London Missionary Society Collection

The London Missionary Society Collection of rare and unusual Chinese publications held by the National Library has now been catalogued onto the National CJK Service and the Library's own online catalogue. A printed catalogue of the collection (ISBN 0 642 10741 6) has also been produced. Copies are available from Asian Collections. 
 

Burmese Serials

"Burmese Serials in the National Library of Australia" (ISBN 0 642 10747 5) has just been issued by the Library. The list covers Burmese serials with substantial holdings, and is organized in alphabetical order by the Burmese title. For shelving purposes the Library's collection of Burmese serials is organized in alphabetical order of the transliterated titles in the stacks and clearly labelled. This list has been compiled at the Library by Mr Pe Thein Zar, and is available free from Asian Collections . 
 

Australiana in Chinese

"Catalogue of the Australiana Collection in the Chinese Language Held by Asian Collections, National Library of Australia" (ISBN 0 642 10743 2) is now available. It is a revision of an earlier listing from March 2000, and has been compiled by Wan Wong and Ching Sun. 

The Catalogue lists Australiana monographs, periodicals, newspapers and non-book materials (including maps, videos and electronic materials) in the Chinese language held by the National Library as at 30 September 2001. Monographs are divided into three categories : works about Australia; works by Australian authors in Chinese and translations of Australian authors. Copies are available free from Asian Collections. 
 

Walter Simon East Asian Collection

An article by Andrew Gosling on the Walter Simon Collection appeared in the December 2000 issue of National Library of Australia News. It is also on the Library's web site at http://www.nla.gov.au/pub/nlanews/december00/waltersimon.html. 

Professor Walter Simon (1893-1981) was an eminent scholar on Chinese, Tibetan and Manchu studies. His collection of over 2000 books in East Asian and Western languages was acquired by the National Library between 1970 and 1982. 

Weidong Chen has begun cataloguing the East Asian language component of the Simon Collection (the Western language part has already been catalogued). 
 

Chinese Collection page

The National Library's Chinese Collection page at http://www.nla.gov.au/asian/lang/chin1.html has recently been expanded to include Chinese Internet sites, with a particular emphasis on resources about Australian Chinese and Chinese Studies in Australia. 
 

Conferences

Andrew Gosling and Mayumi Shinozaki attended the Japanese Studies Association of Australia Conference at the University of New South Wales from 27-30 June 2001. Andrew chaired a session on "How do researchers and librarians view the outlook for Japanese library resources in Australia ?" Mayumi prepared a survey report on the current state of Japanese collections in Australia. 

Andrew Gosling, Wan Wong and Ching Sun attended the Chinese Studies Association of Australia Conference at Australian National University (ANU) from 5-8 July 2001. A joint exhibition of Chinese works from the National Library and ANU Library was held at the Menzies Library. Over 70 conference participants visited the National Library on special tours of Asian Collections, Maps and Oral History. Andrew presented a paper on the National Library's retrospective Chinese collections (http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/2001/agosling1.html). 

Wan Wong gave a paper (http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/2001/wong1.html) on Chinese electronic resources for law and health at the Special Librarians' Conference in Melbourne on 28 August 2001.  Jung-Hee Fry and Andrew Gosling went to the Second Korean Studies Association of Australasia Conference at Monash University, 24-25 September 2001, and Andrew gave a paper on the NLA's Korean collection (http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/2001/agosling2.html). 
 

Bronwyn Thomas Collection on China and the arts

Andrew Yeates of Sydney, son of the late Bronwyn Thomas, who was prominent in the arts in Australia, has donated his mother's collection of books. These include in particular works in Chinese and English on the arts, history, language and literature of China, as well as publications on the arts of other countries. 
 

Chinese Cataloguing Projects

Stage 1 of the National Library's Chinese conversion project was completed in August. The aim was an initial sweep of the Chinese card catalogue to identify matching records in the Australian National CJK database and RLIN to add holdings and discard cards. As a result 23,172 holdings have been added to the CJK database and the Library's OPAC. The card catalogue has been reduced from 126 drawers of cards to 73 drawers. 

Stage 2 of the project has begun. Entries for the individual titles included in major encyclopedic works are being checked against the CJK system and RLIN, holdings added and cards discarded. The Library's ceased Chinese serials are also being added to the CJK database. All current titles are already on the system. 
 

Andrew Gosling 
Chief Librarian 
Asian Collections 
National Library of Australia 
Tel: +61 2 6262 1286 
Fax: +61 2 6273 4327 
Email: agosling@nla.gov.au
November 2001