School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics

1. The School

The Faculty of Arts is one of the largest in the university, in terms of student numbers, and was one of the foundation faculties of Monash University. It offers courses on the Berwick, Caulfield, Clayton and Gippsland campuses in Australia and at the Monash Malaysia and South Africa campuses. The faculty has an enrolment of over 7,400 students, of whom nearly 1,200 are postgraduate. There are 287 academic staff in the faculty. Most honours courses and graduate courses are offered on the Clayton campus.

The faculty is structured as eight academic schools, many of which have several departments. The schools are as follows: School of English, Communications and Performance Studies, School of Geography and Environmental Science, School of Historical studies, School of Humanities, Communications and Social Sciences, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, School of Music-Conservatorium, School of Philosophy and Bioethics and School of Political and Social Inquiry.

Some schools incorporate interdisciplinary centres as follows: Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, National Centre for Australian Studies, Centre for Biography and Life Writing, Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, Centre for European Studies, Centre for Human Bioethics, Centre for Japanese Language Education, Australian Centre for the Study of Jewish Civilisation,  Research Centre for New Media in Language Learning, Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology, Centre for Women's Studies and Gender Research and Centre for Research on Work and Society in the Global Era.

The School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics teaches major sequences in four languages – Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian and Korean. It also offers major sequences in Chinese studies, Japanese studies and Indonesian studies, as well as in-country programs over the summer break.

The School is made up of four departments – Chinese Studies, Indonesian Studies, Korean Studies and Japanese Studies. The School has a student load of 425 EFTSU, of which approximately 66 is postgraduate. There are 27 teaching staff in the school.

Chinese Studies : The Chinese program offers six Chinese language streams on the Clayton campus and three language streams in business Chinese on the Peninsula campus. Honours studies are available in Chinese, and honours and postgraduate courses in Chinese Studies. Areas of research supervision include Chinese politics and economics (with an emphasis on contemporary mainland China and Taiwan), traditional and modern Chinese literature, mainland and diasporic cultural issues, Chinese philosophy and intellectual history, contemporary Chinese intellectuality, Chinese linguistics (with an emphasis on cognitive and language teaching issues) and post-Mao Chinese society.

Indonesian Studies : The Indonesian program offers three streams in Indonesian language, with a major study available in Indonesian on the Clayton and Gippsland campuses, and beginning and intermediate Indonesian available at the Peninsula campus. The programs on the Gippsland and Peninsula campuses are offered by the School of Humanities, Communications and Social Sciences. Honours studies are available in Indonesian, and honours and postgraduate courses in Indonesian Studies. Areas of research supervision include classical Malay, old and middle Javanese literature, Javanese theatre and culture, Southeast Asian cultural history and linguistics.

Japanese Studies : The Japanese program offers three streams in Japanese language on the Clayton campus, a three-year sequence on the Peninsula campus, and a two-year sequence on the Berwick campus. Honours studies are available in Japanese, and honours and postgraduate courses in Japanese Studies. Areas of postgraduate supervision include applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, Japanese society and culture, Japanese management and industrial relations, political economy, international relations, law, intellectual history, media studies, popular culture, women's studies, tourism, interpreting, performing arts, gender studies, and translation studies.

Korean Studies : The Korean program offers two streams in Korean language, with a major study in Korean available at the Clayton and Berwick campuses. A minor study only is available in Korean Studies. Honours studies are available in Korean and postgraduate studies in Korean Studies are available in areas including Korean linguistics and applied Korean linguistics.

The Monash Asia Institute was founded as the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies and reconstituted as the Monash Asia Institute in 1992. It consists of six centres – East Asian Studies, Development Studies, Japanese Studies, Malaysian Studies, South Asian Studies and South East Asian Studies. The Institute studies Asian countries, cultures and languages and offers multi-disciplinary postgraduate programs in Asian Studies and Development Studies in partnership with the Faculty of Arts and other Monash faculties.

2. General policy statement

The Collection Development Policy covers printed books and journals, electronic resources, multimedia and any other formats acquired for the Library's collection.

