Asian Collections at the National Library of Australia: Forty years of history. Article by Andrew Gosling, originally published in National Library of Australia News, vol. 3 (11), August 1993, pp 19-21 The National Library houses the largest and most actively developing research resource on Asia in Australia, with holdings of over half a million volumes. The following is not intended to be a comprehensive coverage of Asian collections at the National Library of Australia. The aim is to provide an historical overview concentrating on areas and languages given a high priority by the Library, while also referring to other parts of the region. The Library has emphasised East Asia, namely China and its periphery, Japan and the Korean peninsula, and Southeast Asia, consisting of the ASEAN and Indochina countries as well as Burma. Within Southeast Asia the Library has placed greatest stress on its Indonesian and Thai collections. Thus this article refers particularly to Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian and Thai resources. South Asia, comprising the Indian sub- continent and adjacent island states is also considered. While the National Library has concentrated most of its staffing, acquisition and other resources for Asia on Asian language materials, this discussion also includes the Library's extensive Western language holdings from and about the region.