Humanities and Social Sciences Library > Collections & Reading Rooms > The Asian and Middle Eastern Division

Profile of the Collection

Holdings:

• 440,000 volumes
• 1,450 newspaper and periodical subscriptions
• 6,681 microforms
• Research Level Collections
• Instructional Support Level Collections
• Basic Information Level Collections

The Asian and Middle Eastern Division provides the general public with access to one of the world's premier collections of Orientalia. Since the opening of the Astor Library in 1854 (the Astor Library was one of the parent libraries of the New York Public Library) scholarly publications relating to the Middle East, South Asian and East Asia have been available to a wide audience. The Division serves world-renowned authors, graduate and undergraduate students, artists, designers, internationally-known scholars, the business community, and the general public.

The recently renovated Shoichi Noma Reading Room greatly enhances the accessibility of these collections to those with an interest in Asian studies. For scholars, and for the general public interested in studying the Asia and the Middle East, the Division can furnish readers with over 440,000 books, periodicals, newspapers, and reels of microfilm in a range of languages that include Chinese, Japanese, Korean, eleven Indian languages, Arabic, Persian, Armenian, Georgian, Tibetan, several languages of Central Asia, and the major languages of the ancient Near East. Grammars, dictionaries, atlases, bibliographies, and other reference resources are available, as are current newspapers and periodicals representing virtually all the countries and languages in the Division's collection. The Division's subject areas include linguistics, literature, religion, archaeology, and history. In addition, the Division houses rare items in all its major language and culture areas.

The Asian and Middle Eastern Division is committed to a high level of public service, and to providing readers with bibliographic assistance, help in the use of catalogs, more effective direct access to reading room reference materials, references to other research libraries for items not held in the Division, and prompt responses to requests for monographs or periodicals. Staff members have speaking and reading knowledge of approximately twenty ancient and modern Asian and Middle Eastern languages.