Asia plays a pivotal role in the world. In recent years, Taiwan and Asian countries developed close relationships. Therefore, the knowledge and cognition of Asian culture, art, language and characters are essential. However, the books and resources in the university libraries in these fields are very scarce. With regard to the long history of our department of humanities and the newly established International Studies and Education for Overseas Chinese, the NTNU library high light the collection of books and resources on Asian studies.
In the early years, the library made Asian research materials an emphasized collection development. The repository includes a limited number of Japanese rare books like "日本印刷需要家年鑑", "入道右大臣集", etc. In order to enrich the Asian research materials, the NTNU invested tens of millions in Gernot Prunner’s private library and purchased 18,000 titles in August 2007. With these rare and precious books, the NTNU library built up a feature collection and opened up a new world for Asian research.
〈Diagram of the data analysis〉
The Gernot Prunner’s private library has an unparalleled collection of Asian culture, art, and ethnic themes. The NTNU library purchased 14,799 titles with 18,701 copies from the library. The books on East Asia, including China, Japan, Korea and Tibet) accounts for the majority in terms of quantity, and then follows by the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.
Comprehensive collection includes the near east, middle east, the Islamic world, central Asia, Siberia, Far east of Russia, Mongolia, Indian subcontinent, South East Asia, and East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Tibet). Collections on ancient Greece and Rome, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas are covered.
The collection covers a wide range of languages, including English, German, French, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Dutch and some languages used in Indochina and Sanskrit. Prunner’s collection sufficiently shows a European intellectual’s preference and interest in oriental issues or regions such as India, Tibet, and Mongolia. Therefore the collection in the field is comprehensive.
Art collection accounts for the majority. There are also quite collections of literature, fiction, fairy tales, customs and traditions, rituals, philosophy, mythology, traditional opera, paper cutting art, urban and rural area and so on. Moreover, there are some dictionaries on languages used in Asian or minority nationalities. The feature collection has a great contribution to cultural studies, art and sociology research and teaching.
| Resource type | Name of the type | Number of categories | Number of volumes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part I | 古代希臘、羅馬 The ancient world | 1434 | 1958 |
| Part II | 近東、中東、伊斯蘭世界 The near & middle east; The Muslim world | 1037 | 1256 |
| Part III | 西亞、中亞（高加索、西伯利亞、俄羅斯的遠東、蒙古） Western & central Asia (including the Caucasus, Siberia & the Russian far east; Mongolia) | 1191 | 1503 |
| Part IV | 印度（次大陸）、東南亞 The Indian: the sub-continent & southeast Asia | 3155 | 3909 |
| Part V | 東亞（中國、日本、韓國、西藏) Eastern Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Tibet) | 6296 | 8097 |
| Part VI | 非洲、大洋洲、美洲 Africa, Oceania, the Americas | 1264 | 1376 |
| Part VII | 參考資料 General reference works | 259 | 332 |
| Part VIII | 補遺 Addendum | 163 | 270 |
| Total | 14799 | 18701 |