setting.
  8. When opening a Renmin Ribao PDF file, click “ 打印人民日報” on the left navigation area to print. Do not use the “Print” function on the Adobe Reader toolbar. You can make selections of the page. Printing speed will vary depending on the complexity and size of the job.

Udndata

A searchable database of full-text newspapers from the Taiwanese Lianhebao (United Daily News) group. Among the included newspapers are the Lianhebao (1951-), Jingji ribao (Economic Daily News, 1967-), the Minshengbao (Min Sheng Daily, 1988-2006), Lianhe wanbao (United Evening News, 1993-), the Xingbao (Star News, 1999-2006), the Meizhou Shijie Ribao (2000-), the Ouzhou Ribao (2000-), and the Upaper (2007-). The complete digitization of the entire run of each individual newspaper is planned.

Note that you cannot search the Encyclopedia Britannica nor the four magazines listed on the search page.

Zhongyang Ribao (Central Daily News) 1928-1949

A database with pdf's of single pages of the 1928-1949 issues of the Zhongyang Ribao (Central Daily News), Taiwan. You can search by heading keywords or dates.

Lawinfochina/ Chinalawinfo

There are two sister legal retrieval systems for the PRC, Lawinfochina and Chinalawinfo; the former contains English, the latter Chinese material. Included are all laws adopted by the National People’s Congress and its Standing Committee from 1949; all administrative regulations promulgated by the State Council from 1949; many other rules or orders issued by other agencies; important judicial interpretations and other regulations impacting foreign-related activities; judicial cases from the Gazette of the Supreme People’s Court (also in English); Sino-foreign tax treaties; and other legal news and matter. The two databases are interlinked through the buttons “Chinese” and “English”. Access is only for one concurrent user.

NikkeiTelecom21

This is a pay-per-use online business information database, with newspaper and some journal articles, as well as pertinent information on companies, businessmen, and statistics, etc. Contact the Japanese Bibliographer at the East Asian Library.

China Academic Journals/ China National Knowledge Infractructure

Princeton's access to the Literature/ History/ Philosophy, Economics/ Politics/ Law, Education/ Social Sciences, and the Electronic and Information Series components of the CNKI includes access to the full-text China Academic Journals database (includes full text and/or full image articles from 2,000+ journals from first issue to date), as well as access to title indexes in the fields of sciences, conferences, or dissertations. No usernames or passwords are necessary: users directly connected to Princeton servers are logged in automatically at http://china.eastview.com. Use the PDF format for downloading articles.

Note that Princeton does not subscribe to the "China Core Newspapers", a third option given; use China Infobank instead.

Another important periodical index set going back to as early as 1857 are those of the

Quanguo baokan suoyin

The Quan guo bao kan suo yin index, compiled by the Shanghai Library, provides access to Chinese article titles from 1857 onwards to the present. On the first screen, click on “用户登录” to gain access to the database search page; the periodical index you have access to (Pian ming) should have already been selected by default. Once a citation has been found, check the Princeton holdings to retrieve the article itself, or put in an ILL request. You cannot request the article from the Shanghai Library directly even it it looks that way from the display screen; however, our ILL office will have that possibility.

This database incorporates, and updates, several databases previously only available on one special EAL computer: four Quan guo bao kan zi liao suo yin databases (1950-1979, 1980-1992, 1993-1999, 2000), the Zhongguo jindai qikan pianmu database (1857-1919), and the Minguo shi qi pian ming database (1920-1949). As of Sept. 2007, more than 11 million entries are included.

Taiwan Electronic Periodicals Service

The TEPS (Taiwan Electronic Periodicals Service) database offers more than 450 Taiwanese periodicals from different subjects (of which 100+ humanities, 275+ social sciences; coverage varies, oldest go back to 1991). Full texts can be downloaded in PDF format. One can browse by title. Make sure to use the search button provided for; the enter button will not give results.

