New E-Resources in the Japanese Studies Collection

The University of Illinois Library holds one of the largest and most referenced Japanese Studies collections in North America. Recently, our collection has grown even larger with the inclusion of many online academic resources from Japan or in the Japanese language. These valuable additions were made possible through several cross-institutional digital repositories. With the rapid growth of digitized and web-published materials, academic institutions worldwide are now collaborating to build digital libraries and share data. This collaboration enables libraries to increase accessibility to electronic resources more efficiently. Here are some noteworthy additions to our collection.

The ERDB-JP Project

The ERDB-JP project, established by the Council for Promoting Collaboration between University Libraries and the National Institute of Informatics, has included 211 partner institutions across Japan to date. The digital resources shared by partner institutions mainly consist of e-journals and e-books in the Japanese language or published by entities based in Japan. Currently, all the data registered in ERDB-JP are open to the public under the CC0 1.0 Universal license. This license allows users in Japan and abroad to search, browse, and download materials.

As of October 2023, the open knowledge base has over 44,000 registered titles, and the number continues to increase significantly. In addition to searching for resources on the ERDB-JP website, UIUC users can also access e-books and e-journals through the University Library’s online catalog. Many titles from ERDB-JP are now searchable in our catalog and can be accessed in full text by clicking on “Freely Accessible Japanese Titles.”

HathiTrust

HathiTrust is a collaborative digital library that brings together an extensive collection of books, journals, and other materials from over seventy libraries and research institutions worldwide. It plays a vital role in facilitating research, education, and providing equitable access to knowledge, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. As a partner institution of HathiTrust, the University of Illinois Library has integrated titles from HathiTrust into our online catalog, allowing affiliated users to download full texts of resources in the Public Domain or with a Creative Commons license.

Keio University, as the sole participant from Japan, has made a valuable contribution to Japanese e-resources to the digital library. These titles, along with materials from other partner institutions, have significantly expanded UIUC’s digital Japanese collection.

In addition to accessing e-books and e-journals in Japanese through the University Library’s catalog, we also recommend users explore the shared collections within the HathiTrust corpus to find more resources related to their research interests. HathiTrust allows users to organize, save, and share titles from its repertoire. To do this, UIUC users can click on the “Log in” button at the top right and select our institution. After logging in, you can access all Shared Collections by selecting “My Collections” from the top-right drop-down menu. Various Japan-related collections have already been created, including “Newspaper articles about Japanese Americans during and after WW2,” “Japanese Literature,” “The Spirit of Missions,” “Azuchi-Momoyama,” “Books in English on Japan, 1815-1945,” and more.

If you want to explore more useful functions of HathiTrust, the UIUC HathiTrust LibGuide will provide the best reference for you.

KinoDen

KinoDen, short for Kinokuniya Shoten gakujutsu denshi toshoka (“Kinokuniya digital library”), is an e-book service that provides access to academic Japanese books. A direct link can be found by searching “KinoDen” in the University Library’s catalog. By clicking “view full text,” users will be redirected to KinoDen’s main page where they can search for books using the toolbar.

The University Library has purchased part of KinoDen’s collection, which can be viewed in full text. For titles that are not available for UIUC users (labeled as 未所蔵), we can still access the bibliographic metadata and free samples. In addition to using the KinoDen database, users can also find purchased titles in the University Library’s catalog.

More detailed instruction on how to use KinoDen is now available in the LibGuide Using KinoDen, created by the International and Area Studies Library.

Japan Knowledge Lib

JapanKnowledge Lib is a diverse digital collection of encyclopedias, dictionaries, journals, and reference works. These resources are now searchable and accessible in full text through the University Library’s catalog. UIUC users also have the option to log in to the JapanKnowledge website to cross-search contents in the database.

Have more questions about how to use JapanKnowledge? The International and Area Studies Library has published the How to Use JapanKnowledge+ LibGuide, which provides instructions for searching and a comprehensive content list!

