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National Resources Committee 



Recently a guide to the Government publications of 

 Mexico has been prepared under the supervision of the 

 chief of tlie Division. There is a great need for further 

 work of interpretative character \i\ order to make 

 readily accessible the content of Government publica- 

 tions, thus facilitating particularly studies in the social 

 sciences including especially public administration. 



The Division of Semitic Literature 



The Semitic Division, consisting of over 40,000 vol- 

 umes, embraces several cognate linguistic groups such 

 as Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic, as well as others 

 written in Hebrew script, viz., Yiddish, Judeo-German, 

 and Ladino. 



The primary collection is that of Hebraica, the 

 nucleus of which was collected by the late Mr. Ephraiin 

 Deinard. The Hebraica comprises both Ancient and 

 Modern Hebrew literatures. Ancient Hebrew may 

 conveniently be classified as follows: (a) Bible: Mss., 

 texts, commentaries and super-commentaries, transla- 

 tions; (b) Mishnah and Talmud: Texts, commentaries 

 and super-commentaries; (c) Law: codes, decisions 

 and responsa; (d) Midrash; (e) Homiletics; (f) 

 Philosophy; (g) Kabbalah and Hasidism; (h) Lit- 

 urgy; (i) Philology; (j) Poetry; (k) Criticism; (1) 

 Bibliography and Genealogy; (m) Science. 



The content of Modern Hebrew, beginning with the 

 Haskalah period scarcely a century and a half ago, is 

 as varied as that of any other advanced western 

 literature. 



Each branch contains a well-rounded representation 

 of source material, which during the years have been 

 abundantly made use of by scholars and writers, re- 

 sulting in a number of important scholarly treatises. 



Up till recent years the resources of the Division 

 were consulted chiefly by students of the past, theolo- 

 gians interested in the Bible, archaeologists in Biblical 

 archaeology, Talmudic students in Rabbinics, and so 

 on. However, with the renascence of a purely Hebraic 

 culture in Palestine and its widespread influence 

 abroad, the emphasis has now shifted to present-day 

 problems, and source material in Hebrew is also con- 

 sulted by the sociologist, the economist, the agricul- 

 turist, the scientist and the pedagogue as in any other 

 modern literature. 



The chief stimulus to modern Hebrew literature 

 during recent years has been the upbuilding of Pales- 

 tine, and the revival of the Hebrew language as a liv- 

 ing tongue, necessitating the incorporation and minting 

 of an entirely modern Hebrew terminology. 



The Division of Orientalia 



The Chinese collections of the Division were founded 

 in 1869 by a gift to the United States of the literary 



classics of his country by the Emperor T'ung Chih 

 (1862-75). They have been increased by the gener- 

 osity of several American ambassadors to China and 

 of other individuals, and by the interest and enterprise 

 of Dr. Walter T. Swingle of the Department of Agri- 

 culture. They now number 175,570 volumes, and are 

 believed to constitute the largest library of Chinese 

 books in the world, outside of China and Japan. They 

 are thoroughly representative, but are particularly rich 

 in works relating to local history, agronomy, and in 

 tlie encyclopaedic collections known as ts'ung chu. 



Tlie Japanese collection was founded in 1900 by a 

 gift from the Imperial Japanese Government. It now 

 numbers 29,000 volumes, and provides an effective 

 working collection. Subsidiary but important collec- 

 tions of Mongol, Manchu, Korean (including the dis- 

 tinguished James S. Gale collection), Tibetan, Anna- 

 mite, Siamese, Turkish, and other Eastern literatures 

 have received as yet no special administration. 



Certain of the more important collections, separately 

 acquired, for the Oriental Division are as follows: 



Name of collection 



Boxer Indemnity Collection... 



Caleb Gushing Collection 

 (part) (purchased Oct. 22, 

 1879). 



Hing Kwai Fung Collection... 



Kan-ichi Asakawa 



Andrew W. Mellon Collection. 



W. W. Rockhill Collection 



Wang Shu-an Collection 



Size 



5,000 volumes. 

 2,547 volumes. 



6,467 volumes. 

 9,000 volumes. 



38 pieces 



6.000 volumes. 

 22,100 volumes 



Subject or contents 



A- set of the Chinese encvclopedia 



T'u Shu Chi Ch'eng. 

 Chinese works from his private 



library. 



General Chinese literature. 

 General Japanese literature. 

 Rare Chinese maps, atlases. 

 Codes and riles of China. 

 The family library of Mr. Wang 

 Shu-an of Tientsin. 



The Division of Slavic Literature 



The collections of this Division have gradually been 

 developed, through exchanges, purchases, transfers, 

 and gifts, from the original deposit of about 68,000 

 Russian items, which were purchased by the Library 

 of Congress in 1907 from Mr. G. V. Yudin, of Kras- 

 noyarsk, Siberia, including much material on the early 

 history of Alaska. 



On June 30, 1937, the Division contained 154,725 

 pieces. At the present stage the holdings of the Divi- 

 sion are chiefly in Russian, but they pertain to many 

 fields and constitute one of the largest Russian collec- 

 tions outside of Russia. 



Among its early printed books there is a copy of 

 The Acts of the Apostles, published in Moscow in 

 1564. This first dated Russian publication, skillfully 

 executed by the Deacon Ivan Feodorov in the Tsar's 

 Printing Court, sets the official date of the beginning 

 of Russian printing. 



The period of Emperor Peter the Great (1698-1725) 

 is represented by a group of 40 books, published by 

 his orders in Amsterdam and Moscow. A few of them 

 are printed with the old "Cyrillic" characters, and 



