Help

General information on using the Digital East Asia Collections

Language settings

The web site is available in German, English and Chinese. You can switch between the languages by clicking the flag symbol located in the navigation bar in the upper right corner.

Changing the font size

You can adjust the font size on the website to “Normal” (100%) or “Enlarged” (200%) via the link "A A" in the top-right corner. Please note that the zoom levels are in relation to the value "Normal" (100%). Should the zoom in your browser be set to a different value, the font size could appear disproportionately large or small. In this case, please check the zoom settings in your browser, and if necessary, set them back to 100% (Ctrl + 0). Now try to change the font size once more, again via the link "A A".

Zoom objects

Many of the objects coming in special formats (leporelli and scrolls) do have an additional image 0 as first image of the digitized object. As this image shows the object as a whole, it is extremely diminished. You can zoom in deeply and watch all details, but downloading this image is not possible.

Search possibilities

This site offers you two ways to access the collections: under the tab “Discover” you can browse the collections systematically, under the tab “Search” you can submit a free search.

Discover

In this menu item all titles are ordered by the date of publication.

Default value is the first century for which titles are available. You can change the choice by selecting another century.

If you then click on one of the years in the line below, all titles of this year are shown.

The word cloud on the right consists of different years of publication. After choosing one of the entries all results from this year are shown.

In this menu item all titles are presented in alphabetical order, according to the main title.

Default value is the letter A. Below the list of letters you can see the list of titles for the chosen letter, from which you can select one.

Please be aware that mutated vowels and diacritical characters are sorted by the main letter.

The word cloud on the right consists of selected titles in original script as well as included works. After choosing one of the entries all results with this title are shown.

In this menu item all titles are presented in alphabetical order, according to the author/person.

Default value is the letter A. You can change your choice by clicking on one of the other letters in the list. Below the band of letters is the list of persons for the corresponding letter, from which you can select one.

Please be aware, that mutated vowels and diacritical marks are sorted by the main letter.

The word cloud on the right consists of personal names in original script. After choosing one of the entries all titles this person has written or edited are shown.

Search

In the free search bibliographical data as well as the table of contents of the digitized items are searched.

To submit a search, type one or more search terms in Latin script or Chinese or Japanese characters into the search box and click on the “Search” button.

If you type your search terms in Roman letters and Java-Script is enabled in your browser, autocomplete will be activated and you will be given suggestions from the index. Click on one of them to submit a search directly.

The word cloud on the right consists of titles, persons, places and publishers in original script. By clicking on one of the entries, a search is submitted.

By clicking on “Author/Person” below the search box, your search is limited to persons. Apart from that, the same rules as in the free search apply.

By clicking on “Title” below the search box, your search is limited to titles and included works. Apart from that, the same rules as in free search apply.

By clicking on “Call number” below the search box, your search is limited to call numbers. In the call number search, no searching operators can be used. The entry is always interpreted as a phrase.

General information on entering search terms

No difference is made between big and small letters.

The search engine does not distinguish between diacritical and non-diacritical characters (such as à). Mutated vowels (ä, ö, ü, ß) are recorded as the main vowel, i.e. ä = ae, ö = oe, ü = ue. Furthermore, ß = ss, which means, ß and ss are not differentiated in a search request.

If several search terms are typed into the input field, they will automatically be connected by "AND".

Alternatively, you can use Boolean operators “OR” or “AND NOT” to refine your search results. Using the “OR” function when searching will allow you to find items that contain at least one of the terms for which you have searched. The “AND NOT” function will provide you with items, which contain the first term but not the second.

You can use the phrase search to find certain strings of text. To make this work, the words have to be entered in the desired order and set in double quotes (" "), e.g. "qian fo".

Use wildcards to be aware of different spellings of a term in one search query. A wildcard is a place holder which can be used as a substitute for any character. The asterisk (*) replaces any number of alphanumeric characters, the question mark (?) exactly one. If you search for kacho ga* for example, you also get kacho gashiki, ka-cho gaden and kacho gafu. If you search for Cod.sin.*, you get all call numbers, beginning with Cod.sin.

Result list and "More about the title"

As a result of your search you will get a list of all results with thumbnails. Both the preview image and the title link to the corresponding digital object.

Once you have submitted a search query, you can use facets to restrict your result list in a second step. Click on one of the facets from the areas time, language, title, author/person, place and publisher. A repeated click on the facet deactivates it again.

If you would like to find out more about a title, click on the button “More information about the title” below the author's name. A new window will open, containing all available metadata for the title in transcribed and original script. You can navigate through the result list using the arrow keys.

Viewer display of titles

The viewer shows the images in a continuously zoomable view. The viewer offers numerous function and control buttons for adjusting the image view and navigating within a digital object. See the Viewer Help in the Digital Collections.

Please note: For leporelli and scrolls, which additionally have an image 0 as the first image of the digitized object, showing the object as a whole, downloading this image is not possible.