There are three different ways of searching for Japanese language resources in SearchWorks.

1. Search in kanji/hiragana/katagana

Titles/authors/keywords can be searched in Japanese script, with two limitations. The first is the lack of character mapping between kana and kanji.  For example, when searching for "monogatari" in kanji, only results with the term written in kanji will appear. Likewise, searching for "monogatari" in hiragana will retrieve records in which it is written in kana.  The other limitation relates to materials that have not yet been cataloged.  Not-yet-cataloged materials can only be found in SearchWorks by using romanized search terms.

2. Search in Romanized Japanese

Romanize the Japanese title/author/keyword following the Library of Congress Japanese Romanization and Word Division rules. Diacritics are not needed when romanizing Japanese for searching in SearchWorks.

3. Search using English keywords

English keywords can also be used to find Japanese language books, since the subject words in the cataloging records are written in English. For example, in order to find books on 仏教文学, keywords “Buddhist Literature” can be used. If you wish to see only the resources written in the Japanese language, you can limit your search results by choosing “Japanese” under “Language” at the left column of SearchWorks.

If you have questions or need assistance with Japanese-language searching in SearchWorks, please contact the Japanese Studies Librarian, Regan Murphy Kao.