Materials Division

The ROC possesses a wealth of Chinese studies resources, including a wide range of ancient texts and scholarly works. In order to create an environment conducive to Chinese studies, enhance research standards in Taiwan and encourage foreign Sinologists to undertake research here, the Center for Chinese Studies has made the acquisition of Chinese studies research materials a primary task ever since its inception. With the extensive holdings of the National Central Library as a foundation, the Center has focused its efforts on acquiring Chinese studies research materials from around the world and providing research-related services to local and foreign Sinologists. The Center pools its resources with those of the National Central Library in order to expand the range of its services. Following is a more detailed description of our Materials Division's activities and services:

1. Acquisitions

Our acquisition targets include reproductions of historically significant Chinese texts and documents in foreign collections, monographs and doctoral dissertations by foreign Sinologists, conference proceedings, and books and periodicals on Chinese studies published in the Mainland China.

1. Chinese Texts in Foreign Collections
   The Materials Division strives to acquire original editions or photo-reproductions of rare Chinese works in foreign collections. Our current collection includes approximately 1,000 reproductions of ancient texts acquired from collections at Japan's Naikaku Bunko, the Harvard Yenching Library and other institutions and includes Confucian classics, Ming dynasty government documents and memorials to emperors, Ming and Ch’ing dynasty gazetteers, and Ming literary collections. We have bound these rare works into volumes and made them available to researchers.
   Our collection also contains microform copies of the Tun-huang scrolls, including 234,000 sheets from the Bibliotheque Nationale in France, 98,000 sheets from the British Library in London and 113 reels from the Beijing Library in Mainland China. The scrolls include sutras, Taoist scriptures, ch'u, transformation texts, as well as rare books of classics, history, philosophy and literature. While mostly written in Chinese, the scrolls also contain Sanskrit, Tibetan, and other languages.
2. Doctoral Dissertations in Western Languages
   By the end of 2002, we had collected roughly 10,000 print copies of doctoral dissertations by foreign scholars on topics related to China from universities in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands. Since the National Central Library started subscribing to the ProQuest Digital Dissertations database in 2003, though, we have stopped purchasing print copies of dissertations. Now, visitors can check out the latest dissertations using this database.
3. Post-1949 Chinese Studies Publications from Mainland China
   Materials dealing with history, philosophy, literature, art, sociology, archeology and local gazetteers are given top priority, as is collecting valuable research materials available only in Mainland China, including works on regional culture and history. Furthermore, we make efforts to maintain comprehensive collections of academic journals and university newspapers from Mainland China. Our current holdings include over 80,000 books and 1,500 different journals and newspapers.

The Center began computerizing its files in 1991 to enhance our classification and cataloging functions. We have worked on publishing bibliographies of Chinese studies and cooperated with the Executive Yuan Mainland Affairs Council and other organizations to publish union catalogues. These works include the Center for Chinese Studies Bibliography of Reproductions of Rare Chinese Works in Foreign Collections, five volumes of the Union Catalog of Mainland Chinese Research in Taiwan, and the Union Catalog of Current Mainland Chinese Periodicals Holdings in Taiwan.

The Center for Chinese Studies Reading Room is located on the 6th floor of the National Central Library. Staff is on hand to answer reader questions and computers are available to conduct on-line searches. There are also two copiers available for use.

4. Study Rooms

In addition to the Reading Room, we also have eight study rooms available for use by overseas scholars conducting research at the Center.