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Unique East Asian library at UC Berkeley to be dedicated today

Collection includes more than 900,000 volumes, including woodblock editions and Buddhist scriptures.
  


The Associated Press

Unique East Asian library at UC Berkeley to be dedicated today

TREASURE TROVE: Project director Teri Mathers points toward carpeting that decorates part of the wall on the 4th floor of the C.V. Starr East Asian Library in Berkeley on Thursday.
TREASURE TROVE: Project director Teri Mathers points toward carpeting that decorates part of the wall on the 4th floor of the C.V. Starr East Asian Library in Berkeley on Thursday.
JEFF CHIU, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BERKELEY - A treasure trove of East Asian scholarship will be moving from storage to center stage with the opening of a new library at the University of California, Berkeley.

The collection includes more than 900,000 volumes - from woodblock editions and Buddhist scriptures to Cultural Revolution-era political posters.

The materials, most of which are from China, Japan and Korea, have been stowed in three separate locations.

But that changes with the new C.V. Starr East Asian Library, which will be formally dedicated Saturday in private ceremonies and is scheduled to open to the public early next year.

"Now we have this wonderful facility which will provide a superb venue for us to protect our treasures and also to provide service to the extended community," Peter Zhou, library director, said Friday.

The four-story, granite and concrete building is decorated on the outside with large bronze screens imported from China. Inside, a cleverly designed skylight reflects and scatters light, creating a soft glow that is pretty, energy efficient and won't damage books.

"You walk into this space and there's this sense of peacefulness," said project director Teri Mathers.

There are humidity controlled rooms and a secure vault for the really rare items and human comforts, too, including wireless Internet access and lots of tables and chairs near windows with sweeping views of campus. "It's a wonderful place to study," said Mathers.

Items to be housed in the new space include a large collection of rubbings of Chinese inscriptions and reliefs, and more than 11,000 volumes of Chinese rare books published before 1795, including more than 30 titles published during the Song and Yuan dynasties (960-1368).

There are Buddhist scriptures, including a medieval manuscript written in silver and gold, as well as more than 2,500 early Japanese woodblock and early copperplate print maps.

The library is named after the late Cornelius Vander Starr, a UC Berkeley undergraduate and insurance entrepreneur with a longtime interest in Asia.

Some of the materials that will be displayed in the new library are available in modern typeset editions, but scholars say that looking at the originals gives an extra layer of understanding, such as seeing textual variations or margin notes.

"There's just nothing like seeing the original," said Deborah Rudolph, the library's editor.


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