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From the Vice Provost and Dean - Summer 2017

East Asia Library at 80 years

The East Asia Library is just one of 16 University Libraries that span from Friday Harbor on San Juan Island to UW Tacoma.

Its beginnings were in 1937, when a small collection of Chinese literary works was purchased with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.

During the 1940s, Suzzallo Library was home to the growing unnamed and uncatalogued collection, shelved in what was called the "Oriental Seminar Room" – available to faculty and students by request only.

In 1976, the newly-named East Asia Library moved to its current home in Gowen Hall.

Today the East Asia Library offers one of the preeminent collections in the nation with over 700,000 volumes on East Asia in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan, Manchurian, Mongolian, and other languages.

The rich 80-year history of the East Asia Library will be on display beginning December 4, 2017 in the Allen Library North Lobby. I hope to see you there as we celebrate this milestone!

- Lizabeth (Betsy) Wilson

Summer 2017