Size of Print Materials
As of 2008, the East Asia Library has holdings of monographs, serials, microforms, manuscripts, and government documents as follows:
| Monographs | Serials | Other materials |
| 477,424 volumes (Chinese) | 2100+ title (combined) |
75,680 |
| 261,562 volumes (Japanese) | ||
| 12,679 volumes (Korean) |
Subject Strengths
- Chinese archaeology
- Buddhism in China and Japan
- History of Japanese institutional development, particularly the late feudal period
- Modern history of China and Japan
- Chinese and Japanese History of art
- Languages and linguistics
- Literatures, especially modern Chinese literature since 1919
- Chinese and Japanese Economics
Collections in the East Asia Reading Room
East Asia Reading Room is located on the second floor of Sterling Memorial Library. Currently the Reading Room contains the following materials:
- East Asia Reference Collection (in Room 219), including
- Reference books in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, integrated into one single collection.
- Selected English-language reference books on East Asia.
- Bound volumes of four major East Asian studies journals: China Quarterly, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Journal of Asian Studies and Journal of Japanese Studies. Yale researchers can also get full text articles directly by searching the online journal list.
- Current issues of Chinese, Japanese and Korean periodicals (SML 222); please note this exception: periodicals published semi-annually will be sent to the SML stacks directly instead of the East Asia Reading Room.
- Current issues of selected English-language journals in Asian studies (SML 222); current issues of other English-language journals are being displayed in the main Periodical Reading Room on the first floor of SML.
Collections in the Sterling Memorial Library
Sterling Stacks
Most books and bound journals in East Asian languages are inter-shelved with Western-language materials in the Sterling Memorial Library stacks. The best way to find materials in the Sterling stacks is to search Orbis, find the call number of the book, and then use the Sterling Stacks Directory to locate the book.
Starr Main Reference Room
The Starr Main Reference Room is located in the nave of SML, next to the Circulation Desk. It has English-language reference sources related to East Asia and bilingual dictionaries.
Newspaper Reading Room
The Newspaper Reading Room is on the first floor of SML, next to the Music Library. It has the recent editions of representative newspapers from East Asia. Here is a list of East Asia related newspapers in the Newspaper Reading Room. Please note that most of these newspapers are also available online now.
Microform Reading Room
The Microform Reading Room is located in the basement of SML. It contains a large number of East Asian newspapers in microform (click here for the floor map). To find if a newspaper in the collection, search the Foreign Newspapers on Microform database. Because this database is not updated often, users may also need to search Orbis to check the current status as well as new arrivals.
Periodical Reading Room
The Periodical Reading Room in the SML nave (near the High Street entrance) has the recent issues of some English-language periodicals on East Asia on display. The current issues of core English-language periodicals on East Asia are in the East Asia Reading Room.
Manuscripts and Archives
Manuscripts and Archives is located on the first floor of SML, near the Wall Street entrance. It has many materials related to East Asia, for example, the Yale-China Association archives.