The Policy is regularly monitored to ensure that the selection and acquisition of new resources supports the teaching and research needs of the faculties and their departments. While every effort is made to meet known information needs some gaps in the collection may develop which need attention, and suggestions to address them are welcome. This may be done through liaison with library staff or, for individual titles, using the recommendation form at lib.monash.edu.au/forms/acquisition-request.doc

To ensure that the library provides collection materials to support new courses and subjects, completion of a Library Impact Statement lib.monash.edu.au/forms/impact.doc is required. When establishing new research directions staff are encouraged to liaise with the library about the provision of supporting information resources.

All titles listed as prescribed or recommended reading for teaching subjects are acquired as high priority and in multiple copies depending on student enrolment numbers. This is particularly necessary for undergraduate students, who need access to adequate resources on their home campus. Electronic versions of these texts are also provided where possible, so that access is more readily available regardless of location and number of copies held. The inter-campus loan and photocopy services for undergraduates further support the needs of those students.

However, the library cannot acquire every item that could conceivably be needed by Monash staff or students. The reciprocal borrowing scheme enables Monash library users to borrow from other university libraries. Post-graduates and staff may also use the document delivery service to obtain books and articles from other libraries in Australia and overseas.

3. The Library's collection

a. Location

Books, journals and newspapers purchased to support Asian languages and studies, in an Asian language, are located in the Asian Studies Research Library, part of the Information Services Building on the Clayton campus. Material in other languages is classified and shelved in the appropriate area elsewhere in the Matheson library. Audiovisual material in all languages is kept in the Music and Multimedia Library.

Material to support Chinese, Indonesian and Japanese language teaching is also available on the Peninsula campus; material to support Indonesian language teaching is available on the Gippsland campus; and material to support Japanese and Korean language teaching is available on the Berwick campus.

Many other departments, both within the Faculty of Arts (such as Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, Visual Culture and Anthropology) and from other faculties such as Business and Economics, purchase material related to Asian Studies. This material, if not in an Asian language, is located with the subject to which it refers, eg in the visual arts, performing arts, economics or sociology sections of the library, and is housed in the libraries on all campuses. The Faculty of Art and Design acquires significant material of relevance to Asian culture in the area of the fine arts. This material is located on the Caulfield and Gippsland campuses.

The departments of History and Politics both purchase significant amounts of material related to Asian history and its context and this is mostly located in the Matheson Library on the Clayton campus, with a smaller collection in the Gippsland and Caulfield libraries.

There is also significant material located in the Rare Books collection and the microform collection, including material relevant to Burmese studies, Vietnamese studies and Mekong subregion studies.

b. Language

The Asian Studies Research Library collects material in many Asian languages, especially Chinese, Indonesian, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Malaysian and Vietnamese. Material in other languages is also acquired, but is housed in the appropriate branch for the subject matter.

c. Classification and romanisation used

The Library's collections relevant to the School of Asian Languages and Studies are classified using the Dewey Decimal Classification. On the Clayton campus, all literature by a particular writer is classified at a single call number representing that writer and his works; however on the other campuses, literature is classified by the form ie drama, poetry, fiction, rather than by author.

The Library's collections acquired in the Chinese language are catalogued using the Pinyin romanisation system, although the Wade-Giles system of romanisation was used until 1996.

The library's collections acquired in the Korean language are catalogued using the McCune-Reischauer romanisation system.

The Japanese collection is catalogued using the modified Hepburn Romanisation system.

d. Formats.

The Asian studies collection includes monographs, serials, newspapers, pamphlets, microform, films, videos and sound recordings.

The Chinese language collection includes microforms, language kits, videos, films and posters. There is a large collection of major English language serials and a collection of 280 Chinese language serials, of which 40 are ongoing and current subscriptions.

A great deal of the Indonesian collection is held on microform, including more than 1000 newspaper and journal titles. Material on CD and video is also collected. There is also a large collection of major English language serials.

The Japanese studies collection includes microform, newspapers and historical materials, and a number of videorecordings. There is a large variety of nonbook items in the collection of the Resource Centre of the Melbourne Centre for Japanese Language Education.

The Korean Studies collection includes microforms, language kits, videos, films, and a large collection of CD's and CD-ROM's.

e. Size of the collection.

Estimated number of vernacular monograph titles purchased per annum :

• Chinese - 500;
• Indonesian - 500;
• Japanese - 700;
• Korean - 300.

Estimated current size of the vernacular monograph collection : 40,000 vols.

