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The Columbia University Libraries have collected resources on East Asia for a long time. In the early decades of the twentieth century, as an "East Asiatic" collection came into being, the majority of such resources came to be assigned to this collection. 

Starr Library's western-language collection serves to complement the library's collections in the East Asian original languages, and provides access to western-language scholarship on East Asia. Curricular support and support for research by the Columbia community comprise the main focus of the collection. The emphasis of the collection is particularly on scholarship in the Humanities, and increasingly also selective Social Sciences, with lesser holdings on a number of other subjects. As research and teaching foci shift, the collection scope broadens correspondingly.

In addition to what the Starr Library collects, a substantial number of western-language materials on East Asia can also to be found in other divisions of the Columbia University Libraries; e.g., East Asian business and economics resources are collected by the Business Library, resources on East Asian international relations are generally in Lehman Library, and East Asian arts are, for the most part in Avery/Fine Arts Library.The online catalog indicates locations for all resources in the bibliographic records.

In recent years we have switched most western-language periodical subscriptions from print to online. Of the remaining print titles, some are processed directly for ReCAP, the offsite facility, while the remaining titles are kept on the shelf in the reading room (in call number order, on the west wall of the second alcove on the southside of the reading room) until a volume is complete. Periodical volumes and issues can be requested by patrons, using the request function in the bibliographic record in CLIO. Alternatively, electronic document delivery of specific articles can be requested using the same request form.

Any comments, questions, and suggestions regarding Starr Library's western-language collection can be directed to the East Asian Studies Librarian.

Please refer to the basic Library Research Guide to learn how to use the Columbia University Libraries' resources on East Asian subjects in western languages.