Establishment of Asian Research Library

The establishment of the Asian Research Library is one of the main pillars of the “New Library Project”, a large-scale renovation and expansion project of the General Library. The Asian Research Library will be tasked to collect, share and make public the knowledge and information on and of Asia, and will serve as the basis for the multicultural symbiosis of the world. When the renovation of the main building of our General Library is completed in 2020, the 4th floor will become the main floor of a new research library dedicated to learning and thinking about “Asia” beyond the borders of disciplines, periods, and areas. It will be a hub and gateway to connect the materials, information, functions, and personnel now found in various departments of the University of Tokyo related to Asian Studies with the rest of the world. It will also proceed with the digitization of materials on Asian Studies, focusing on sustainability and accessibility. We will place an emphasis on those in Asian languages that are most likely to be out of the global movement of digitization. Prior to the opening of the Asian Research Library, an endowed research division, U-PARL (Uehiro Project for the Asian Research Library), was established in 2014, and has been carrying on a variety of research work for this project in close cooperation with university library staff.
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On 1 October 2020, the Asian Research Library, with a capacity of 50,000 volumes, opened on the fourth floor of the General Library. Materials written not only in Japanese, English and European languages, but also in various Asian languages are arranged using Asian Research Library's unique classification. Prior to its opening, the library was actively supported by the U-PARL (Uehiro Project for the Asian Research Library) and prepared with the cooperation of related departments and research organizations. Effort will continue to further consolidate and reconstruct Asian research materials, digitize collections, etc. At the same time, we will provide services befitting the name of "research library" which organically combines research functions and library functions.

Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, the University of Tokyo
Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, the University of Tokyo

• NAGAI Masakatsu, “The meaning of presenting research data from the library as a node of knowledge: Through the case of the Uehiro Project for the Asian Research Library (U-PARL)”, IPSJ SIG Technical Report, 2019-CH-121, 2019. (In Japanese)
• TOKUHARA Yasuhiro, “Aspects of collection building, cataloging and utilization of Islamic Area Studies resources in Japan”, The journal of Information Science and Technology Association, 66 (1), 2016. (in Japanese)
• U-PARL, From the Libraries of the World: A Guide to Libraries and Archives for Asian Studies, Bensei, 2019 (in Japanese)
• U-PARL, The library as the Hub of Knowledge in Asia: Classification for Supporting and Advancing Research in Asian Studies, University of Tokyo Press, 2020. (in Japanese)