Number of print serial titles received :

• 40 for Chinese Studies,
• 135 for Japanese Studies,
• 54 for Indonesian Studies,
• 7 for Korean Studies, and
• 10 general interest titles.

Most of the Chinese studies collection comprises titles published in the postwar twentieth century although there are microforms of earlier materials, and some retrospective acquisition has taken place, often in reprint.

The library has a growing collection of contemporary films from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong to complement both language and culture courses.

f. Significant electronic resources

The Library is purchasing increased numbers of resources in electronic format, including networked or internet databases, fulltext resources, including suites of electronic journals, and CD-ROM databases that are only accessible within a particular branch library. As a result, an increasing proportion of the budget for library material for the Faculty of Arts is spent on these resources.

These include Indexing and abstracting services : Bibliography of Asian Studies, BERITA (South East Asia Database), Historical Abstracts, Humanities Abstracts, MLA, PAIS, Sociofile, APECLIT, APAIS, ERIC, Anthropological Index Online.
Fulltext databases / electronic journal suites : Expanded Academic ASAP (over 1,500 titles, of which approximately 520 are in fulltext), ABI/Inform (2000 titles of which approximately half are in fulltext), Dow Jones Interactive (fulltext or abstracts in over 6,000 sources), IDEAL (175 Academic Press journals), Project MUSE (over 100 journals.)
Subject gateways : Library arts faculty team homepage, Asian Studies Research Library homepage.

There are also a number of specialised databases on CD-ROM, which are only available to users in the ASRL.

24% of the library materials budget for the Faculty of Arts is spent on serials, and 9% on electronic resources.

g. Coverage of the collection

The library resources acquired for the School cover in general all areas of the Dewey Decimal Classification, but with particular emphasis on the language of the vernacular, and the history and culture of the particular country.

The main areas of collecting for Chinese Studies are detailed below

The main strengths of the Chinese studies collection, which was commenced in the 1960s, are contemporary Chinese and Taiwanese politics, history and literature and language studies, as well as basic reference texts. The collection has approximately 6000 titles.

The Library at Caulfield aspires to collect at teaching level English language titles in Chinese politics, economics and business, together with relevant reference works.

The Peninsula Library collects at teaching level only in business Chinese language.

At Clayton, the Library collects English language material at research level in Chinese history, contemporary politics, language and literature. The library also aims to collect all basic textbooks and dictionaries for studying the Chinese language. The library collects at teaching level in the areas of business and other social areas relating to China.

In the Chinese language collection, the library collects at research level in modern Chinese history, literature and contemporary economics. The library also aims to buy basic textbooks in the areas of economics, language studies and popular culture. In addition national yearbooks and yearbooks for the Eastern and southwestern provinces of China are acquired. The library also acquires Chinese language works about Australia and translations of Australian literary works.

The main areas of collecting for Indonesian Studies are detailed below

Indonesian is the largest Asian collection at Monash, including material in Bahasa Indonesia, regional languages, Dutch and English, and has been collected for over 30 years. Collecting from Indonesia is at research level. Monash is a participant in the National Library of Australia Indonesian Acquisitions Project. Current collecting focuses on anthropology, economics, education, geography, history, linguistics, literature, music, politics and sociology. The library holds an extensive collection of periodicals, including 1500 older serial titles and daily newspapers and weekly current affairs publications. Government publications are mainly collected at the national level.

Two important special collections are the Southeast Asia pamphlet collection and the Balai Pustaka Collection, both of which contain some very rare material. The collection of Indonesian language publications and material about Indonesia in English and other Western languages is the largest in Victoria.

The main areas of collecting for Japanese Studies are detailed below

The Japanese studies collection is the largest collection in Melbourne of English language publications for Japanese studies. The library subscribes to four major Japanese daily condensed format newspapers. The collection is one of the oldest Asian collections at Monash University Library and has approximately 25,000 volumes of Japanese language books and 5,000 volumes of Japanese language serials. The focus of the collection is on the history of modern Japan and contemporary Japanese society, women's studies, popular culture, economics, literature, language and linguistics. There had previously been an emphasis on collecting Japanese language material in the social sciences. A special collection of books on Japanese music is complemented by taped music.

