Current Status of East Asian Collections in American Libraries

This study of the East Asian collections in American libraries in I97 5 provides new data on the current status of resources, growth rate, geographical distribution, acquisitions, cataloging, personnel, fiscal support, unit capabilities and cost, use patterns, and services. The analysis is based on information from ninety-three libraries, including twenty-two not previously r e p ~ r t e d . ~ Of the collections in this survey, eighty-nine are located in the United States, three in Canada, and one in Mexico. About one-half of them were established before, the other half since, 1960 (Table I). Sixty-six of the collections are in university and college libraries, six in federal libraries, seven in public libraries, and fourteen in museum and special libraries. The size of the collections varies from a few thousand to as many as over a million volumes-with I I having over 200,000volumes; 5 between ~oo,oooand 200,000volumes; 43 between ~o,oooand ~oo,ooovolumes; and 34 under ~o,ooovolumes. The incorporation of East Asian materials in branches of public libraries is a new trend, primarily for providing materials in vernacular languages to minority groups in the local c ~ m m u n i t y . ~