AsianDOC Electronic Newsletter 1:3 (October 1998)
For AsianDOC E-Newsletter, Submitted by Sally C. Tseng, August 11, 1998.
Sally C. Tseng, Head of Serials Cataloging at the University of California, Irvine, received a Librarians Association of the University of California research grant from the President of the University of California to conduct a research project on the Creation of Chinese Periodicals on the World Wide Web. In May 1998, Sally visited several Chinese academic and public libraries in China. She would like to report on recent major development of Chinese digital library projects in China.
The National Library of China (NLC) and Shanghai Library (SL) are the two largest libraries in China. The libraries house comprehensive collections of over 30 million volumes. NLC and SL are rich in Chinese rare books, records, manuscripts, and special collections. The Libraries have inherited the rare books collections and valuable historical documents accumulated in the imperial libraries of Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing Dynasties and resources from 1911 to the present. There are unique inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Yin-Shang Dynasties (16th-11th century B.C.). Scarce Dun Huang manuscripts ranging from Wei and Jin to Sui, Tang, and the Five Dynasties. The Chinese government has awarded 800,000 RMB to six Chinese libraries in China to establish a Chinese Pilot Digital Library Project in late 1997. The National Library of China and Shanghai libraries, together with libraries in Nanjing, Zhongshan, Liaoling, and Shenzhen form and develop the Chinese Pilot Digital Library.
Supported by the State Commission for Education, China has established the 211 Project. Its goal is to greet the 21st Century by developing 100 world class universities (211 Project) in China. The China Academic Libraries Information System (CALIS) is one of the 211 Projects which is coordinated by the Chinese National Committee of Universities and Colleges Library Work. CALIS will be a resource network based on the China Education and Research Net (CERNET) providing Internet resources sharing for China and other countries. The purposes of the CALIS Project are to preserve and to build resources in digital and electronic formats from their existing resources in each participating library and to provide mirror sites at each national and regional centers. There will be eight regional centers in China. There are: 1) Beijing : Peking University, Tsinghua University, Beijing Medical University, and Beijing Agricultural University; 2) Eastern-South: Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Fudan University; 3) Eastern- North: Nanjing University; 4) Central: Wuhan University; 5) Northwest: Xian Jiao Tong University; 6) Southern: Zhongshan University; 7) Southwestern: Sichuan University; and 8) Northeastern: To be determined. Each center will focus on developing special disciplines and subject areas in their collections. CALIS will enhance the efficiency and quality of Chinese academic library and information systems as the Internet resources provide rich and immediate resources sharing to support teaching, research, and studying. The building of CALIS will change the traditional library services and will take advantage of new and advanced technologies to facilitate resources sharing among libraries. CALIS is expected to be completed in the year 2010.
Respectfully submitted,
Sally Tseng
sctseng@uci.edu
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Sally Tseng
Head, Serials Cataloging
Science Library #331
University of California, Irvine
P.O. Box 19557
Irvine, CA 92623
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URL http://asiandoc.lib.ohio-state.edu/v1n3/tech/sctseng.html
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