Welcome to FOREASt, The Internet East Asian Library!  

What is FOREASt?

        FOREASt, or Free Open Resources for East Asian Studies, collects relevant scholarly resources published on the Internet by individual scholars, academic institutions, cultural institutions (libraries, museums, archives), government agencies, and occasionally commercial entities. Currently FOREASt provides free access to about 300 databases and journals on East Asia published in North America, Europe, Australia and, of course, East Asia. 

        Even though these resources are published in different parts of the world, they are usually freely accessible to everyone around the globe with the Internet connection. However, these databases and journals tend to be hidden from researchers who are increasingly looking for information on the web, because they are either publicized only in small circles or their contents are not indexed by search engines like Google, or both.

        Built in the web 2.0 fashion (blogging, tagging, and social bookmarking), FOREASt aims to facilitate the discovery and use of these free and open access resources by scholars and students and general public. It is being developed and managed by Tao Yang, the East Asian Librarian at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, with the help from members of the Council on East Asian Libraries (an affiliate of the Association for Asian Studies) and librarians at Rutgers University Libraries (a member of the Association of Research Libraries). You may also find a list of individuals and institutions contributing to and promoting FOREASt on our community page.

        Since omissions are inevitable, you are more than welcome to recommend databases or journals that should be included. Your contribution will be properly acknowledged.

        To learn more about FOREASt, please visit the FAQ page. Thanks!

Sincerely,

Tao Yang
East Asian Librarian at Rutgers (and the FOREASt Librarian in the virtual world)