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Web Feature

UC Berkeley Web Feature

C.V. Starr East Asian Library: Facts at a glance

16 October 2007

East Asian Library
C.V. Starr East Asian Library (Jonathan Reo photo)

LOCATION

  • North of Memorial Glade and  Doe Library, west of McCone Hall and south of the North Gate entrance, in the "classical core" of campus

SIZE

  • Four floors
  • 68,000 gross square feet

COST

  • Regents'-approved capital improvement budget of $46.4 million

OPEN TO PUBLIC

  • Early 2008

COLLECTIONS

  • With 913,729 volumes, one of the three largest East Asian collections outside of Asia, the largest collection on the West Coast.
  • Outside of China, the world's largest repository of academic materials on contemporary China.
  • The top-ranked Japanese holdings among American university collections.
  • The largest collection of stone rubbings, some with inscriptions dating before the year 1000, among all research libraries outside of Asia.
  • More than 100,000 rare or hard-to-find Japanese, Chinese and Korean imprints, including 2,500 early Japanese woodblock print maps.
  • More than 11,000 volumes of Chinese rare books published before 1795, among them over 30 titles published during the Song and Yuan dynasties (960-1368).
  • The Rare Korean Collection, with 200 manuscripts that are hard to find, even in Korea.
  • Buddhist scriptures with a medieval manuscript written in silver and gold.
  • Tibetan tantric texts that span 10 centuries of composition.
  • A CD-ROM containing the complete histories of 25 Chinese dynasties.
  • 4,405 current periodicals.

DESIGN FEATURES

  • Massive bronze screens, cast in China, on three sides of the building
  • Exterior walls clad in granite slabs from China
  • State-of-the-art multi-media room and an art history seminar room
  • Rare book room and a periodicals reading room
  • Green features include exterior screens to reduce solar heat gain, bamboo flooring, native plant landscaping and electronic lighting sensors

PROJECT TEAM

  • UC Berkeley Capital Projects
  • Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects of New York City
  • Tom Eliot Fisch of San Francisco
  • McCarthy Building Companies Inc. of San Francisco
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