Asian Collections & Services at the National Library of Australia
by Andrew Gosling, Chief Librarian, East Asia
Published in Australian Academic and Research Libraries 22 (4), December 1991, pp 118-126
Introduction
The following discussion does not attempt to be comprehensive in its treatment of Asian collections and services at the National Library. The aim is to provide an overview concentrating on areas and languages given a high priority by the Library, while also referring to other parts of the region. The Library has emphasised East Asia, namely China and its periphery, Japan and the Korean peninsula, and Southeast Asia, consisting of the ASEAN and Indochina countries as well as Burma. Within Southeast Asia the Library has placed greatest stress on its Indonesian and Thai collections. Thus this article refers particularly to Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian and Thai resources. South Asia, comprising the Indian sub-continent and adjacent island states is also considered, as is to a lesser extent West Asia which covers the Middle East apart from its North African component.
While the National Library has concentrated most of its staffing, acquisition and other resources for Asia on Asian language materials, this discussion also includes the Library's extensive Western language holdings from and about the region.
The National Library's position is examined in the wider context of Australia's Asian library resources as a whole, covering the past, the present and possible future developments.
Historical Background
The current strengths of the National Library's collections and services on Asia owe much to farsighted policies in the 1950s. At that time, under National Librarian Sir Harold White, systematic acquisition of publications from and about Asia began.
Asian studies and Asian library collections have developed comparatively recently in Australia. Prior to the Second World War, Asian studies were virtually confined to one department at the University of Sydney which taught the Japanese language and Asian history. There were no significant collections of Asian publications and no Australian library was regularly acquiring current publications from the region.
This situation changed in the 1950s as the importance of Asian studies was gradually recognized. The National Library and the Australian National University Library, in particular, started acquisition programs which have made them the major Asian research collections in this country. The University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne libraries also began to build significant Asian language collections at that time.
The fact that the National Library's Asian collections have only been developed since the 1950s has partly dictated the nature of these collections. While some old and rare items are held, the real strength is in contemporary materials, serving the research needs of government, academia and the general public with emphasis on the social sciences.
During the 1950s and 1960s, a number of formed collections in Asian and Western languages were acquired from scholars and bibliophiles. These contained valuable retrospective holdings. Reprints and microforms of older works have also continued to be purchased. Nevertheless, neither the National Library nor any other Australian research library is ever likely to replicate the archival collections of European colonial nations, such as Britain, France and the Netherlands based on their long involvement with the region.
On the other hand, during the past third of a century the National Library has been obtaining contemporary research materials in certain key Asian languages more actively than all but a few of the major European libraries. These languages are Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian and Thai. In the case of Indonesian, the National Library has built up one of the world's most significant modern research collections outside Indonesia itself. The Library's other Asian holdings do not equal the vast resources of the Library of Congress but may be compared with other significant North American research collections.
The following is a brief chronology of the development of the Library's Asian collections. In 1955 formal co-operative collection development agreements between the National Library and the Australian National University were signed for Chinese and Japanese materials. Broadly, the National Library was to cover publications in the social sciences and more recent periods of history (after 1868 for Japan and post-1911 for China) as well as periodicals and newspapers. Traditional literature, early history, religion and philosophy were designated Australian National University responsibilities. Union catalogues for East Asian materials were begun at the National Library following these agreements. Systematic collection development for Indonesia and India also started in the 1950s.
In 1962 a special area of the Library called Orientalia was established to handle Chinese, Japanese and also later Korean and Thai language materials. This retained its old fashined name until 1987 when it became the East Asia Sub- section. In 1964 a specialist librarian, Mr S. Wang, was appointed from overseas to head Orientalia, a position he held until his retirement in 1985. In 1969 and 1970 pilot projects by the Library enabled it to set up an Indonesian cooperative acquisition scheme serving several university libraries and itself through a staff member stationed in Jakarta. This was in order to overcome the considerable difficulties involved in maintaining an effective supply of current Indonesian publications.
