Asian Research Library Series 1 A Catalog of the Asian Research Library Collection of the Literacy Education Materials Formerly Owned by the Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO, 1

This is the first volume of the catalog of the collection of materials on literacy education donated by the Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU) to be housed at the Asian Research Library. Having opened in 2020, the Asian Research Library is the newest research library in the University, and the staff, who are also researchers of Asia, while being engaged in management, are continuing to gather various books and documents in the field of Asian studies through transferring resources from other departments of the University, purchasing new materials, accepting donations, etc.
 
This collection comprises materials donated by the Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU) that are related to literacy education projects implemented by the Centre in the Asia-Pacific region since the 1980s. The essential distinctive feature of the collection of about 3,600 items from 25 countries is that it consists of teaching materials intended for out-of-school (non-formal) education of illiterate adults. This is a highly valuable collection because, as compared to those intended for school education, such materials are seldom preserved en masse. The materials cover a wide variety of topics, from health and nourishment of infants and practical knowledge on agriculture, fishery, and forestry, environmental pollution, forest preservation, maternal and child health, and importance of literacy education of women. They provide abundant information useful for improving everyday life.
 
There are several reasons why we decided to make a catalog of this collection in the form of a booklet. The most important one is that at the current stage we abandoned the idea of registering bibliographic data of each separate material in UTokyo OPAC. That is because the collection includes, in addition to books, numerous posters, leaflets, handmade teaching materials, sugoroku and other toys, that do not necessarily have titles or authors, which makes it difficult to register them in OPAC. On the other hand, as the wide variety of materials of various types itself is one of the distinctive features of the collection, such a catalog has a particular advantage, because it enables clear and easy-to-understand presentation through providing images of the materials. Such an approach allows to present the overall detailed picture of the whole collection.
 
Some groups of materials are worth special mention. The collection includes many local-country adaptations of English-language master educational materials translated in the local language with illustrations also replaced. For example, if you compare educational materials stressing the importance of literacy education of women, you will notice not only differences in linguistic expressions, but also cultural differences in illustrations, e.g., in clothes, the family image, lifestyles, etc. Moreover, materials in languages of ethnic minorities of the related countries and, depending on the language, materials created at the stage when the orthography was still in the process of development will be most useful in linguistic research as well. Thus, this collection will definitely add to the distinguished conglomeration of unique materials in the possession of the Asian Research Library.
 
The catalog lists up 519 items related to five countries (Afghanistan, China, Iran, Mongolia, Uzbekistan) that were sorted out and classified in FY2021. As for the remaining around 3,000 items, we are planning to publish separate catalogs for Southeast Asia and South Asia.
 

(Written by KAWAHARA Yayoi, Associate Professor, The University of Tokyo Library System / 2023)