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One of twelve UCLA Library locations across campus, the Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Library(opens in a new tab) (EAL) holds more than 800,000 volumes and items related to East Asian language, history, religion and culture. The Library provides an innumerable contribution to East Asian Studies at UCLA and the broader academic community.
To celebrate three-quarters of a century since its founding, here are some things you might not know about this Library.
Visit the East Asian Library!
The East Asian Library (EAL) is located on the second floor of the Charles E. Young Research Library (YRL), and offers some of the quietest study spaces on campus.
Founded by UCLA Professor Richard C. Rudolph in 1948
after he discovered Powell Library had just one book written in Chinese, EAL is now recognized as one of the best libraries
in its field located outside of Asia. The EAL is one of 15 National Resources Centers for East Asian Studies funded by the US International and Foreign Language Education office under their Title VI grant program. It is the only center in Southern California, as of December 2023.
Unique resources offered by the EAL
Language-learning collection in Chinese, Japanese and Korean
One resource is the open-sourced language learning collections in Japanese, Korean and Chinese. These collections are designed to help anyone with a baseline understanding of these languages improve their reading and writing skills.
Manga and Korean Films
The library also has a broad selection of manga and Korean films available in the reading room.
Rare and Authentic East Asian Artifacts
Those interested in history might be excited to discover that some items in the East Asian Library are as old as the 7th century. These scrolls are kept in Library Special Collections, but if you contact an EAL librarian in advance, they would be happy to showcase them.
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For UCLA professors / university students
The Library supports the East Asian Studies (EAS) discipline at UCLA, with the core constituency consisting of 113 ladder faculty and instructors across 17 departments or schools. The largest collaborating institute is UCLA International Institute with six affiliated centers for disciplines including Buddhist Studies, Chinese Studies, Japanese Studies, and Korean Studies. Additionally, over 4,000 students enrolled in the programs led by the Department of Asian Languages & Cultures benefit from EAL’s language learning collections.
The EAL supports undergraduate students enrolled in six major B.A. programs including Asian Languages & Linguistics, Chinese, Japanese, Korean (CJK), Asian Humanities and Asian Religions, as well as two minors including Asian Languages and Asian Humanities. Graduate students enrolled in the Inter-Departmental East Asian Studies M.A. program, Teaching Asian Language M.A. program, as well as M.A. and Ph.D. students in the departments of Anthropology/Archaeology, Art History, Asian Languages & Cultures (ALC), Ethnomusicology, Film Theater & Television, History, Law, Linguistics, Political Science, Sociology, and others, are also frequent users of the Library’s materials and collections.