The 1970s saw further consolidation of the Asian collections. The Library's acquisition office in Jakarta was finally established in 1971. In 1973-74 an overseas expert was engaged to advise on South and Southeast Asian Collections. He was Mr. Stanley Sutton, former Director of the India Office Library and Records in the United Kingdom. Following his report the Library created a specialist position for South and Southeast Asian reference in 1974. In 1979 a new section called the Australian International and Ethnic Library (AUSINTEL) was set up to cover both the Orientalia and South and Southeast Asian subsections as well as other foreign language collections and services.
During the 1980s the Asian Collections grew rapidly, but there were also some setbacks. In particular following the Government's cost-cutting Review of Commonwealth Functions in 1982 the Library was required to reduce its presence in Jakarta, despite widespread recognition of its national importance. The Library currently has the status of the office, which is staffed at present by locally-appointed staff, under review, although the costs of re-establishing Australian-based officers is very high.
During this decade the section also altered its name twice, to Area Studies in 1982 and to Asian Collections in 1987. Since this latter change the section has concentrated solely on Asia, with reference responsibility for non-Asian geographic areas being returned to General Reference.
Growth of Collections
The quite rapid development of the National Library's Asian language collections is revealed by comparing statistics for the five largest collections from 1970 and 1990. The largest and fastest growing collection has been the Chinese. In 1970 the Library held 60,000 volumes of monographs and 750 serial titles. By 1990 there were 200,000 monograph volumes and 5,000 serial titles in Chinese. In the same period the Japanese collection grew from 32,000 monograph volumes and 1,600 serial titles to 75,000 monograph volumes and 4,500 serial titles. In 1970 there were 4,000 monograph volumes and 430 serial titles in Korean, expanding to 17,000 monograph volumes and 1,400 serial titles twenty years later. Systematic collecting of Indonesian materials through a presence in Jakarta was only just beginning in 1970. By 1990 the Indonesian Collection consisted of 120,000 volumes of monographs and 5,000 serial titles. In 1970 the Thai collection contained 4,000 monograph volumes and 130 serial titles, rising to 24,000 monograph volumes and 1,400 serial titles by 1990. In addition the Library has developed extensive holdings of Asian microfilms, films, maps and other resources.
The National Library is now clearly the largest and most actively developing research resource on Asia in Australia. In some instances, such as Korean language materials, it has the only substantial research collection in the country at present. In financial terms during 1990/91 the Library allocated over A$700,000 to the Asian language purchases, representing 17% of its total book acquisition budget. This constitutes a greater sum than the combined amount spent by all Australian university libraries on Asian materials. These National Library budget figures do not include English and other Western language publications about Asia.
Collection Strengths
The following remarks briefly summarize the major strengths of the five largest Asian language collections at the Library. Detailed printed descriptions are available for these and other Asian collections.
The Chinese collection is strong in the fields of archaeology, fine arts, modern history (after 1840), biography, local history, politics and government, statistics, foreign relations, economics, law, sociology, religion, philosophy and medicine as well as newspapers and periodicals. There are also extensive holdings of Chinese series.
The strengths of the Japanese collections are in the subject fields of social sciences, especially economics, education, minorities, women's studies, statistics, politics and government, and law, Japanese biography and history after 1868, fine and performing arts, military science, science and technology serials and Japanese works on Australia. Many government publications are received regularly on exchange from the National Diet Library.
The Korean collection covers the field of archaeology, history, sociology, economics, politics and government, foreign relations, law, philosophy, biography, biography, language and literature.
Through its Jakarta office the Library has acquired considerable subject strengths in current Indonesian politics and government, the social sciences, development studies, statistics and law. Mainly in Indonesian, the publications are from government agencies, universities and commercial publishers. The Library also has strong historical collections from the period of the Dutch administration, including Dutch language government reports, monographs and newspapers, as well as coverage of the Japanese occupation.
The Thai collection is strong in the fields of history, biography and archaeology, politics and government, economics, law, language and literature, philosophy and religion. There is an extensive of Thai cremation volumes, memorial biographical works published to mark a notable person's death.
