Throughout the coming year, all attention in Leiden University will be on Asia. This special year, featuring numerous Asian events, conferences, exhibitions and concerts, celebrates the new Asian Library at Leiden University.
The Asian Library is a brand-new storey on top of the University Library. For centuries Leiden has been the international hub for knowledge and culture on Asia, due at least in part to the collaboration with Asia experts throughout the world. Leiden is the only university in the Netherlands to offer programmes in Korean, Chinese and Japanese.
Over the years, extensive special collections have been amassed on such regions as Indonesia, China, Japan and Korea, and these collections are housed under one roof. The existing diverse collections have now been extended to include the rich collections from the KITLV and the KIT.
The Asian Library includes more than 30 kilometres of rare books, prints, letters, photos and newspapers. ‘We have one of the largest collections on Asia in the western world, and we even have the biggest collection on Indonesia,’ commented Kurt de Belder, director of the Leiden University Libraries. The new library will be open for use on 30 March and the official opening is on 14 September.
The full story with illustrations is here.
