Japanese Collection

Bibliographic information for almost the entire Japanese collection is available in Catalog.

Japanese reference collection is located in the East Asia Collection Reading Room on the 4^th floor in McKeldin Library. 

YEARBOOKS:  The last two issues of  current yearbooks are in the Reading Room's reference books area.  Non-current yearbooks are shelved with general collection in the compact shelves on the 4^th floor west end.  Some less used, older books and bound periodicals are in off-site storage (*Location symbol MOSS).

PERIODICALS:  Up-to-date information of holdings for currently receiving Japanese serials can be found in Catalog. (*However, some Japanese periodicals which have not been electronically converted are not yet in Catalog.)

NEWSPAPERS:  We subscribe to Asahi shinbun.  This is in the Reading Room.  We, also, subscribe to three monthly bound newspapers called shukusatsuban.  They are: Akahata,  Asahi shinbun and Yomiuri shinbun.

For more assistance, please contact Kenneth Tanaka, the Japanese librarian at East Asia Collection at 301-405-9136.

Accessing Catalog (http://catalog.umd.edu)

• Go to UM Libraries' home page: http://www.lib.umd.edu

• Click on Catalog

Understanding Modified Hepburn System

Japanese language materials in East Asia Collection are cataloged using the Modified Hepburn System.   The standard dictionary for this system is:  Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary (PL679.K4, located in the Japanese Reference Book shelves in the East Asia Collection's Reading Room).  Since Catalog does not have capability to display vernacular characters, user must use a query in romanized (transliterated) form.  When entering a query, diacritics, such as macron for long vowel (-) and alif for syllabic nasal (') [e.g. Man'yÇshã] should not be included since catalog will ignore them.  Also, Catalog is not case sensitive, so capitalization of proper noun, etc. is unnecessary.

When dealing with  romanization in Japanese language, one must be aware of problems of word division.  For example, the book "日本にとってアメリカとは何か" will be "Nihon ni totte Amerika towa nani ka" in transliteration.  Since titles are arranged by word alphabetically in catalog, a title rendered into different forms will appear in two places in the alphabetical sequence.

e.g.  Dai hyakka jiten  vs  Daihyakka jiten  大百科事典

e.g. Otogi-zoshi  vs  Otogi soshi   御伽草子

e.g. Nihon shi  日本史 vs  Keizaishi 経済史 (*Generally the word after proper noun is separated.)

Thus, it is sometimes necessary to try various ways of dividing words in Catalog searching.

Searching on Catalog

1.  Keyword:  Search by words and dates in titles, subject headings and other parts of the catalog record.

          Ex:  Sensō  戦争            Sekinin 責任         21-seiki  21世紀    

2.  Name/Author:  Search by persons or organizations as author, editor or subject.

     Ex:  Yosa Buson   与謝蕪村           Minakami Tsutomu  水上勉

3. Call Number:  Search by call numbers

    Ex:  DS889.16 (Japanese history - Allied Occupation period,1945-1952 日本占領期史)  

Finding Japanese Periodicals ( Current Japanese Periodical List )

1.  Use a periodical index:

• Go to UM Libraries' home page: http://www.lib.umd.edu

• Click on Database

• Click "M"; then, click "MagazinePlus" (*Japanese periodicals database)

• Click IME icon at right bottom for "Japanese"; then, change to "Zenkaku Hiragana (全角ひらがな)"

2.  Type in keyword/name of author/source

          Keyword:  Sensō   戦争      Sekinin  責任     Kenpō  憲法  

(*All the keywords must be in Japanese vernacular characters.)

     Author:  Ide,  Magoroku  井出孫六

              Article:  Dōtokuteki songen towa nani ka  道徳的尊厳とは何か

               Source:  Sekai  (世界), No. 591 (Feb. 1994) p. 172-175

     3.  Use Catalog to see if UM Libraries owns the periodical:  

• Go to UM Libraries' home page: http://www.lib.umd.edu

• Click on Catalog

• Click "Journal" on left top

• Search by title on the journal name, "SEKAI"

4.  Identify your title on the screen display.

Click on the title of the journal "SEKAI" to see the full record.  You will find call number for SEKAI :  AP95.J3S4

5.  Find the shelf location of your periodical. 

EASIA JPNSTK : This periodical is located at Japanese compact shelves in East Asia Collection on the 4^th floor in McKeldin Library.  