Meiji Japan: The Edward Sylvester Morse Collection from the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum

Last but not least, the library has an expanding collection of Japanese e-archives. Here, we would like to highlight “Meiji Japan,” a collection that encompasses Edward Sylvester Morse’s contributions to zoology, ethnology, archaeology, and Japanese art, as well as detailed records of daily life in late 19th-century Japan.

A screenshot of the Meiji Japan database

Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925) was an established scholar in natural history and Japanology. In the 1870s and 80s, he made multiple visits to Japan and extensively documented the lives of the Japanese people. His work captured a crucial period in Japanese history, just before Western civilization brought significant changes to the country. In 1926, 99 boxes of his personal and professional papers were donated to the Peabody Essex Museum and have since become one of North America’s most notable archives in Japanese studies.

In recent years, the Peabody Essex Museum has digitized Morse’s papers and created the online database “Meiji Japan: The Edward Sylvester Morse Collection from the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum.” UIUC Users can access the database through the University Library’s website and search for individual items in the library catalog.

Share this post:
Facebook Twitter Tumblr

Surveying the Coming Storm:Works on Nationalism Prior to WWII

word cloud created from the text of the Nationalism collection

““We are like storm-tossed passengers in a sinking ship, groping about aimlessly, knocking up against each other, without a clear perception of the situation and without plan of action.” 
Political myths and economic realities by Francis Delaisi (1927)

With the benefit of hindsight, modern scholars can identify unbridled nationalism as a leading cause of World War II. However, it is crucial to explore whether scholars of the time foresaw the impending storm caused by nationalist movements in the first half of the 20th century and if they could have predicted the grave, mass-scale atrocities that unfolded. To shed light on the perspectives of scholars from a century ago, the IAS library has curated a Hathi Trust collection titled “Surveying the Coming Storm: Works on Nationalism Prior to WWII.” This collection aims to provide texts available at the time, enabling modern researchers to delve into the theories and conclusions formulated by scholars a hundred years ago regarding the waves of nationalist movements that swept across the globe.

Nationalism in The Interwar Period 

The interwar period serves as a particularly significant juncture for the study of nationalism. Following the First World War, the collapse of several empires left a power vacuum in various parts of the world. In the process of reconstructing and defining new states, a movement emerged to establish nations based on national identities1. The underlying belief at this time was that a state founded on a national identity would best safeguard the interests and rights of the respective national group. While national identities and nation-states existed before and after this period, these nationalist movements differed from their predecessors, such as the American and French national movements, as they aimed to create a state centered around a specific nationality rather than a nation formed by people belonging to a state2. This branch of Nationalism places a great deal of importance on defining a national identity based on ethnic, linguistic, religious affiliations or other social constructs.

This method of Nationalism brought to the forefront the complex issues surrounding human rights and Nationalism. The endeavor to categorize nationalities into fixed identities inevitably marginalized certain groups, leaving them without a place or protection within the new nation-state. These marginalized groups were perceived as a constant threat to the nation-state because their mere existence challenged the Nationalist ideals upon which the new nation-states were built, often resulting in the forced expulsion of perceived minorities. Widespread population transfers became a characteristic of this system, where people faced pressure or were forcibly displaced from their homes to their purported nation-state, regardless of whether they or their ancestors had ever resided in that territory. An example of this can be seen in the case of Greeks who were forcibly uprooted from their homes in Turkey and relocated to Greece during and after World War I3. Moreover, those who lacked a formal nation-state aligned with their national identity suffered even worse fates. The targeting of Jewish communities, who did not possess a nation-state of their own, during the Second World War exemplifies the dire consequences of Nationalist violence for minorities in states dominated by Nationalist ideals4. The texts included in this collection reveal that scholars of the 1920’s-30’s were aware that the surge of Nationalism worldwide could and would lead to violence, but others focused on the promises of these movements.