The main areas of collecting for Korean Studies are detailed below

Monash has the best Korean collection among the Australian Universities. This collection is jointly funded by a consortium of Monash University and the University of Melbourne. Collecting commenced in 1992, and its focus has been on social sciences, especially economics and politics, and on the language and history of Korea. Major purchases include key microform collections of Korean research materials, extensive research materials, journals and newspapers, doctoral dissertations and Korean language books, and English language research materials on Korea. The collection has approximately 10,000 titles in Korean and Western languages, including 6,000 titles in Korean.

4. Other significant Monash collections or resources

The Melbourne Asian Research Libraries Consortium was formed in 1993 to enhance access to the Asian materials held in the Monash University and University of Melbourne libraries. It provides reciprocal access to the collections by staff and students from both universities. At the University of Melbourne materials are collected in the Chinese and Japanese languages, mainly in the arts and humanities, social sciences, Japanese architectural history and Chinese medicine, whereas the Monash collection's focus is more contemporary.

The Chinese language collection at Melbourne is stronger in traditional areas of study than that of Monash, with strengths in language, history of China, Buddhism and Taoism, Chinese literature, local gazetteers, customs and culture, Chinese medicine, with 16 Chinese CD-ROMs. The strengths of the Japanese collection are applied and sociolinguistics, language teaching and learning, social problems and popular culture, art and architectural history. There is also a large collection of items dealing with women's studies.

The Monash University collection includes the largest Indonesian and Korean collections in Victoria.

Chinese

Microform collection: There are many items of interest in the microform collection, such as

• The Chinese People's Movement, Spring 1989, a collection of contemporaneous documents including manifestos and pamphlets from Tiananmen Square 1989 (34 fiche)
• Taiwan's Opposition Magazines from the 1970s and 1980s (865 microfiche) and newspapers dating from the 19^th century.
• China through Western eyes : manuscript records of traders, travellers, missionaries and diplomats, 1792-1942 (30 reels)
• There are also newspapers from China and Taiwan.

The School of Asian Languages and Studies has a small library containing a number of works on Chinese literature and society as well as reference books and dictionaries donated by the People's Republic of China. It also contains the Prescott "Pete" Clarke Memorial Library of English-language books on China. The School also subscribes to several major Chinese language newspapers from the People's Republic and Taiwan. A small collection of books for Indonesian studies is also available.

Rare Books: A collection of Chinese art reproductions and Chinese children's picture booklets was presented by Rachel Faggetter who collected them during her teaching days in China in the 1970s as well as a collection of over 100 political posters. Rare Books also holds many old and valuable items on China, such as An Account of the Embassy to the Emperor of China (1795) complied by Aeneas Anderson from the papers of Earl Macartney.

The Rare Books collection also contains a large and very important collection of material relating to early travels in the Indonesian archipelago and to the Dutch colonial period in Indonesia, which includes printed works, maps and serials ; as well as the Suetsugu-ADF School of Languages collection of Japanese and Chinese classics published before the pre-modern period.

Indonesian

Microform collection :

• Indonesian monographs, 1945-1968, which contains over 7000 books (17,149 fiche plus catalogue)
• Memories van Overgave (800 fiche)
• Java Factory records, 1613-1826 (39 reels)
• Sumatra Factory records, 1685-1825 (67 reels)
• Documents relating to the social and cultural history of Java in the 19^th century (90 reels)
• Dutch East India Company (VOC) archives, 1600-1800 (310 reels, 20,000 fiche)
• The East Timor question, 1975-1996 (691 fiche)

Korean

Microform collection :

• Despatches from the United States ministers to Korea, 1883-1905. (22 reels)
• U.S. - U.S.S.R. Joint Commission on Korea. Records of the American delegation. 1945-1918. (23 reels)

Japanese

Microform collection :

• Records of the US Department of State relating to the internal affairs of Japan, 1930-1939 and 1940-1944 (53 reels)
• Japan through Western eyes (83 reels)
• Western books on Asia : Japan (13,000 fiche)

The Melbourne Centre for Japanese Language Education was established in 1997 to provide teacher reference materials and internet access in order to improve the teaching of Japanese at primary and secondary level. It includes materials suitable for use in the classroom such as textbooks, cultural information, storybooks, as well audiovisual material, such as videos and kits.

Collections Table

(T = teaching level, R = research level)

Amendment history

November 2000

First issued

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