Collection Development Policy
The increased priority given by the Library to its Asian collections is clearly reflected in its published collection development policies of 1981 and 1990. Although in general the Collection Development Policy (1990) indicates a reduction in the breadth of general library collecting intentions expressed in the earlier Selection Policy (1981) in recognition of the fact that the real purchasing power of the Library's acquisition vote steadily declined over this period, at the same time the 1990 policy is much more explicit in emphasising Asian collections than its predecessor.
The 1981 document does place some stress on Asian materials. The policy summary on national collection priorities states that the Library gives "high priority to Southeast Asian publications". Mention is also made of Japanese monographs and serials, but there is no reference to other parts of Asia. However a section on the history of the Library's resources describes the East, South and Southeast Asian collections.
The Collection Development Policy of 1990 is arranged more systematically than the 1981 policy. In addition to subject emphases it clearly sets out geographical priorities for regions and countries. These range from Level 1 (minimal) to Level 5 (comprehensive). Only Australia is assigned Level 5. A few countries considered of major significance to Australia's development in a broad sense are ranked at the next highest priority, Level 4 (research). These are China, Japan, Indonesia, New Zealand, the South-west Pacific nations, United Kingdom and the United States. The application of the geographical priority to China includes Taiwan, Hongkong and Macao. For all these research level Asian countries the priority refers both to vernacular and Western language works. Exceptions are Korea and Thailand where publications in the national language are assigned research level but other materials are collected at level 3 (intermediate). The South and Southeast regions in general are ranked at Level 3 and the Middle East at Level 1.
When the draft of the 1990 policy was released to the public not surprisingly most comment came from those who felt their own discipline or area interests had been assigned too low a priority. This included some scholars in the humanities, Middle Eastern and African studies. There was little comment on East Asia, probably because of the high priority assigned. Feedback from users did lead to some changes in the section on Southeast Asia. For example countries in Indochina which had been given a relatively low geographical priority because of their limited publishing and acquisition difficulties were upgraded to reflect the Library's longer term collecting intentions rather than likely levels of acquisition in the immediate future.
It is early to judge the effects of the 1990 policy. However, it is clear that while the National Library has been collecting in certain Asian languages fairly intensively for some time, appropriate English and other Western language publications about Asia are now being sought more actively than previously in accordance with the priority levels assigned.
During 1990 a special project was undertaken to investigate the Library's Western language holdings on Asia. It was found that generally coverage of the North American and European publications about Asia was appropriate. While the main emphasis has been on English, significant items in other Western languages are being acquired. Important Asian language publications about other parts of the region, for example Japanese works on China, are also collected actively.
However it was also found that some areas needed to be strengthened. In particular, a number of significant periodicals not held were identified for ordering. Some exchanges of publications were not operating satisfactorily. Coverage of English language materials published in a number of Asian countries also needed improving. Efforts are now being made to overcome these weaknesses.
Bibliographic Control and Access
Card catalogues containing romanized and script data continue to be maintained for the Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai collections. Current Indonesian items acquired through the Jakarta office are listed in the Library's published Indonesian Acquisitions List. In addition since the inception of the Australian Bibliographic Network (ABN) in 1981 Asian holdings have been gradually included, although for Asian script languages this has meant purely romanized records to date. The current intake of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Indonesian monographs is being entered on ABN, and all current serial titles in these languages are now on the database. Retrospective conversion of the Japanese monograph catalogue is also being undertaken at present. Through ABN national access to the Library's Asian collections has improved considerably over the past decade despite ABN's script limitations and continuing cataloguing backlogs especially for Chinese holdings.
