 |
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
|||||||||
| 普林斯頓大學葛思德東亞圖書館 ・ プリンストン大学東アジア図書館 ・ 프린스턴 대학교 동아시아 도서관 |
Outside visitors
Outside visitors are welcome to use the East Asian Library. For borrowing privileges, please contact the Access Office in Firestone Library. Prospective users of the East Asian Library can apply to the Friends of the Princeton University Library Visiting Fellowships for some limited funding; note that competition is fierce.
Rare Book Room Access
Most of the items of the Rare Book Collection are housed in the Mudd Library, with access five days a week from 9 to 5. Users are required to register first at the East Asian Library and obtain a Rare Books Use form. Access to call numbers and other information on the Rare Books Collection is only available at the East Asian Library itself.
How to use Ming and Qing books at the East Asian Library and the Gest Collection, Princeton University
Due to space considerations, the books of the original Gest Collection are no longer physically located in the East Asian Library. Of course, you still will be able to use these books; the following explains the procedures to follow. In all cases, it is strongly encouraged to contact the Chinese Bibliographer before you visit Princeton, and it will benefit you greatly if you try to identify the items needed in the publicly available catalogs beforehand, in order to minimize the time spent on retrieving the books.
There are three catalogs available to you outside Princeton:
The WorldCat database contains the International Union Catalogue of Chinese Rare Books, compiled under leadership of Sören Edgren. This project is currently undertaken by an independent organization under the auspices of the Department of East Asian Studies at Princeton University, and its head office is physically located within the East Asian Library. This electronic catalog gives superior access to detailed records of the pre-1796 Chinese rare book holdings of most North American and several important Mainland Chinese and European libraries, according to detailed uniform guidelines.
Books considered rare (most books published before 1796, but including some later choice items) are physically located in the Mudd Library, and can be consulted during weekday office hours. Books not considered rare (mostly post-1796 items) are in storage, and several days may be needed to retrieve them.
Therefore, when you have identified the items you wish to consult, and you are not physically at Princeton, you should contact in advance the Chinese Bibliographer, Martin Heijdra ( or call: 609-258-5336), so that the non-rare books can be retrieved for you from storage before you visit Princeton. You can also make such a request using this form.
The determination on whether a book is rare or not can be complicated, especially for early Qing books; the best solution is to send an e-mail before your actual visit. If you find a call number of the form TC138/2014, in which T means "rare book", you can be sure it is a rare book located at the Mudd Library, but the opposite is not necessarily true: books for which you may find a published call number without the T may have received the T location only since then. Correct call-number information for all items currently is only available in the card catalogs at the East Asian Library. It is not available at Mudd Library, on-line, or at the other storage facilities.
In all cases, on your first visit you will have to stop
by the office of the Chinese bibliographer to receive a signed Gest Rare
Book permission form necessary to use the Rare Books at Mudd Library. He
will also tell you about how and where to find further information on the books
you are interested in (including location and call number), and will be able
to give you details on possible copy requests etc. Such a form will be valid
to the next June 15, but users still will need to use the card, printed and
electronic catalogs at the East Asian Library to retrieve the necessary information
regarding call numbers and locations.