As shown by the texts in this collection, not everyone was a devotee of Nationalism. Sydney Herbert wrote in his 1920 publication Nationality and Its Problems that “It needs no long argument to prove the dangers which must arise when a state … is in the hands of men with nationalist aims”.  Many scholars preferred more cosmopolitan ideas, such as Internationalism, a movement that encourages the international cooperation of states and nations.  While the Internationalists ultimately failed to block the Nationalist movements that took over Europe, they did make significant contributions to international politics. The League of Nations, for example, followed the Internationalist ideals of greater global connections, even though it was severely limited by Isolationist and Nationalist movements. These contrasting movements are discussed at length in this collection and provide interesting fodder for further understanding of the scholars’ viewpoints on the movements. 

Why bibliographies?

When examining scholarly works from the past, bibliographies serve as invaluable tools. A bibliography is a curated collection of citations centered around a specific topic. The most useful bibliographies are compiled by experts in the field, ensuring that the listed works are highly relevant to the study at hand. In the pre-internet era, bibliographies were particularly crucial for anyone seeking to delve into a particular subject since they provided a consolidated resource of books and articles on a given topic. Even in the digital age, bibliographies remain invaluable as they are carefully curated, emphasizing scholarly value over generic search engine results.

Some bibliographies also offer annotations, providing the editor’s summaries or thoughts on the listed works. These annotations further assist in assessing the value of each work. For instance, Koppel Pinson, the editor of one of the bibliographies used for this project, offers insights into foundational works, comprehensive summaries of the field, and works that are comparatively weaker. Although these annotations cannot be directly added to the Hathi Trust collection items, they can be found in the original bibliographies.

For this project, two bibliographies were instrumental in identifying contemporary texts on nationalism. Florence S. Hellman of The Library of Congress published a bibliography in 1934 titled “Nationalism: a selected list of writings since 1918, with a section on economic nationalism,” which proved to be an invaluable resource. The second bibliography used was Koppel Pinson’s 1935 work “A bibliographical introduction to nationalism, with a foreword by Carlton J.H. Hayes.” Pinson’s bibliography offered a more comprehensive range of resources, wider language coverage, and extensive annotations compared to the Library of Congress bibliography. Despite their differences, both bibliographies featured considerable overlap in terms of coverage. It is worth noting that these bibliographies are American publications, which may introduce a bias in the listed resources—a factor that researchers utilizing the collection should bear in mind. For example, neither bibliography includes the writing of Rosa Luxemburg, a revolutionary socialist and Marxist philosopher, who wrote extensively on the issue of nations and Nationalism in this time.

About this collection

The two bibliographies collectively listed over six hundred unique resources, spanning five languages and originating from various countries. Within the Hathi Trust collection, 379 titles are available, with 264 of the titles available for full text viewing. The remaining 115 titles are in the “Limited Search Only” capacity due to copyright restrictions, but researchers can still conduct text searches within these items to determine their relevance. It is important to mention that certain resources listed in the bibliographies, such as articles from periodicals or specific sections of textbooks or encyclopedias, were not included in this collection. The inability to add specific sections of a publication to the collection and the potential negative impact on text analysis projects influenced this decision. However, researchers specifically seeking articles will find a significant collection of articles in the Library of Congress bibliography.

Potential for the Collection

Apart from its research potential, this project has highlighted the need to digitize and add certain resources to Hathi Trust. Several works considered important by the bibliographies’ authors are not yet available in full text or limited search on Hathi Trust, such as Bernard Joseph’s Nationality: Its Nature and Problems and Conrad Gill’s National Power and Prosperity, a Study of the Economic Causes of Modern Warfare. Identifying historically significant books in the field of nationalism that have not yet been widely digitized is an essential step in their preservation.


Furthermore, the collection has room for expansion. Both bibliographies used as the basis for this collection are American publications from a specific time period, suggesting the existence of additional works significant to the study of nationalism that were not included due to their time and place of publication. Discovering more bibliographies to incorporate into the collection would be a valuable endeavor.


In addition to conveniently gathering historically important resources for reading, this collection holds immense potential for text analysis. The Hathi Trust Research Center Analytics provides essential tools for applying analytical algorithms to the Hathi Trust digital library. Researchers embarking on such analyses typically begin by creating a collection of texts to analyze, a step this collection already fulfills. For more information on how to use the Hathi Trust Research Center Analytics, please refer to their “Getting Started” page and “HTRC Workset Tutorials”.