Periopath/ Zhonghua minguo qikan lunwen suoyin WWW-ban

This database indexes close to 2 million articles in Chinese (and English) published in more than 4000 Taiwanese periodicals from 1970 to current; it is updated each quarter. Click on "進入系統" to enter the search page. It extends the NCL indexes (for the last 10 years freely available) with the entries in the previously printed indexes of the same name going back to 1970. Articles listed with the icon have been scanned and are without copyright; they can be viewed, downloaded and printed with the HyView reader downloadable from the Home page (軟体下載). You need administrative privileges; for version 3.3 your system has to be set to Traditional Chinese; an upcoming version 3.4 will work under your Western system as well. (You can ask Martin Heijdra for a beta-version, and send in any comments.) Articles with a icon are fee-based and not available to patrons; if not available in the East Asian Library, you can request them through InterLibrary Loan in the usual way.

Other Chinese Periodical Databases

In addition to the Fuyin baokan ziliao database (with full texts since 1995), you can use for Hong Kong the

Xianggang Zhong wen qi kan lun wen suo yin

For the PRC, use the entries in the China Academic Journal full-text database, which you can extend to include the subjects (medicine, sciences) to which Princeton does not subscribe.

China InfoBank

China Infobank is one of the most authoritative source of China related information and currently comprises over 7 million business reports and articles - a figure which is increasing daily. It provides a range of economic, business, scientific and governmental data to the business and research community. There are three main categories of content: the Business Database, Financial Express, and the News Channel, which are based upon over 1,000 newspaper, magazines and trade journals and over sixty other content providers. There are currently over nine million articles totaling more than six billion Chinese characters, expanding at a rate of ten million Chinese characters per day.

China Vitae

China Vitae is a foundation-supported activity whose objective is to provide current information on China 's leaders to scholars, analysts, and the general public. It consists of an English language database contains detailed biographies of nearly 2500 Chinese leaders. Free of commercials, pop ups, and banners, the database is highly searchable, using state-of-the-art tools to find officials by name, institution, or location. A special comparison engine allows users to identify similarities in the backgrounds of officials. Another search tool tracks daily appearances of 200 of the most important officials. 

Digital Dictionary of Buddhism

Charles Muller's Digital Dictionary of Buddhism includes in addition to Chinese, Japanese and Korean information, also Indian, Tibetan and other references. The link goes to the wider Resources for East Asian Language and Thought Web page; the restricted digital dictionary is available from that page.

Zhongwen baike dacidian

The (Taiwanese) Chinese illustrated encyclopedic dictionary the Zhong wen bai ke da ci dian has more than 11,000 characters, 20,000 terms, 50, 000 entries, 4,300 colour illustrations and 3,000 diagrams.

China Data Online

China Data Online offers comprehensive statistical and economic information of China . Included are yearly and monthly macro- and micro-economic databases, city, county and industry-based statistics, as well as the contents of many statistical yearbooks.

If you do not see the “Welcome: Princeton University” message on the top banner, click on the “Direct Access to Institutional Users” line. For best results, set the encoding of your browser to Simplified Chinese (GB): this will display bullets and other symbols better, although the text is always in English.

Electronic Siku quanshu

This electronic database, published by the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Digital Heritage Publishing Ltd., contains on at least 183 CD-ROMs the complete contents, in full text and image, of the 3460+ titles of the Wenyuange edition of the Si ku quan shu (1782) plus a few other useful tools. The total content is a staggering 800 million characters, and is arranged under almost 2 million piece titles. Some of the titles contained in the Si ku quan shu are themselves large compilations, such as the Quan Tang shi, Zi zhi tong jian, Xu Zi zhi tong jian chang bian, Wen xuan, Pei wen yun fu, Tai ping yu lan, the 25 Histories. One should realize, however, that the Siku quanshu editions are not always the best ones available, nor are they always complete: as is well known, its compilation involved censorship. The Electronic Si ku quan shu ("e-SKQS") is useful not only for searching, but also for studying: it has linked dictionaries, and the possibility of saving notebooks. Princeton University's license is valid for 3 simultaneous users, and the electronic Siku Quanshu is available from most Windows2000 computers physically located in the East Asian Library. The functionality of the database is well thought-out, but its interface is not very intuitive: in addition to consulting a guide, users are advised to ask for explanatory session with the Chinese Bibliographer.

