AsianDOC Electronic Newsletter 1:2 (June 1998)
Internet Reference Tools for East Asian Studies
Cathy Chiu
East Asian Librarian
University of California, Santa Barbara
The Internet has gradually become a popular reference tool because it provides timely and quick access to information. The answers to reference questions are as close as one's fingertip. And best of all, access to the rich resources on the Internet is relatively easy. East Asian studies librarians can gear up to take full advantage of the Internet reference resources with some insight into the Internet and through systematically building an Internet collection.
Reference tools on the Internet range from online catalogs to full-text databases, from directories to encyclopedias, from simple facts to elaborate statistics. Since anyone can put up a web page, the credibility and authority of Internet resources have researchers worried. Many of them still prefer printed books and journals. In addition, searching for information on the Internet at times is like finding a needle in a hay stack -- too much, too hard. However, as the Internet expands, more and more credible information is freely available. The Internet could become a place for serious research. One political science professor in University of Oregon found one of the two best papers in his class was the result of a research using exclusively Internet resources.
What type of questions are most likely to be answered using the Internet? How to evaluate resources found on the Internet? How to locate information in CJK (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) languages? These questions are the main concerns of many East Asian librarians. This paper will try to answer them as well as to provide a few recommendations of Internet reference tools for East Asian studies.
Not all reference questions can be answered with Internet resources. We need to know what is available on the web to determine what type of questions are good candidates for using the Internet. According to a study, the following subjects have extensive web resources:
After identifying the questions suitable for using the Internet, the next step is to find the answer in an efficient manner. Using the Internet for reference work is very similar to using printed materials. We need to be familiar with their scope, coverage, subject content, etc. Reference librarians who wish to use the Internet for reference work should surf the Internet regularly and build up their own electronic reference shelves by adding useful web sites to their bookmark or reference web page.
Information found on the Internet is usually not refereed as it is with printed books or journals, and therefore, needs more careful scrutiny. In addition to ascertaining the source of information for authority, we can apply the same criteria, such as accuracy, reliability, and coverage, used to evaluate printed materials to Internet resources. Given the fluid nature of the Internet, we should also consider currency, stability, and a good response time.
Although the Internet contains a wealth of information, not many East Asian studies librarians have used the Internet for reference service. I would like to relate some success stories before going on to recommend Internet resources for East Asian studies. These are true stories contributed by our knowledgeable colleagues from various university campuses.
When a China Airline plane took a plunge several thousand miles away, it resulted in the loss of close to two hundred lives earlier this year. People who had access to the Internet were able to follow the story as it unfolded, and even got a complete list of passengers' names in a few hours by reading the online Chinese newspaper.
One Engineer professor was looking for the address and phone number of a manufacturer for a type of lab equipment. After trying traditional reference works to no avail, the librarian went to an Internet search engine and typed in the name of the equipment. Not only did they find the contact information, but a picture of the product with all the specifications and the price.
There are more success stories in locating people using Internet than one can imagine. One East Asian studies professor received a big grant to conduct an international project. He wanted to find a scholar in Hong Kong to coordinate the project. After reviewing a few Hong Kong universities department web sites, he identified the most qualified scholar as well as the contact information.
Can you imagine one day you receive an e-mail from your high school sweet heart whom you have not seen for over thirty years? He or she got hold of your e-mail address by typing your name into one of the Internet search engine. This was exactly what happened to one of our colleagues.
Following are a list of Internet reference tools for East Asian studies, which I have carefully reviewed, frequently used to help patrons, and found valuable:
This dictionary includes more than 22,000 notable men and women who have shaped our world from ancient times to the present day.
It is searchable by name or key word. Each entry has a brief biography and a link to books about or by the person. All books can be purchased online through Barns & Noble. It is useful for both collection development and reference purposes.