The “Surveying the Coming Storm: Works on Nationalism Prior to WWII” collection offers an invaluable resource for exploring the perspectives of scholars from a century ago and understanding their theories and conclusions about the nationalist movements that shaped the world. By providing access to the texts available at the time, this collection enables researchers to delve into the complexities of nationalism in the interwar period and its far-reaching consequences. Moreover, the collection’s potential for expansion and its compatibility with text analysis tools further enhance its value as a tool for comprehensive research and examination of this significant historical topic.

References

  1. Zimmer, O. (2013). Nationalism in Europe, 1918–45. In J. Breuilly (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism. Oxford University Press.
  2. Grant, S. (2006). A nation before nationalism: The civic and ethnic construction of America. SAGE Publications Ltd.
  3. Roshwald, A. (2013). Nationalism in the Middle East, 1876–1945. In J. Breuilly (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism. Oxford University Press.
  4. Smith, A. (2006). Ethnicity and nationalism. SAGE Publications Ltd,
Share this post:
Facebook Twitter Tumblr

New and Noteworthy Books on Globalization

The International and Area Studies Library is always working on expanding its collections and keeping students in touch with the most important and influential works in the field of Global Studies.  New books can be found in the IAS Library on the third floor of the Main Library, so feel free to stop by and browse our newest additions! Here are some highlights of our newest titles, handpicked by Global Studies librarian, Steven Witt. The global studies collections, aim to support interdisciplinary teaching and research on globalization and the resolution of what are commonly called global grand challenges. The collections are supported by a a US Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center grant to the Center for Global Studies at the University of Illinois. 

This handbook focuses on the global realities of moving out of our current ‘interregnum’ – or a period of uncertainty where the old hegemony is fading and the new ones have not yet been fully realized. The theories of transition, current examples of transformation in the fields of socio-politics, socio-ecology and socio-economics, and hypotheses of the future past this transition are covered in the selected articles from a diverse cohort of researchers. These researchers tackle the seemingly ingrained systems of capitalism, colonialism, neoliberalism, patriarchy, war and violence that have marked our current realities and explore what the foundations of a post-capitalist, feminist, decolonial and unoppressive world would look like. Specific topics of education, development, worker’s rights, migration, austerity, climate change etc. are explored within the framework of transition and globalization

The Dark Side of Globalisation

Talani, Leila Simona, and Roberto Roccu. 2019. The Dark Side of Globalisation. International Political Economy Series. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

Globalization is often lauded as a mark of the progressive nature of the world, with more globalization equating to better societies. But beneath its shiny veneer, the behemoth Globalization leaves a dark shadow on the globe. With technology, not humans, in the driver seat, Globalization fails at meeting the hopes of equalizing the world, and instead intensifies the existing divides and issues of communities around the world. This volume looks specifically at the dark side of globalization from the economic viewpoint with close examinations into food markets, production, migration, organized crime, austerity, and conflict.

Contemporary Issues on Globalization and Sustainable Development

Sengupta, Partha Pratim. 2018. Contemporary Issues on Globalization and Sustainable Development. New Delhi, India: Serials Publications Pvt. Ltd.

How much more can our globalized world grow in the face of our fixed ecological budget? The “sustainable” aspect of development is far too often ignored due to beliefs that advancements in technology, socio-economics, politics, and other fields will compensate for the deficits in the ecological budget. This two volume publication moves this deficit into the forefront and highlights scholarship that takes an informative stance on the issue of sustainable development. Specific topics include Informal inequality Measures, financial deregulation, taxation, debt, food expenditure, intellectual property, growth unemployment nexus, and woman empowerment.  

.

These books and thousands more are available to you! Stop by the International and Area Studies Library today to find all the resources you need to add a global perspective to your research.

Share this post:
Facebook Twitter Tumblr

Comics to Thrill, Chill, and Scare You!