Academia Sinica Hanji wenxian ziliaoku databases

The Academia Sinica Scripta Sinica database with titles digitized by the Institute of History and Philology of the Academia Sinica, Taipei, has greatly improved its interface. It includes now 350 million characters (Nov. 2007). Read the help screens for more information on its new features. Since the database is now UTF-8, there is no longer a need for downloading any additional font. For a listing of titles included, click on search by title with nothing in the search box

The 3rd-party non-IHP databases at the Academia Sinica previously available by clicking “資料庫 ( ziliaoku)” in the top menu bar of the Academia Sinica non-IHP databases at http://www.sinica.edu.tw/~tdbproj/handy1/ are still available there (i.e., those not listed there as 史語所漢基全文資料庫計劃; these include the Qingdai jingshei wenbian, Zhengtong Daozang, Cihua jicheng, Taiwan wenxian congkan and others, for an additional 100 million characters). For the IHP titles such as the Hanji quanwen ziliaoku use the Scripta Sinica version instead.

For best use for those non-IHP databases in Internet Explorer, you should download the special font for 4555 additional characters outside the Big-5 set. If installed in the following way, they will improve display within your browser (if not installed, such characters will display as empty spaces; you might not know something is missing.) These characters do not copy into regular programs such as Word; moreover, attempts to copy such sentences directly into Word may result in unexpected behavior. The best results (no unexpected behavior except for the additional characters at stake appearing as empty boxes) obtain if you copy the required text into Notepad before copying it again into Word. To download that font: click on 安裝造字 (anzhuang zaozi) in the top menu; click on "eudc.exe" to download that file to your hard drive. Double click on this saved file to extract its two constituent files, eudc.tte and eudccj.tbl. Disregarding the second, move the first file into the Windows Fonts folder (available in the Control Panel window) in order to install this font. Note that you can should install only one such additional font; installing similar fonts of other Chinese databases will lead to conflicts.

CHANT databases

The CHANT (CHinese ANcient Texts) databases, compiled under the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS) of the Chinese University of Hong Kong since 1988, give full-text access (single words, phrases and sentence patterns) to all traditional texts from the Pre-Han (pre 220AD) period up to the Six Dynasties (581 AD) (over 30 million characters.) These texts are divided into two databases: Pre-Han & Han (Xian Qin Liang Han), and Six Dynasties (Wei Jin Nanbeichao). During compilation, different versions of the same texts were carefully compared, and modern punctuation was added. Comparisons with other versions, parallel passages, as well as citations found in Leishu are shown in footnotes. CHANT also includes databases of excavated wood/bamboo and silk scripts (the Zhu-jian-bo shu database), oracular inscriptions (the Jiaguwen database, and bronze inscriptions (Jinwen). Upcoming is a database of extant Chinese encyclopedias (Leishu).


To enter, click first on "dengru wenku", and then on "jigou yonghu dengru" ("For IP user only"; no password is necessary as a Princeton user). Initial navigation until entering each database itself is slow, searching the databases themselves is faster. Then choose your database, and navigate using the buttons and menus provided; each database works differently. Note that not all books are categorized properly (a Six Dynasties work might be found in the Han database, and vice versa), and that one has to search within subcategories the content of which is not always self-explanatory. One cannot usually search all works within a database at one go.


To use the databases fully, download and install the specialized fonts available from the download page.

Sibu congkan

Fully searchable collection of 504 original and historical works (3134 volumes) published by the Commercial Press in 1919-1936. Original collection used photolithography, which resulted in better editions than the then available typeset editions. Authoritative editions. Only available on selected computers at the East Asian Library.

Guo xue bao dian

The Guoxue baodian database is a full-text searching tool for almost 4,000 classical Chinese texts, including some novels, poetry, and plays. The home page contains a table of contents. There is the capability to search and display in Traditional characters, fantizi as well as Simplified characters, jiantizi. Issues found during a previous trial have been largely addressed. It is best used as an exploratory tool for finding relevant material; follow up with other sources (often printed) afterwards: the database is not meant to navigate through large parts of texts.

