Shelving Locations and the Classification Systems of East Asian Materials

East Asian materials in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean are divided into two main groups: one uses the Library of Congress classification system; the other uses the Harvard-Yenching classification system. Regardless of their classification systems, materials are separately shelved in the East Asian Reading Room (CJKRef, R, RJ, and RR5EA), East Asian Rare Book Cage (T, X, XJ, and CJKSpl), and the East Asian stacks (Gen, CJK, J, and the W-Collection). Some books are shelved separately because of their size (f, xf)

Library of Congress Classification

Materials classified according to the Library of Congress system are shelved together regardless of their languages (Chinese, Japanese and Korean). Materials acquired after 1987 are generally classified according to the Library of Congress system. In addition, some Western language materials on East Asia are also classified according to the Library of Congress system, but are shelved separately.

Here are examples of Library of Congress call numbers:

                  (1)               (2)              (2a)           (3)
                 DS               PL               ND            DS
                 705              2256            3400           501
                 .C5297        .S263           .S23P23      .T623
                 1990            1887            1988           1958
                 CJK              CJKRef       RR5EA       CJKSpl

(1) 'CJK' at the end of a call number means that the material is shelved in the stacks and may circulate.
(2) (2a) 'CJKRef' and 'RR5EA' are shelved in the East Asian Reading Room and do not circulate.
(3) 'CJKSpl' are shelved in the East Asian Rare Book Cage and do not circulate.

Please note that East Asian materials classified according to the Library of Congress system are shelved separately from non-East Asian library materials. For example, DS###.## and DS###.## CJK are both in the Regenstein 5th floor book stacks, but are shelved separately.

Harvard-Yenching Classification

Most materials acquired before 1987 are classified according to the Harvard-Yenching system. Materials so classified are shelved by language in separate areas of the stacks.

Here are examples of the Harvard-Yenching classification system:

                      (1)          (2)       (3)                (1a)        (2a)       (3a)
                                    R        X                  J               RJ          XJ
                   3002         4087    6533            9161.1      4577       6428
                   4114         2486    1238            5041         2368       1245

(1) (1a) ' ' and 'J' may circulate and are shelved in the stacks.
(2) (2a) 'R'-reference in Chinese and 'RJ'-reference in Japanese do not circulate and are shelved the East Asian Reading Room.
(3) (3a) 'X' and 'XJ' do not circulate and are shelved in the East Asian Rare Book Cage.

W-Collection

Materials which are not yet fully cataloged are assigned numbers based on the order in which they are received by the Library. They are shelved in numerical order in separate sections by language.

Here are examples of W-Collection call numbers:

WCJK C-48 WCJK J-23 WCJK K-17

The W-Collection process enables users of the East Asian Collection to have quicker access to newly acquired materials. All books in the W-Collection generally can be searched by title, author and ISBN in the library catalog.

Microforms

All East Asian Microforms are located in the Microforms area on the second floor of the Joseph Regenstein Library.