Searching for Japanese books by subject
The Ohio State University Libraries uses the Library of Congress subject headings (LCSH) to support subject searches with controlled vocabulary — in addition to the convenient keyword search. Other research libraries also use LCSH, so the subject headings can also be used in Worldcat or to search in other research library catalogs. Spending some time becoming familiar with subject headings can be helpful in conducting research. An easy way to do this is to look at the “full record” when you find a book — then click on the subject headings to find other books on the same subject (or click on the call number to find books classified in the same call number range — another kind of subject index!)
Japanese library catalogs also use subject headings. At the National Diet Library(NDL)try the advanced search:
(Note: NDL’s catalog is not available 24 hours/day! If searching is not available, try back another time.)
Further: A list of NDL’s subject headings is available in the EAS Reference Collection:
国立国会図書館件名標目表
Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan kenmei hyōmokuhyō
Z695 .K68 1991
Yahoo! Books Japan offers a category search, while Amazon offers genre searches. Both can be used as subject searches.
A few years ago we kept subject bibliographies in the EAS Reference collection, but those books have been sent to the OSU Book Depository since the online catalogs are much easier to use. For specific research purposes, though, the printed books may still be helpful — search under Nihon Kenmei Tosho Mokuroku 日本件名図書目錄 for 1977-1989. For 1948-1968:
Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan shozō shudaibetsu tosho mokuroku, Shōwa 23–43-nen
国立国会図書館所蔵主題別図書目錄。昭和 23–43年
Add comment August 1st, 2007
