Reference
Ask a Librarian lists all the various ways you can get assistance from the Columbia Libraries, including in-person, phone, and email, as well as chat reference for quick general questions. You can also make an appointment for individual in-depth consultations.
Alternatively, you can consult our staff list to find contact information for all East Asian area specialists.
Circulation
All information about circulation services, including borrowing and renewing library materials, as well as all policies and procedures can be found on the Borrow, Request, Renew page.
Interlibrary Loan
Interlibrary Loan (ILL) enables eligible Columbia University affiliates to borrow material from other libraries and universities and obtain copies of articles or book chapters from titles that are not owned or available at Columbia University Libraries or BorrowDirect. All information about ILL, with links to the request forms, is available on the ILL website (log-in required).
Research Guides
Librarians throughout the Columbia University Libraries system have created detailed guides to aid in research on a wide variety of subjects, including East Asian Studies. Check out the complete list of available guides.
Tutorials and Workshops
The Libraries offer many workshops and tutorials throughout the year. The workshops offered by the C.V. Starr East Asian Library consist primarily of area-specific orientation sessions and library tours at the beginning of the academic year and spring semester. In addition to postings around the library, these are also announced on our website and blog as well as on the general workshops and tutorials calendar. That calendar lists both in person and online offerings, on a variety of subjects (e.g. use of certain software and databases). Check periodically to find out what is going on.
Citation Management and Citation Use
When you start doing research, the collection of citations to resources you collect can easily become overwhelming. Columbia University supports several citation management software packages. Find more information about these, with links to free downloads on this page. When you quote information in your writings, be sure to pay attention to proper rules. You can inform yourself about these issues by reading Columbia University's academic integrity policy.
Printing, Scanning, and other Technology
All information about printing, scanning and other technology support can be found on the Print, Scan, Digitize page.
Recommend A Title
Do you know of a title that is not available at Columbia, but you feel it should be? Do send us a recommendation, and we will make every effort to add it to our collection. You can either email us individually or fill out the special Recommend A Title form available on the Libraries website. From any library webpage select the Collections drop-down menu to find a link to the form.