Zhongguo lidai shike shiliao huibian

A Chinese database for epigraphical material is installed on 3 public machines in the East Asian Library catalog room. On those public machines, click on Start, select All programs, and select the icon for 中国历代石刻. On the logon screen, both ID and password are "guest". Note that the database does not accept a blank password as do most databases on those machines .

Gu jin tu shu ji cheng

The Gu jin tu shu ji cheng, compiled by Chen Menglei et al. and published with movable copper type in 1726-28, is by far the largest leishu to have been printed (6,109 subsections, 852,408 pages.) Under each subsection excerpts from sources are gathered from the beginnings of writing to the 17th century, from a 18th-century standpoint.

You can search the full text, but resulting pages are also viewable as images. Click on "IP Address" on the home page after the vendor-supplied "title" Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China.

Zhongwen guji shumu ziliaoku

This online union catalog Zhongwen guji shumu ziliaoku is maintained by the National Central Library in Taiwan. It includes not only rare books but also books published in traditional formats (mostly stitch-bound) until 1911 and sometimes beyond, held at 25 institutions in Taiwan, the PRC, and the United States . Holding information of libraries in China is incomplete with the exception of the National Library of China (formerly the National Beijing Library) which provides more than 300,000 records. At present the catalog as a whole contains more than 440,000 records. One can use the “General” search mode from any computer; results givs only brief bibliographical details, and do not include the holdings of the National Library of China. The “Advance” search mode is available only from public computers in the East Asian Library. Search results provide full bibliographical details, and holdings from the National Library of China are included.

One may occasionally have to set the pages manually to the Traditional Chinese encoding system (via View>Encoding>).

Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan

The Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan is based on Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia (1993), and contains almost all 11,000 main-text entries of that book, many updated. It has numerous hyperlinks, but does not contain any illustrations, nor the bibliographies of the earlier 9-volume Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, published in 1983. It therefore does not completely supersede either of these works.

Chugoku kankei ronsetsu shiryo sakuin

Searchable index to the printed collection, which includes reduced copies of articles on China in less common Japanese academic journals. Available only on a computer in the East Asian Library Catalog Room; needs special Japanese settings.

Chinese Civilization in Time and Space

A Web-based GIS system with historical maps, integrated with full-text databases from the Academia Sinica. Includes place name search. Can be used without registration, but personal registration (free to Princeton users) is recommended for saving and printing. The basic historical maps come from Tan Qixiang's Zhongguo lishi dituji, and the Shenbao atlas from the 1920s. There are search functions for current and historical place names, gazetteers etc. Some specialized thematic information is available, such as maps of Han archaeological tombs. Enter the GIS system by clicking on "Framework" from the Home page, and then by clicking on "Enter CCTS System." Before first use, one needs to download two special plug-ins available there. The Web-based GIS system follows standard ArcView procedures. There are handouts available at the EAL; note that the downloadable Chinese manual is much more extensive and useful than the English one.

There is also a Taiwan History and Culture in Time and Space available.

Chosŏn Ilbo

The Chosŏn Ilbo (Korea Daily) Archive is a full-text online newspaper starting from 1920 and includes over 2.6 million articles in Korean. An average of 6,000 pages are added each year.

Keijō Nippō/ Kyŏngsŏng Ilbo (Kyungsung Ilbo)

This is a scanned version of the Keijō Nippō (Kyŏngsŏng Ilbo, also spelled Kungsung Ilbo), a Japanese language newspaper published in Korea during the Occupation Period. Current content is from 1907 to 1935. Access is by date only; results are in pdf format.

Annals of the Choson dynasty

The Annals of the Choson Dynasty database is made freely available to the public by the Kuksa Pyonchan Wiwonhoe. You can find both the original character texts as well as the hangul equivalents. It is recommended to download the special fonts onto your personal computer before using the database.