Use of Collections
While no separate statistics are available on the use of the Library's western language holdings about Asia, more is known about use of its Asian language collections, in particular of the major East Asian languages, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
A 1983 survey of Australia's East Asian collections found that the types of readers served by the National Library differed from those of the universities. Whereas tertiary institute libraries reported seventy to one hundred percent of their clients were students and academics, the readers visiting the East Asian collections at the National Library were more varied. The percentages were as follows:
%
Universities and colleges 40
Secondary schools 4
Government departments 14
Research institutes 10
Professionals 8
Foreign diplomats 2
Business 6
General public 16
Total 100
A later survey examined the subject use of the National Library's Chinese, Japanese and Korean collections during one calender year (1985). All reference query, interlibrary loan and photocopy request forms completed during that year were examined and tabulated.
While the 1985 survey covered only one year it suggested some interesting patterns of use. It indicated a variety of readers using different parts of the East Asian collections for different purposes. For all the three languages economics was the most consulted subject for readers visiting the Library, followed by history, arts and politics. These direct readers were mainly academics, government officials and members of the general public. Demand for monographs on interlibrary loan was mainly for language and literature, as well as history, economics and sociology. Major borrowers were the universities, embassies and the media. Requests for photocopied journal articles were largely for medicine, science and technology, and came primarily from business, research institutes and hospitals.
During 1988 the National Library conducted a survey of its readers. Questionnaires were distributed to readers in each of the Library's reading rooms on every third day of the survey period, April to July. 2,305 copies were handed out and 1,590 returned completed, a seventy percent return rate.
For the purposes of this discussion the most interesting results of the 1988 survey relate to materials used in different languages and use of reading rooms. Readers were asked to indicate use of library resources in languages other than English. For all respondents regardless of reading room used the language most consulted proved to be in order French, German, Chinese and Japanese. The Asian Collections Reading Room also emerged as one of the most heavily used special areas.
A separate question on awareness of and satisfaction with particular library services showed 88% satisfied and 12% not satisfied with Asian Collections. Unfortunately the survey did not include causes of disatisfaction, although one problem identified by readers throughout the Library was for the need for a simple and efficient catalogue. A finding of some concern was that 10% of users in the main reading areas were not aware that the Library had an Asian Collections Section, indicating a need for greater promotion.
In the period since the survey the number of readers in the Asian Collections has continued to rise. There was a 9% increase during 1989/90 and a further 22% rise during the first eleven months of 1990/91 (July 1990 to May 1991). There are currently some 4,000 onsite users of Asian Collections annually.
Promotion
As its 1988 reader survey indicated the Library needs to strengthen promotion of its Asian collections and services. Recently the Library has been placing greater emphasis on promotion in part through two new publications. The monthly National Library of Australia News which began in October 1990 has already included articles on the Indonesian and Japanese collections. The quarterly journal Voices has devoted its September 1991 issue to Chinese subjects.
In addition to the new ventures the library is continuing to publicise its major recent Asian acquisitions through Current Awareness Bulletins issued to interested individuals and institutions. These are a major source of direct and interlibrary loan use, and are particularly important as unlike ABN they contain Asian script data.
Attendance at conference and publishing of articles and reports in relevant periodicals as the Asian Studies Review and the EastAsian Library Resources Group of Australia Newsletter are other means being employed to promote use. Nevertheless, it is clear that much remains to be done to raise the level of awareness among present and potential users.
Recent Initiatives for Co-operation
The most extensive recent examination of Australia's Asian library resources is contained in the Ingleson Report. The inquiry which began in March 1988 was intended as a major review of Asian studies and languages in universities and colleges as the basis for advice to government on future directions. Its report was submitted to the Asian Studies Council in January 1989.
The chapters of the Ingleson Report on libraries clearly set out the major difficulties faced by Asian collections in Australia. It also makes recommendations which have formed the basis for subsequent initiatives during the period 1989- 1991.
Broadly Ingleson argued for Australian libraries to participate in a cooperative acquisition policy for Asian materials, given the expense of establishing, maintaining and cataloguing such collections. In addition the Report called for an efficient and inexpensive system of access and distribution.
Cataloguing problems were seen as serious. The four Asian collections: The National Library, Australian National University, University of Sydney and University of Melbourne all had considerable backlogs of Asian script materials not fully catalogued. While there had been improvements during the 1980s in reducing these arrears through entering records in romanized form on ABN the best solution was seen as an automated system whereby non-Roman scripts could be included on ABN.
