Exhibits

To see the online version of this exhibit, please click here.

Fall 2020 Exhibit: From I-Ching to Manga: UCI's East Asian Collection Celebrating 30 Years celebrates the thirty year anniversary of the establishment of the East Asian Collection highlighting treasures from the past. 

Established in 1990, the UC Irvine Libraries’ East Asian Collection serves the needs of the East Asian research and teaching community on campus, which comprises faculty and students mainly from the departments of history, art history, East Asian studies, comparative literature, film and media, drama, sociology, political science and anthropology. The collection is also open to local residents. In a relatively short span of 30 years, the Collection has grown from the original 8,000 Chinese books to over 120,000 volumes in Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages, making it one of the fastest growing Collections of this kind in the nation and the largest East Asian Collection in Orange County.

The growth of the East Asian Collection expanded the diversity of the items including a range of formats, subjects, geographic areas, and time periods. Over years, with continued generous support from library administrations, UCI faculty, and community partners, we have acquired rich resources in modern East Asian literature and history, and Chinese classics, including many unique items showcased below:

•  I-Ching Collection, some 2,000 volumes, largely in Chinese, Japanese and Korean traditional binding format and with publication date back to 1911 and earlier.
• Shūkan Shōnen Magajin (1959-1995), a popular Japanese manga magazine from the very first issue to issues from its peak publication era.
• Hanʼguk Hojŏk Sŏngchʻaek (1904-193?) and Koseki Daicho (1902-1934), two sets of microfilm copies of significant Korean census records.

From I-Ching to Manga: UCI's East Asian Collection Celebrating 30 Years is curated by the Research Librarian for Asian Studies Dr. Ying Zhang and designed by Allan Helmick and Sylvia Irving.

The UCI Libraries Exhibits Program promotes the diverse holdings and scholarly and cultural value of the Libraries’ collections to the campus and community.

•  To support the Libraries' Collection Enhancement Fund, please click here.

Finding the Edge: The Work and Insights of Edward O. Thorp highlights the extraordinarily diverse life and career of Edward O. Thorp. As a UCI founding professor of mathematics, best-selling author, hedge fund manager and blackjack player, this exhibit features Thorp’s mathematical odyssey from academia, to the casinos of Las Vegas, and the trading desks of Wall Street. The exhibit includes select writings and memorabilia showcasing his personal and professional papers throughout his impressive career. Thorp was a founding member of the UCI mathematics department and became a professor who mathematically proved card-counting gives every player an edge. Thorp also funded an endowment to attract a pre-eminent professor in mathematics. To beat roulette, he and Claude Shannon invented the first wearable computer. Along with innovative applications of probability theory, Thorp is also The New York Times bestselling author of “Beat the Dealer,” the first book to mathematically prove that the house advantage in blackjack could be overcome by card-counting. He also pioneered the use of quantitative investment techniques in the financial markets and has been called the “Godfather of Quants.” This exhibit provides an inspirational view of Edward O. Thorp’s boundless curiosity and intellectual drive towards “finding the edge” in science and business.

Finding the Edge: The Work and Insights of Edward O. Thorp is curated by Annette Buckley, Resarch Librarian for Business and Economics; Rebecca Imamoto, Head of Collection Strategies; and John Sisson, Research Librarian for Biological Sciences; and is designed by Allan Helmick and Sylvia Irving.

Online version of this exhibit  

Digitized version of this exhibit

"Think Like Thorp" book list PDF flyer

Video interview with Edward O. Thorp, from the exhibit opening

Photos from the exhibit opening

Explore the project "Thorp and the Theory of Options: Illuminating the Edward O. Thorp Papers at UC Irvine."

Finding the Edge: The Work and Insights of Edward O. Thorp will open on Monday, November 4, 2019 at Langson Library, Muriel Ansley Reynolds Gallery and will be on display during regular library hours until March 2020. To learn more about this exhibit, please click here.

The UCI Libraries Exhibits Program promotes the diverse holdings and scholarly and cultural value of the Libraries’ collections to the campus and community.
•    To support the Libraries' Collection Enhancement Fund, please go to: http://www.uadv.uci.edu/CollectionEnhancementFund.