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Language-Specific Internet Resources

1. Japanese Studies Internet Resources :
   • Japan Links ( Needs Internet Explorer IME for Japanese. Comprehensive directory of useful websites for Japanese Studies in the world, divided by subject categories. It gives addresses and telephone numbers of each organization. )
   • Japanese Literature in Translation Search [in English] ( The database covers Japanese literary works translated into other languages from 1945 to 1990s. It is searchable by author, title of work, translator or other key words in Japanese or roman letters. Short stories are listed individually by their own title rather than in the anthology. )
   • Japanese Literature in Translation Search [in Japanese] ( The database covers Japanese literary works translated into other languages from 1945 to 1990s. It is searchable by author, title of work, translator or other key words in Japanese or roman letters. Short stories are listed individually by their own title rather than in the anthology. )
   • JapanKnowledge ( Collections of encyclopedias and dictionaries, full-text of "Shukan Ekonomisuto" and Heibonsha's "Toyo Bunko (Asian Classics)," and bibliographic citations for 800,000 titles, maps of Japan and the world, Internet links, "Jitsu (Chinese character dictionary)," and more. With one search, all the databases are queried. Very popular search engine for reference librarians. )
   • Kinokuniya ( The largest book store in Japan for Japanese books and Western language books. Includes search engine for books in print and summaries or tables of contents for most books. Japanese reading (furigana) of authors and titles are provided. Also lists availability of some out of print books. A good online tool for book selection. )
   • MagazinePlus ( Most comprehensive online index to Japanese articles, includes "Zasshi Kiji Sakuin (1948- )," annual reports of academic institutions and research associations, festschriften, collections of scholarly papers, general magazines, business magazines, popular magazines, etc. from over 20,000 journals. Updated weekly. )
   • NACSIS Web Cat ( Needs Internet Explorer IME for Japanese. National union catalog of books and serials in natinal university libraries and other research institutions in Japan, managed by Japan's National Institute of Informatics. Updated Weekly. This database gives holding records of institutions. Good tool for interlibrary loan. (Japanese and English) )
   • NDL Kindai Digital Library ( Needs Internet Explorer IME for Japanese. The Kindai Digital Library of the National Diet Library of Japan presently provides digital images of 97,000 titles (143,000 volumes) published in the Meiji and Taisho eras (1868-1926), and is continuously adding new titles to this database. Whenever titles being searched in the NDL OPAC are present in the Kindai Digiital Library, there is a hot link in the bibliographic records that takes you from the OPAC to the full text of the titles in the Kindai Digital Library where you can view images of the contents and full texts of those titles. )
   • NDL-OPAC ( Needs Internet Explorer IME for Japanese. National Diet Library of Japan Online Public Access Catalog. It contains books since 1868 and journal articles since 1948. )
   • Nihon Shoseki Somokuroku ( Needs Internet Explorer IME for Japanese. Search engine for Japanese books currently available in the book market in Japan. )
   • Prange Education Book Collection Database ( Database containing bibliographic and censorship information for approximately 10,000 education books and pamphlets from the Gordon W. Prange Collection published in Japan from 1945 through 1949. The Prange Collection is the most comprehensive collection in the world of print publications issued in Japan during the immediate post-World War II years, 1945-1949 (in Japanese). )
   • Senryoki Zasshi Kiji Joho Detabesu ( Needs Internet Explorer IME for Japanese. Japan's Occupation Period (1945-1949) magazine database. Article-level index to magazines in the Prange Collection, University of Maryland Libraries. (Japanese) )
   • WhoPlus ( Includes over 260,000 Japanese individuals and significant world figures, both past and present. Information includes biographical data, including lists of publications by the individuals as well as books and articles on them. )

2. East Asian Studies Internet Resources :
   • Bibliography of Asian Studies (Index to western-language materials related to Asia)
   • EASyHelp ( East Asian Scholars Help Desk )
   • The Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR, an English search system for official documents and historical materials concerning modern Japanese and relations between Japan and Asian countries)

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