We are delighted to welcome our new Japanese Studies Librarian, Chiaki Sakai. She started on October 1, 2019.

Ms. Sakai has more than 20 years of experience in the library profession. Most recently she worked at the Library of the Japan Foundation in Urawa, Saitama, Japan. Before that she was the Japanese Studies Librarian at the University of Iowa for twelve years.

You can contact her by phone at 212-854-1506, or by email at cs3948@columbia.edu. Her office address is 308M Kent Hall.

The Libraries will be hosting a reception especially for all PhD students. Come and join us. Eat, drink, have fun, and meet students from all across campus, as well as many friendly librarians.

You can RSVP at https://events.columbia.edu/go/CULPhD2019

The reception takes place on Thursday, October 3, from 4:00-6:00 PM, in room 319 of Lehman Library. We hope to see you there!

Fall 2019 Language-specific orientation sessions

• All sessions take place in the Kress Seminar Room (access via the 200-level stacks)
• More sessions may be scheduled as needed.
• Japanese Studies Resources sessions will be scheduled as soon as the new Japanese Studies Librarian arrives.
• Watch our blog (https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/starr/) for further updates.

Dr. Mingjie Li, professor in the Folklore Institute, School of Social Development at East China Norma University, as part of her research project on our Paper God Collection, has just published an English-language article on Anne Swann Goodrich, the original collector, and subsequent donor of the collection. The article, along with other pieces by Dr. Li, appeared in Sixth Tone, a reputable Chinese Academic Online Journal.

Every weekday (except Labor Day) from Monday, August 26 through Friday, September 6 we offer one-hour orientation sessions, including a tour of the library.

• Come find out how Starr Library works, and what services are available to you.
• Join us and learn to find your way around!
• No advance sign-up necessary.
• All sessions start at 4:00 PM at the library’s front desk.

I am very happy to inform you that the book stacks at C.V. Starr East Asian Library are now officially open to all library patrons and staff .

Following the flooding that occurred in the stacks in September 2018, over 52,000 damaged volumes were immediately removed for treatment. We are extremely pleased to report that no books were permanently damaged in this process, and all books have now been placed back in their original locations.

I would like to thank the staff in the Starr East Asian Library and our colleagues across Columbia University Libraries and University Facilities for their extraordinary joint efforts to rescue these books, to repair and thoroughly clean stacks spaces, and for maintaining library and collection services to our users. We would also like to thank all faculty and students for your patience, understanding, and support during this period.

Now I would like to cordially welcome you back to use our library and our collections!

Sincerely,

Jim Cheng

Director, C.V. Starr East Asian Library

The Ethnic Library of China at the Cultural Palace of Nationalities in Beijing holds some 4,000 rare Tibetan manuscript and print books. Mr. Jampa, a graduate of the Northwest Nationalities University (Lanzhou), spent several years cataloging these materials and as Associate Research Librarian is now coordinating efforts to publicize the collection. In this talk, he will discuss a heretofore unknown catalog by Desi Sanggyé Gyatso (1653-1705), famous for his role as regent of the Fifth Dalai Lama and effective ruler of the Ganden government following the latter’s concealed death.  The catalog serves as evidence of plans for a widescale woodblock printing project, which never fully materialized but nevertheless records the titles of many manuscripts brought to the Potala Palace for the purposes of this endeavor.

Please note the early starting time: 10:30am.  We hope you can join us!

Lauran Hartley

Dear Faculty and Students in East Asian Studies:

As I reported to you earlier, the C.V. Starr East Asian Library experienced a water leak in the stacks in the early morning of Sunday, September 16. Over the course of the four days that followed, over 100 volunteers from across CUL Libraries and University Facilities joined the staff of the Starr Library and Preservation & Digital Conversion Division to immediately remove over 51,000 wet volumes in over 3,900 boxes to our disaster recovery contractor for treatment. The timely manner in which all of this assistance was offered to Starr, as well as the capacity that so many volunteers provided, ensured that permanent damage to the collections was minimal.

Our contractor, Polygon, has been freeze-drying, dehumidifying, and cleaning the volumes we sent at their preservation facility in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, in Starr, University Facilities and other contractors had been busy repairing and cleaning the four affected floors of the stacks, and completed their work in the end of December 2018. We have now begun the final process of returning the affected volumes back to their home in Starr. We are working toward a goal of receiving all treated materials and reopening our stacks in the end of March, 2019.  Before reopening our stacks, we will continue to provide the following services:

The main reading room in Starr remains open, as do all reference, consultation, and Interlibrary loan services. However, all stacks areas will remain closed for several weeks. Please check our library blog (https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/starr/) regularly, where we will post updates on progress, specific timelines as they become better known, and any other information affecting the use of library spaces and collections.