By Jason Larsen

Covers of comics mentioned in this blog post

The University Library comic collection offers an impressive array of comics between the holdings in the Main Stacks as well as those available in the ComicsPlus application! To celebrate the arrival of Fall, and the creeping approach of Halloween, we wanted to share some comic recommendations that we thought might offer up skin-crawling goose bumps, bone-chilling thrills, or dare we say… mind-numbing fear?!

6 Comics Available on the Shelf

BTTM FDRS (Ezra Clayton Daniels and Ben Passmore)

An aspiring fashion designer and her vain friend move to a warehouse in a blighted Chicago neighborhood because the rent is so cheap. They soon find there is something dark and dangerous in the walls of their new home. Using the backdrops of gentrification and urban blight this book is an Afrofuturist-centered tale of horror and cultural appropriation.

The Crossroads at Midnight (Abby Howard)

 An anthology of five stories that each explore what happens when the lonely are willing (or desperate) enough to seek out connections with the things that go bump in the night. Will these creatures be the comfort or true friends they are seeking? Or are they pretending to be a friend to those lonely souls while waiting for the perfect moment to reveal their true natures?

Friend of the Devil: A Reckless Book (Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips)

In the mid-1980s a former 60s radical, who happened to be a federal agent, has a career as a privately contracted problem solver. When a friend asks him to help find her missing sister, he finds himself thrown deep into the dark underbelly of Hollywood’s 70s occult movement. Will he find the truth behind the missing women or are some things best left buried?

Cover of Friend of the Devil comic

I Breathed a Body (Zac Thompson and Andy MacDonald)

A book that takes social media and influencer culture and mashes it up with body and science fiction horror! The story centers on the world’s largest influencer committing a horrific act online and follows what his social media manager is willing to do to make it a viral sensation… what could possibly go wrong?

Something is Killing the Children (James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’Edera)

In a small middle American town, local children are going missing in a disturbing number yet the town seems largely unmoved by these events. The children who do make it home tell tales of monstrous creatures in the shadows around the town. All hope seems lost until a mysterious woman arrives whose mission is simple, kill all the monsters no matter what the cost.

Stray Dogs (Tony Fleecs and Trish Forstner)

Find out what happens when Silence of the Lambs meets the artistic style of All Dogs Go to Heaven. Sophie awakens to find herself in a strange place with fragmented memories of something horrific. As she starts to figure out where she is and what happened, she also realizes she must find a way to survive. Oh, did we forget to mention that Sophie is a dog?

6 Comics Available in ComicsPlus

Abbott (Saladin Ahmed and Sami Kivelä)

Meet Elena Abbott. She is the toughest tabloid reporter in the city and is recovering from a deep loss. She is on a mission to investigate a series of gruesome crimes the police are ignoring. Not only does she plan to expose the crimes, but also to destroy the dark forces behind them in search for the truth.

Ghost Tree (Bobby Curnow and Simon Gane)

The story of a man seeking shelter from the storms of life in his ancestral home. He discovers a tree on the property that seems to draw in the souls of the dead. Can he find some solace for his troubles by helping the souls of the tree resolve their own traumatic pasts? Or will he find that the unliving can be just as cold as those who remain behind?

Cover of Ghost Tree Comic

Murder Book: A Graphic Memoir of a True Crime Obsession (Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell)

New Yorker cartoonist Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell explores why as a society we are so into enjoying true crime stories. In this memoir, she explores several facets of the genre like armchair sleuthing and high-profile murders cases. And while she does focus on the thrilling aspects, she also takes time to examine the cultural criticism of the genre and the most often forgotten part of these stories, the victims and their families.

The Neil Gaiman Library Volume 1 (Neil Gaiman and Various)

While many readers may be familiar with Neil Gaiman’s seminal comic work The Sandman, many may not know of his other horror/thriller works that he has created outside of his prose novels. This library edition collects four of these smaller graphic novel works into one collection. This volume contains stories ranging from Sherlock Holmes imagined in Lovecraftian terms to an unheard-of murder in heaven and the consequences it brings.

Trese Vol #1: Murder on Balete Drive (Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo)

The debut series from Filipino comic creators Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo focuses on the creatures in the dark and other things that go bump in the night in Manila’s streets. When crimes involving these occur, the police turn to Alexandra Trese for help. Follow Alexandra as she battles these and other terrors of the night in the quest for justice.