The Report referred to a staffing crisis in the Asian area, with many libraries having no specialist librarians for their Asian collections. The need for specialist training to produce more professional librarians with Asian expertise was seen as urgent.
Ingleson's major recommendation was for the establishment of a national network for Asian studies library resources located in Canberra and working closely with the National Library. Its tasks would include developing a national cooperative acquisition policy for Asian materials and investigating the inclusion of non-Roman scripts on ABN.
Unfortunately, rather than any action being taken on the library aspects of the Ingleson Report they were referred to another inquiry. This was the review entitled Library Provision in HigherEducation Instititutions (Ross Report) which in turn commended the Ingleson proposals. It also stressed that the potential library consequences of the recent rapid spread of Asian studies program had not been appreciated by the institutions involved or possibly by the Commonwealth.
In May 1991 a National Roundtable on Libraries and Asia was organized by the National Library and the Australian National University Library to consider a national strategy. Representatives of most Australian libraries with Asian collections attended. This meeting supported the recommendations of the earlier inquiries.
The Roundtable proposed several steps. First the National Library, the Australian National University and others would form a group to look at the feasibility of an Asian studies library resource network as put forward by Ingleson. The National Library would also undertake a survey of libraries wishing to provide or use paid for contract services relating to Asian materials. The National Library was asked to seek and distribute to other libraries collection development policies on Asia. The major libraries with significant Asian cataloguing backlogs would jointly develop a proposal for funding to help offset the cost of cataloguing these arrears. The four larger collections would also explore the concept of a shared local catalogue system supporting Asian script data.
Since the Roundtable the National Library, the Australian National University and University of Sydney libraries have made a joint submission to the Department of Employment, Education and Training, aimed at obtaining funding to take up the implementation of the library-related recommendations of Ingleson, Ross and other reports. It remains to be seen what the response will be.
Future Directions
In the short to medium term it appears likely that the National Library will continue to act as the foremost provider of Asian research collections and services in Australia, although as envisaged in the Ingleson Report, increasingly in consultation and cooperation with other libraries.
In the present economic climate the prospects for any of the universities greatly expanding their Asian collections do not seem particularly bright. During an earlier period of growth for Asian studies in the 1970s when Griffith University in Queensland and Murdoch University in Western Australia entered the Asian collecting field it was thought Griffith would soon have the largest East Asian collections outside Canberra. This has not occurred, and Asian library resources outside Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne remain small. The heavy concentration of resources in Canberra at the National Library and Australian National University has continued, with these two libraries together accounting for an estimated seventy percent of the total national collection of Asian language materials.
Asian studies in Australia are expected to continue developing, though as in the past not necessarily in an even or uniform manner. Since the 1950s, there have been several waves of promised growth which have then receded. Most recently there has been a major increase in Japanese language studies which if continued will have serious implications for libraries. Korean studies are also enjoying a boom. Despite the periodic ups and downs in Asian studies overall use of the National Library's Asian collections has been steadily rising both for academic and other purposes and this seems set to continue.
Some changes in patterns of use are likely. Increasingly the Library's direct users are from a younger age group. With the Asian component of the population rising research, study and recreational use by Australians of Asian origin will continue to grow. The most marked trend in external use is the ever greater demand by business, research bodies and hospitals for photocopied periodical material, particularly for Japanese science, technology and medicine.
At present the Library's Asian collections still consist mainly of printed materials such as monographs, journals and newspapers,as well as extensive microform holdings and some audio-visual items. As new technologies are developed the Library will need to place more emphasis on online and other non-traditional resources relating to Asia in order to meet user needs such as those of the business community.
The National Library will continue to employ a range of established and new methods of acquiring materials from the diverse areas of Asia. While exchanges are generally declining worldwide they are likely to remain important for countries with limited outside contact such as Burma, North Korea and the Indochina states. In addition exchanges with national libraries in many parts of the region are major sources of government documents. Nevertheless most acquisition will continue to be by purchase. Recent examples of new avenues for obtaining publications have been through the assistance of the National Library of Laos and of an overseas aid agency in Cambodia.