National Palace Museum Periodicals

This WWW database available from any Princeton computer provides access to images and texs of all issues of the following four periodicals published since 1966 by the National Palace Museum in Taibei, Taiwan: the Gu gong wen wu yue kan (National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art), the Gu gong ji kan (National Palace Museum Quarterly), the Gu gong xue shu ji kan (National Palace Museum Reasearch Quarterly), and the English National Palace Museum Bulletin. Searches are possible through direct input, as well as through browsing classification and author tables. The Chinese encoding used is Big-5. Click on the "Welcome: Database of NPM" logo.

National Palace Museum Online image database

This database displays photo images and related description articles of art pieces (painting, calligraphy, ceramics, jade, bronze, Buddhist antiques, rarities) in the (Taiwan) NPM collections. Images can be viewed in Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Japanese and English. Explanations were written by NMP staff and faculty at the Taipei Art University. Three sizes of images are provided; largest size is 1024x768 pixels. A zoom view for details is available for some images; an art chronology is available for browsing.

Additional Databases

Most of these are accessible through clicking on "Articles & Databases" on the main Princeton University Library web page. Listings here include mainly those paid for by Princeton University, and accessible to Princeton users only. Other free sites are listed in the section "East Asian Studies". The Social Science Reference Center is for instance a necessary stop if you would need up-to-date economic or social data, also on East Asia.

Many databases require commands specific to the database searched, especially those on CD-ROMs. Look carefully at the screen, and realize that databases can differ in such ways as to whether a search for two words is treated as one phrase search or a combination of two keyword searches, and in many other ways. In many databases you can send the results, in ProCite, EndNote or text format to your own e-mail account.

Lexis-Nexis (Academic)

Includes English-language newspapers, magazines, news agencies and other databases including some from East Asia (such as the Xinhua General News Service , China Daily , and the South China Morning Post). It is therefore very useful to search for recent people or events often unavailable in printed reference works (e.g., a recent death date). More detailed instructions are available at the Social Science Reference and General/Humanities desks in Firestone Library, and from the Library Web Computer. Note that increasingly CJK newspapers are directly available on the Internet; to read them, see the section on using CJK.

Asahi Shinbun

This is a set of five CD-ROMs containing an index to articles in the Asahi Shinbun from 1945 to 1995. Currently, you need to use this on a Macintosh. A guide is available when you borrow these discs. You will have to use the kotoeri input system, and activate a separate ASAX program for each of the CD-ROMs (available on the CD-ROMs themselves).

Periodical Contents Index

Dates of Coverage: 1770-1995.
This database indexes periodicals in the humanities and social sciences in English, French, German and other Western languages. The long period covered makes this a unique database useful for early Sinology and Japanology. There is a subject Area Studies-Asia.

Chinese/ Japanese Studies

When choosing "Articles & Databases" from the main library web page, you can select "Chinese Studies" or "Japanese Studies". In addition to "core" and "important resources", these lists also list "related resources" which have East Asian content.

Other useful databases are available from the general list of databases, or from their relevant subject pages, such as

Reference Tools

Finally, there are also on-line general reference tools available such as the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Oxford English Dictionary, Global Books in Print and Books Out of Print. Some Princeton library departments have also provided Web Subject Guides which may be helpful to you.

Other WWW pages Using CJK on Library Computers

This is explained on the pages "Using CJK" in the "Guides" link.

Recommended WWW Pages

In this area, the bare minimum of free WWW pages is listed; please refer to the EAS Links section for many more. For East Asian Studies, there are three important home pages which keep track of other serious pages dealing with East Asia all over the world; you are urged to check them frequently:

http://www.aasianst.org/links/links.htm

This is the online version of the "Asian Resources on the World Wide Web", overseen by the Association for Asian Studies.

http://coombs.anu.edu.au/WWWVL-AsianStudies.html

This is the Asian Studies home page of the Australian National University.

http://www.eastasianlib.org/

This is the CEAL (Council on East Asian Libraries) home page maintained by the joint efforts of many East Asian bibliographers. Some parts are more up-to-date than others. All these pages have many links to other Asian resources.