Starr has implemented paging services that will allow users to request items currently in the stacks. These services will remain in effect until the stacks can be reopened to Library users. Paging will be performed according to the following regular schedule:

• Requests received by 11am (Monday-Friday) will be available at the circulation desk by 1pm
• Requests received by 6pm (Sunday-Thursday) will be available at the circulation desk by 8pm
• Requests received by 10pm (Monday-Thursday) will be available at the circulation desk the next day at 10am
• Requests received by 2pm (Saturday and Sunday) will be available at the circulation desk by 4pm

For items that remain in the stacks: records are marked in CLIO with the alert “Please contact Starr East Asian Library staff for assistance in paging this item.” Requests to have these items paged from the stacks can be submitted as follows: in the CLIO record for the item, go to the ‘Requests’ tab above the CLIO record, and select “Item not on shelf?” (see image below):

For items that were removed from Starr for treatment: records are marked in CLIO with the alert “Temporarily unavailable. Try ILL.” These items may still be available through our BorrowDirect and Interlibrary Loan partners, and Starr library circulation desk staff will assist faculty and students in locating and requesting such items.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we work with University Facilities to ensure that the affected spaces are clean and safe for faculty and student to once again access and use.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly, or email starr@library.columbia.edu, and we will respond as soon as possible.

Jim Cheng

Director, C.V. Starr East Asian Library

Columbia University

Email: jc3685@columbia.edu

Cleaning and repair work in the stacks is progressing. The dehumidification process mentioned in an earlier blog post has finished. Unfortunately, all subsequent cleaning and repair work was delayed by a necessary asbestos abatement process, but is now again in progress. Once all cleaning and repair is done the books that had to be shipped out for drying and cleaning will gradually be returned and reshelved. We are working to complete all of these tasks as quickly as possible so the stacks and study spaces can be reopened. We will continue to communicate with you as timelines become clearer.

In the meantime all stacks will remain closed until further notice. The main reading room in Starr remains open, as do all reference, consultation, and Interlibrary loan services. Please check our library blog (https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/starr/) regularly, where we will post updates on progress, specific timelines as they become better known, and any other information affecting the use of library spaces and collections.

We would like to remind you that we have implemented paging services that will allow users to request items currently in the stacks, even as cleaning, and space repair are being conducted. These services will remain in effect until the stacks can be reopened to Library users. Paging will be performed according to the following regular schedule:

Requests received by 11am (Monday-Friday) will be available at the circulation desk by 1pm

Requests received by 6pm (Sunday-Thursday) will be available at the circulation desk by 8pm

Requests received by 10pm (Monday-Thursday) will be available at the circulation desk the next day at 10am

Requests received by 2pm (Saturday and Sunday) will be available at the circulation desk by 4pm

For items that remain in the stacks: records are marked in CLIO with the alert “Please contact Starr East Asian Library staff for assistance in paging this item.” Requests to have these items paged from the stacks can be submitted as follows: in the CLIO record for the item, go to the „Requests‟ tab above the CLIO record, and select “Item not on shelf?” (see image below):

For items that were removed from Starr for treatment: records are marked in CLIO with the alert “Temporarily unavailable. Try ILL.” These items may still be available through our BorrowDirect and Interlibrary Loan partners, and Starr library circulation desk staff will assist faculty and students in locating and requesting such items.

For access to the rare books, archives, and special collections material, please report to the front desk during rare book room hours, and a librarian will accompany you to that room.

Thank you for your understanding and continued patience and cooperation as we work with University Facilities to ensure that the affected spaces are clean and safe for faculty and students to once again access and use.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us by email at starr@library.columbia.edu, and we will respond as soon as possible.

The Japanese government announced on Oct. 26 (Friday) that it has selected five people to receive the country’s top cultural award this year, including composer Toshi Ichiyanagi, 85.

Toshi Ichiyanagi, notable Japanese composer, was born in. Kobe, Feb. 4, 1933. He studied composition with Kishio Hirao and piano with Chieko Hara. He pursued training in New York at the Juilliard School of Music (1954-58), receiving instruction in composition from John Cage and in piano from Beveridge Webster. In 1967 he received a Rockefeller Foundation grant and was active in N.Y. as composer-in-residence. In 1976 he was the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst composer-in-residence in Berlin. In 1989 he founded and became artistic director of the Tokyo International Music Ensemble, a traditional Japanese orchestra with Buddhist chanting shomyo. He led the ensemble on many tours abroad, including visits to Europe and the U.S. Ichiyanagi’s compositions reflect his penchant for exploring both Western and non-Western musical traditions, as well as for a willingness to pursue experimental paths in both traditions.

Beginning with his first prize at 16 in the Mainichi/NHK composition competition, which he won again in 1951, he has been awarded many prizes including the Koussevitzky Prize at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood (summer, 1956) In 1981, 1984, 1989, and 1990 he won the Otaka Prize, in 1985 he was made a member of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France, and in 1989 he won the Kyoto Music Grand Prize. The Order of Culture will be presented to the recipients at the Imperial Palace on Nov. 3, 2018.

Sachie Noguchi