Cooperation at the national and international level will play a growing role in the Library's development of Asian collections and services. Considering the struggle the Library has had to set up and retain one Australian cooperative acquisition office in the region, the establishment of others in South and Southeast Asia as recommended seventeen years ago in the Sutton Report, does not appear to be a realistic option. However, the Library has recently joined as a participant in the Library of Congress acquisition program for Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei, and may well join other Library of Congress programs for countries in South and Southeast Asia as a cost-effective way of improving coverage of their publications.
Cooperation with national libraries in the region will become increasingly important. The regular secondment of staff from the National Diet Library in Japan over the past twenty-five years has been of great direct benefit as well as bringing less tangible results in terms of strengthened relations. It is also hoped to establish similar arrangements with the National Library of China. A highly successful one year secondment from the National Library of Indonesia has recently been completed. During 1991 senior National Library of Australia staff have visited libraries in a number of Asian countries including China, Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in order to help develop a broad range of cooperative programs, and this may have longera term effects on the Library's collections and services relating to those countries.
Australian libraries should consider their coverage of Asia in terms of the distributed national collection. This is especially important for South Asia and West Asia which as the Ingleson Report recognizes are of enormous economic and political significance to the rest of the world, but where Australian library resources particularly for vernacular materials are weak. While the National Library has continued to build up its sizeable Western language holdings relating to South Asia, its vernacular collections including Hindi and Sanskrit are no longer being developed. The situation for West Asia is even more serious across Australia. As Ingleson recommends a national collection development policy should be formulated by the proposed national network for Asian studies library resources.
Despite the serious problems which remain for the National Library and other Australian libraries developing Asian collections and services, recent events encourage some optmism about the future. The obstacles faced and viable solutions have been clearly set out in major official reports by Ingleson and Ross. Libraries are showing a strong desire for cooperation in this area as witnessed by meetings such as the Roundtable in May 1991. ABN has committed itself to serious consideration of the inclusion of non-Roman characters on the National Bibliographic Database. Provided resources are made available it should not be too long before Australia's main Asian library collections are all using systems supporting Asian scripts.
1. These agreements are discussed in A. Gosling, "Books from Asia: co-operative collection development in Australia," in East Asian Library Resources Group of Australia Newsletter, no. 10, December 1986, p. 7-15.
2. Stanley Sutton, South and Southeast Asia: a policy for the National Library of Australia. Canberra: NLA, 1974.
3. National Library of Australia Selection Policy. Canberra: NLA, 1981, p.6.
5. Collection Development Policy. Canberra: NLA, 1990, p.100-101.
6. S.W. Wang, "Survey of East Asian language collections in Australian libraries, December 1983", in East Asian Library Resources Group of Australia Newsletter, no.10, December 1986, p.26-43.
7. A. Gosling, "Survey of the use of National Library of Australia East Asian collections during 1985", in East Asian Library Resources Group of Australia Newsletter, no.11, June 1987, p.1-5.
8. Unpublished questionnaire results.
9. Asia in Australian Higher Education: Report of the Inquiry into the Teaching of Asian Studies and Languages in HigherEducation submitted to the Asian Studies Council (Ingleson Report). Canberra: Asian Studies Council, 1989.
11. Library Provision in Higher Education Institutions / National Board of Employment, Education and Training (Ross Report). Canberra: Australia Government Publishing Service, 1990, p. 144-147.
12. Enid Bishop, "Acquiring Eastern material: the Australian solution", in Proceedings of IFLA Worldwide Seminar, May 31-June 5 1976. Seoul: Korean Library Association, 1976, p.131.
13. Based on figures provided for the National Roundtable on Libraries and Asia in May 1991.
15. Penelope Layland, "The National Diet Library of Japan", in National Library of Australia News, vol.1 no.10, July 1991, p. 11-13.
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