Library profile

The library was established in 1965 together with the Faculty of East Asian Studies. Today it holds some 225,800 monographs, a very large number of congshu and over 300 periodicals. Although the collection consists mainly of materials in East Asian languages, i.e. Chinese (65%), Japanese (25%) and Korean (10%), it also includes books and periodicals in Western languages and covers the East Asian region as well as individual countries. The scope of the collection is not limited to literature, art, history, philosophy and religion, but also includes politics, social sciences and economics. The collection also includes rare old books and other objects from China and especially Japan, such as manuscripts and precious objects (East Asian Library Archive, room UB 5/19).
All acquisitions since 1997 are searchable in RUB Primo, the search engine for literature at the RUB. Most items in East Asian languages are catalogued in Western transcription as well as in the original script. Acquisitions before 1997 can be found in the digitised alphabetical main catalogue (OAW-DAHK). The library is open to the public and books can be borrowed by members of the Faculty of East Asian Studies for two weeks, extendable to six weeks. If distance is a problem, you can either send a request or make an appointment with one of our librarians (email: bib-oaw@ruhr-uni-bochum.de / phone: +49 (0)234 32 26 18 8).

Departmental collections

Individual departments, such as the Department of East Asian Economics, complement the library's holdings with their own subject and research-specific collections.
The Taiwan Research Unit, inaugurated in 2002, has a collection of well over 6,000 titles, most of which are searchable via RUB Primo. The focus is on Taiwanese literature, culture and social development. This unique collection is the largest research library on Taiwanese culture in Europe. Workshops, visits by international scholars and generous donations from the Cultural Department of the Taipei Representative Office in Germany and Mrs Tienchi Martin-Liao reflect both the importance of and interest in this collection.
The Richard Wilhelm Translation Centre was established in 1993. It has a significant and unique collection of German translations of texts from all periods of Chinese literary history. New acquisitions and ongoing subscriptions to periodicals ensure that the library has all the latest German-language translations.
The Siebold Archive, also known as the Sieboldiana Collection, is managed by the Department of Japanese History and is part of the East Asian Library. It contains around 1,500 manuscripts from the Edo and Meiji periods. The documents, which originate from the German Japan researcher Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866) and his son Alexander (1846-1911), are a valuable resource for historical research on Japan in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The collection has been completely microfilmed.
Since the appointment of Prof. Dr. Regine Mathias in 1996, the focus of the department has been on modern Japanese history and contemporary social, economic and cultural developments. In this context, Bochum will be the future location of a collection donated by Prof. Hidemura focusing on Japanese social and economic history.