Central Asia and Siberia
Collections of literature in Eastern, Central and Northern Asian languages and on the culture and history of this region and its peoples can be found primarily in the Central Library, in the Cultural Studies Divisional Library and, for older literature from before 1900,…
The SUB Göttingen houses Germany's largest collection of Korean literature from North and South Korea and China. It also has the largest collection in Mongolian language material with around 10,000 titles and the largest collection of Uyghur literature from Xinjiang and Kazakhstan with over 9,000 titles. Literature in other Altaic languages was also collected in the special subject collection ‘Altaic and Paleo-Asian Languages, Literatures and Cultures’ until 2015 and in the Central Asia and Siberia Specialized Information Service (CASSIB) until 2022.
The collection of Chinese-language literature comprises over 60,000 titles, to which over 15,000 titles in Japanese are added.
The collection of Indian and Hindi prints and manuscripts is significant, but cannot currently be professionally curated at this library. The resource platform Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages (GRETIL) provides standardized machine-readable texts in Indian languages.
Catalogues
In the Göttingen University Catalogue (GUK) you can search by language, place and country of publication, keywords, etc.
In the discovery system GöDiscovery you will find books, journals, databases and a large number of articles from journals - both from the holdings of the SUB Göttingen and the institute libraries as well as from external sources. By default, the local holdings are searched; the search area can be expanded via the settings. Specific searches for literature in certain languages or from certain countries are not possible here.
A search in original script (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Cyrillic) is possible in both catalogues for more recent publications. Due to transcription problems, we recommend searching by ISBN, initially via external search engines and in the GUK for more recent literature.
Complex literature search in the catalog
You can use various options in the catalogue (GUK) to find literature. Use for this purpose the specific search keys. Here are some examples:
- Search for titles on Chinese and Buddhism: lsy knc* and lsy "cbm 100"
- Search with keywords: Several keywords can be entered simultaneously, e. g. Mongolian Shamanism
Another option that is interesting for Oriental and ancient studies is the option to search according to the language (search key for language: spr) of the text.
Search for titles on Mao Zedong that are written in Uyghur: all Mao Zedong and spr uig
Search for Korean-language literature from China: spr \kor and lcd XB-CN
For more complex searches, please contact the subject specialist for detailed instructions.
Arrangement of Books in the Library
Some of the holdings are freely accessible in the reading room of the Cultural Studies Divisional Library. However, a large part is located in closed stacks and can be ordered via GöDiscovery or the GUK.
The literature in the reading room is systematically arranged from the classes ‘JO’ to ‘KNJ’ according to the Göttingen Online Classification (GOK) for languages and PU as the GOK for history and under QM for ethnology. The GOK is not displayed properly on the new webpage.
Book not available?
If you cannot find a title, you can order the book via interlibrary loan or send us a Purchase suggestion for a title.
Databases
Databases can be found in the Database Information System (DBIS), organized by subject. The licensed fee-based databases can also be found in GöDiscovery and in the Göttingen University Catalogue (GUK). The free databases can only be found in DBIS. Data resources of various types are listed, in particular subject bibliographies that list articles, as well as full-text databases that contain articles from electronic journals.
Specialist advice
If you have any questions about subject-specific literature and database research or individual library tutorials, please contact the subject librarian. Further information on the courses and learning opportunities offered by the SUB Göttingen can be found on the Courses and educational offers page.
Contact
Platz der Göttinger Sieben 1
37073 Göttingen