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Research Guides

This page contains guides and pathfinders that help users navigate the rich and diverse Asian collections housed at the Library of Congress. These include research guides to collections organized by language, and sub-collections grouped by format, subject, topic, historical period or acquisition source.

Research Guide
Asian Collections at the Library of Congress: An Overview The Asian collections (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Tibetan) comprise more than 4 million items in many Asian languages and dialects, all of which are accessible in the Library's Asian Reading Room.
- Date: 2020-03-23
Research Guide
Asian Studies: Subscription Databases and Free Electronic Resources The Library of Congress provides access to over 1,700 electronic databases through its E-Resources Online Catalog (EROC). This research guide provides guidance for selecting and accessing those resources focused on Asian Studies.
- Date: 2020-02-28
Research Guide
Franklin Book Program Collection at the Library of Congress This research guide will assist researchers navigate the items in multiple languages (i.e., Arabic, Bengali, Indonesian, and Persian, among others) in the Franklin Book Program Collection.
- Date: 2021-06-25
Research Guide
Japanese Collection: Asian Collections at the Library of Congress The Library’s Japanese collection comprises more than 1.2 million physical items. This guide provides an overview of these materials, outlines search strategies, and describes how to access digital collections and e-resources.
- Date: 2020-07-09
Research Guide
Japanese Historical Periodicals at the Library of Congress This research guide contains lists of Japanese-language periodicals available in the Asian Reading Room, with a focus on titles published from around 1890 through 1952.
- Date: 2020-06-02
Research Guide
Mangyan Bamboo Collection from Mindoro, Philippines, circa 1900-1939, at the Library of Congress Consisting of 77 bamboo items in the Southeast Asian Rare Book Collection inscribed with Mangyan script from the Philippines and accompanying transliterations and translations, this collection preserves an endangered writing system and tradition.
- Date: 2022-03-18
Research Guide
North Korean Collection: Asian Collections at the Library of Congress The Asian Division’s North Korean collection has thousands of items. This guide gives an overview of these materials, search strategies, and how to access digital collections, e-resources, and North Korean materials in the Library's other divisions.
- Date: 2021-03-25
Research Guide
Rockhill Tibetan Collection of Rare Materials at the Library of Congress A diplomat in China and the first American Tibetologist, William Woodville Rockhill, donated this set of Tibetan and Mongolian materials to the Library in 1901. This guide provides an inventory of the collection available in the Library’s Asian Division.
- Date: 2020-03-23
Research Guide
Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945: A Resource Guide This guide provides an overview of books, journals, newspapers, manuscripts, and other materials pertaining to the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945 available in Chinese, Japanese, and English at the Library of Congress.
- Date: 2021-05-17
Research Guide
South Asia Ephemera Collection on Microfiche: Art, Language, and Literature This is a research guide for materials in the South Asia Ephemera Collection on Microfiche related to art, language, and literature. This collection includes materials such as pamphlets, newsletters, and memos.
- Date: 2023-03-14
Research Guide
South Asia Ephemera Collection on Microfiche: Politics and Government This is a research guide for materials in the South Asia Ephemera Collection on Microfiche related to politics and government. This collection includes materials such as pamphlets, newsletters, and memos.
- Date: 2022-07-20
Research Guide
South Asia Ephemera Collection on Microfiche: Religion This is a research guide for materials in the South Asia Ephemera Collection on Microfiche related to religion. This collection includes materials such as pamphlets, newsletters, and memos.
- Date: 2022-06-07
Research Guide
South Asian Collection: Asian Collections at the Library of Congress The Library’s South Asian collection comprises thousands of titles in over 100 languages. This guide provides an overview of these materials, search strategies, and how to access digital collections, e-resources, and web archives.
- Date: 2020-07-10
Research Guide
South Asian Manuscripts at the Library of Congress This guide provides information about rare manuscripts in various South Asian languages (e.g., Sanskrit, Urdu, Tamil, Sinhalese) available for research in the Asian Division of the Library of Congress.
- Date: 2018-10-01
Research Guide
South Asian Newspapers at the Library of Congress This research guide contains lists of the Library’s South Asian newspapers available in the Asian Reading Room (South Asian languages) and the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room (English), as well as select titles available through e-resources.
- Date: 2019-06-13
Research Guide
South Asian Women’s Serials at the Library of Congress This research guide will assist researchers interested in locating commercial, governmental, and non-governmental serials by, for, and about women in South Asia.
- Date: 2020-01-24
Research Guide
South Korean Democratization Movement (1960s-1980s): A Resource Guide This is a guide to Library of Congress materials related to major events in the South Korea democratization movement, including the Asian Division’s Minjuhwa Undong Collection.
- Date: 2023-11-13
Research Guide
South Manchuria Railway Company Publications A guide to Japanese-language materials published by the South Manchuria Railway Company (Mantetsu) held in the Asian Division at the Library of Congress.
- Date: 2018-07-26
Research Guide
Southeast Asian Collection: Asian Collections at the Library of Congress The Southeast Asian materials at the Library of Congress comprise over 370,000 titles in over 100 languages. This guide provides an overview of books, serials, rare books, digital collections, electronic resources, web archives and search strategies.
- Date: 2020-11-10
Research Guide
Southeast Asian Rare Books and Manuscripts in the Asian Reading Room at the Library of Congress This guide lists rare books and manuscripts in various Southeast Asian languages (e.g., Balinese, Burmese, Javanese, Khmer, Lao, Thai, Vietnamese) open for research in the Asian Reading Room of the Library of Congress.
- Date: 2022-02-09
Research Guide
Southeast Asian Rare Materials in European Languages at the Library of Congress This guide provides an overview of rare European-language resources related to Southeast Asia at the Library of Congress and will highlight selections of such items throughout the Library.
- Date: 2023-12-20
Research Guide
Southeast Asian Serials on Microfilm at the Library of Congress This research guide lists periodicals, newspapers, and serials in Southeast Asian and other Asian languages (e.g., Burmese, Malay, Chinese) available in the Asian Reading Room and in European languages in the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room.
- Date: 2021-04-29
Research Guide
Soviet Korean Biographies in the Korean Collection of the Library of Congress This guide describes and provides access to a digitized collection of rare handwritten biographies for 80 Soviet Koreans (Koryŏin, or Koryŏ saram) sent by the Soviet Union to help establish the North Korean state in the 1940s and 1950s.
- Date: 2021-02-24
Research Guide
Tai Manuscripts in the Southeast Asia Rare Book Collection at the Library of Congress The Asian Division has a rich collection of Tai manuscripts and early printed books in a variety of languages: Thai, Lao, Kham Mư̄ang, Shan, and Tai Khoēn.
- Date: 2019-10-07
Research Guide
Tibetan Collection: Asian Collections at the Library of Congress The Tibetan collection at the Library of Congress contains thousands of books, periodicals, rare materials, and much more. This guide provides an overview of these items, digital collections, electronic resources, and search strategies.
- Date: 2022-07-12

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