This web-based etymological dictionary for learning Chinese characters has more than 4,000 characters. Each character is clickable. A click of any character will bring up the full information page for that character. This unusual dictionary uses traditional etymologies and a unique series of charts based on them to show the close relationships between Chinese characters.
This is one of my favorite online dictionaries. Although it is primarily created to show the relationship between Chinese characters, I frequently use it as a Chinese-English dictionary because it gives a complete list of terms under each character and very clear English translation. This dictionary also has an English-Chinese index and in a way can work as an English-Chinese dictionary as well. For some characters it provides the pronunciation in CJK languages and is extremely useful for East Asian studies catalogers. The response time is great. It is fast and has good linking structure with many links to other dictionaries.
This online index has been improved over the last two years. It contains the latest five-year article entries of approximately 2000 titles of Chinese and Western languages scholarly journals published in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.
This is a well-built database with comprehensive coverage and user-friendly search structures. It is a worthwhile reference tool to keep in mind, although the response time is quite slow at times.
This is the Japanese National Union Catalog for both books and journals, boasting 4.2 million bibliographic data and 27.3 million holding data. It is searchable by both English and Japanese and is free of charge.
One Japanese studies professor conducted a research project on the history of Sony Corporation. Inputting "Sony" as key word in the search screen retrieved 38 titles in various languages, including Slavic, French, English, and Japanese.
This tool enables one to find out what other libraries have, including books that are on order or very old with no record in RLIN or OCLC. It can also be used to find publications that are available in China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, or other countries, prior to arriving in the U.S.
On appearance, these seem to be quite trivial tools. In practice, they are quite handy for ready-reference work. Following are some of the most frequently used converters:
Calendar converter: converts dates and years from Western to Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and vice versa; or from solar to lunar and vice versa.
Currency converter: converts currency between any two countries
Time zone converter: Converts time and date between any two time zones in the world
Romanization converter: WideGile <--> Pinyin <--> Zhuyin
Several Internet search engines nowadays have developed CJK capabilities. Following are some of the popular CJK search engines:
Chinese:
Japanese:
Korean:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 can display CJK characters without having to install additional software such as Twinbridge or UnionWay. It can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/ie/download/. In order to read CJK, international fonts are required. They are available at the same address under "Internet Explorer 4.0 Add-ons".
Joy Kim, Korean Librarian at University of Southern California, compiled a comprehensive list of "Korean studies resources on the World Wide Web", available at http://www.library.ucsb.edu/chiu/korean.html. This list will serve as a valuable guide for finding Internet reference tools in Korean.
In conclusion, the Internet is a valuable resource for reference services. The possibilities are endless regardless of its problems about credibility and authority. Many colleagues have succeeded in using Internet resources to help researchers and students. As information specialists, we have the privilege to explore the Internet and develop a collection of reference tools by using traditional evaluation criteria plus considerations specific to electronic format. We need to be familiar with the Internet reference tools to help our patrons find information effectively. By frequently surfing the Internet and linking useful web sites to our bookmark or reference page, we can build an up-to-date working electronic shelf. Internet resources are increasing in both number and substance. Keeping up with new tools and the frequent change of WWW addresses is a constant challenge. Fortunately, well-developed search engines and reference guides have made our tasks more manageable.
Bibliography
Dickstein, Ruth, et al. "Using the World Wide Web at the reference desk." Computers in Libraries 17, 8 (Sept, 1997): 61-65.
Rosen, Jeff and Carl E. Snow. "Internet resources for ready reference." C&RL NewsNet 57, 12, January 1997.
<http://www.ala.org/acrl/resjan97.html> (9 February, 1998).
Saunders, Laverna. "A conversation with an Internet librarian." Computers in Libraries 17, 4 (April, 1997): 50-52.
Stover, Mark. "Library Web sites: mission and function in the networked organization." Computers in Libraries 17, 10 (Nov.-Dec., 1997): 55-57.
URL http://asiandoc.lib.ohio-state.edu/v1n2/rev/IntRefTools.html
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