Your Turn to Die: Majority Vote Death Game, Vol. 1 (Nankidai and Tatsuya Ikegami)

Life ling friends Sara and Joe are kidnapped and awaken locked to strange tables. As this nightmare world unfolds it becomes clear death is coming. Sara has always known Joe to be selfless and would be willing to take a bullet for her. However, as the disturbing game unfolds, it becomes clear that Joe has the means to save only one of them. Is their wit, trust, and friendship strong enough to save them both?

Cover of Your Turn to Die

6 Comics of Honorable Mention

The below comics, while amazing, just didn’t quite make the…cut. Check them out if you dare!

While the above are our favorite picks, there are many more to choose from between both the catalog and the ComicsPlus application. Some wonderful features about the ComicsPlus Application are it can be viewed on any computer or mobile device and the content is free to all university faculty, staff, and students. We encourage you to not only try out our picks but to explore and find your next new favorite comic.

If you are unfamiliar with the ComicsPlus application, the service provides our students, staff, and patrons with access to over 20,000 comics from 86 different publishers in a digital format. Check out the video links below as they provide additional details on the application.

Welcome to ComicsPlus

How to Locate and Access ComicsPlus

Share this post:
Facebook Twitter Tumblr

The Trauma of War and Displacement in the Poetry of John Guzlowski

By Marek Sroka

One of the most interesting examples of traumatic experiences of war and displacement are the poems of John Guzlowski, “arguably the most accomplished Polish-American poet on the contemporary scene.”[1]  Guzlowski, who was born in a displaced persons’ camp in Vienenburg, Germany, after World War II, came with his parents and sister to the United States as “DPs” (“displaced persons,’ the term Guzlowski uses to describe their status) in 1951.  Inspired by the wartime experiences of his parents, the author has been writing poems about his parents’ lives addressing the tragedy of war, the trauma of displacement, and the anguish of immigration.  Moreover, the topics he highlights in his poetry did not disappear after World War II.  Instead, new conflicts erupted that resulted in massive displacement of populations in various parts of the world, including present war in Ukraine.                                                                                                                    In one of his most powerful poems, “Landscape with Dead Horses, 1939,” Guzlowski introduces audiences to the Polish experience of Nazi Germany invasion of Poland in 1939 and confronts them with tragedy of all wars.  Here is the opening verse:

War comes down like a hammer, heavy and hard

flattening the earth and killing the soft things:

horses and children, flowers and hope, love

and the smell of the farmers’ earth, the coolness

of the creek, the look of trees as they unfurl

their leaves in late March and early April

(from Echoes of Tattered Tongues)[2]

Another poem worth mentioning is “Cattle Train to Magdeburg,” in which Guzlowski recreates the experience of his mother’s deportation to Nazi Germany where she would work as a slave laborer.  The poem deals with the universal and often lifelong trauma of displacement caused by wars.  Here is a fragment:

My mother still remembers

The long train to Magdeburg

the box cars

bleached gray

by Baltic winters

 

The long twilight journey

to Magdeburg-

four days that became six years

six years that became sixty

 

And always a train of box cars

bleached to Baltic gray

(from Lightning and Ashes)[3]  

Guzlowski’s poems are emotionally powerful and are anchored in his parents experience as forced laborers and country-less refugees.  Yet, his poetry has universal relevance giving voice to countless refugees displaced and traumatized by wars in the past and current centuries.

Cover of John Guzlowski’s book of poetry “Echoes of Tattered Tongues” (2016)

[1] Thomas Napierkowski, “Lightning and Ashes: The Poetry of John Guzlowski,” Polish American Studies, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 86-93.

[2] John Z. Guzlowski, Echoes of Tattered Tongues (Los Angeles, California: Aquila Polonica Publishing, 2016).

[3] John Z. Guzlowski, Lightning and Ashes (Bowling Green, Kentucky: Steel Toe Books, 2007).

 

 

 

Share this post:

Facebook Twitter Tumblr