Over 100 members of the Council on East Asian Libraries (CEAL) came to the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries as part of a pre-conference for their annual meeting on March 19. CEAL and the Association of Asian Studies (AAS) attended a series of workshops that primed participants for the days ahead in Denver.
The Libraries’ Special Collections, Archives, and Preservation Reading Room was open for guests to browse treasures from the Asian Studies collection on Tuesday.
Established in 1989, the Asian Studies collection now has over 200,000 volumes and materials.
Lisbon noted that CU Boulder is rich with history regarding Asian and Asian American culture, such as the U.S. Navy Japanese Language School during World War II at the University of Colorado.
Sachiko Iwabuchi is the Okinawa Studies Librarian at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Iwabuchi said she is interested in the University Libraries collection, as the materials extends to her own research.
“CU Libraries and the archives have very rare materials on the Language School,” said Iwabuchi. “I saw only a part [of the collection] in the Special Collections and Archives Open House but those primary sources are very helpful for me to trace back people who were recruited [to the Japanese Language School] and to discover what they wrote, what they saw in Japan just after the war.”
Iwabuchi said she intends to direct students at her university to the digitized materials from the CU Archives. Lisbon said the Libraries collections are important for guests to experience as the population of Asian Americans that live in Colorado is vibrant.
“There are people and their families from East Asia that have been living here for generations and they’re part of the history in Colorado,” said Lisbon. “Having materials from 17th century China and 18th century Japan is just as important as the history of Western Expansion. Colorado is only physically distant from Asia. They are interlinked and interwoven.”
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