Duke University Libraries have been collecting English language materials in Japanese Studies since its earliest days, but only began to collect in Japanese in the late 1960s. Since then, it has built the premier university collection south of Princeton. Rather than collecting comprehensively, it has built strong collections in modern Japanese art history, popular culture (especially manga and film), nineteenth and twentieth century Buddhism, and Japan’s colonial experience in China, Korea and Taiwan. As an accessible collection with a strong reputation for service, it supports not only faculty and students at Duke, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, but also faculty throughout the Southeast, nationally and internationally.
Additionally, the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library is building on its historic collections of missionary manuscripts, business, and the history of medicine and developing collections of nineteenth and twentieth century photography and Buddhism in the United States.
The recent addition of a graduate program in East Asian Studies which attracts students able to use sources in Japanese together with increased fluency among undergraduates has strengthened demand and use of Japanese language materials. By providing financial support in the four areas listed below, donors will help DUL attract the brightest students, faculty, and researchers.
Establish a collection endowment ($300,000)
While the collection is rich in particular resources, (e.g., literature and history), Duke needs to acquire historical photography from the region as well as traditional aspects of rare collections, like manuscripts, rare books, and travel literature, and to continue to build on its strengths. Doing so will not only further support scholarship and teaching on campus, but enhance Duke’s reputation as a major site for conducting research in Japanese Studies.
Expendable gifts
By making one-time gifts, you can enable us to purchase unique materials for the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library that strengthen our outstanding collections.
