I am flattered by Shoko who needs special permission to skip her class for my talk to the faculty.
The audience showed strong interest. It turned out to be very interactive. Thanks to Dr. Sugimoto and Dr. Lo’s introduction and tune setting. Dr. Hideo Joho’s comments impressed me and presented the difference in funding principles and organizational structure.
The senior gentleman from the Central Library stayed behind and thanked me in English and Chinese. I am humbled…
The group visit this morning reminds me what Mr. Peter Eng said at the Opening. He encouraged us to involve more young people to the events like this Exhibit.
Cara is the most energetic ECE student at UBC. I am so lucky having her volunteered, originally as the photographer. She turned out helping with everything, including the rare book brochure design. Cara jumped up and down the table hundreds of times to hang all the panels before the TV crew showed up. She rushed into the Opening from her class taking pro photos. We happened to caught her images when she was busy.
Just like Peter, I really enjoy working for or with young folks. I wish we had money hiring Cara who could bring her UBC Digital Multimedia Lab experience to the library.
I appreciated a much shorter staff meeting today. Some Chinese students in the neighborhood came to the Exhibit with their parents on this PD day. I recognized Peril right away who has been our loyal reader and donor, and she is with Tsu Chi Academy of Humanity. The group’s comment is really encouraging. I spent longer time than I expected to give them the tour of the collection.
Golden sunshine on leaves starting to turn red and yellow against the blue sky. Every day at UBC there are big groups of freshmen being oriented. Two weeks in this new term, and the excitement is still building. Prof. Rea’s new Ph.D student tried to meet one-on-one, but I have to run to the BBLearn Group meeting, already missed a meeting due to the Exhibit. Another Master student stopped me clarifying a seminar room location. I really need to focus on orientation and instruction now.
Half way to the Learning Centre, Prof. Shinn told me the next Wat lecturer, Dr. Wang Fan-sen, is coming in less than two weeks. Not enough time to put up the display if we don’t have all of his books.
Tried very hard to put the exhibit behind me, and so I can concentrate on the instruction. Collaborate is easy to use, so I will wait for Connect to settle in. Yvonne has spent lots of time on my Connect account. I like the best practice part of our group report, but so far, none of us have tried out delivering instruction in Connect. Anyway, it’s a good start for my online instruction that can reach the faculty and students no matter where they are.
This morning, all my mind was on the visa issue in Guangzhou and how to hang the panels in the Auditorium. Asian Studies’ pancake breakfast was in there and changed the setting and feeling of the room. The folks’ warm greetings stopped my worries on the exhibition. What a great opportunity meeting new colleagues! Dr. Lin from Taiwan shared her views towards Academia Sinica. The new Chinese Language Program Director, Dr. Wang Qian, is young, sweet and energetic. She questioned me about services for her students right away. Too bad, I had three meetings scheduled, and didn’t have chance to chat with lots of people.
Ran over to IAR with the paper plate. Happy for our History Ph.Ds who received global offers. Their research questions are still fresh in my mind…Tim is not only supporting the exhibit, but also helping with developing the collection. Late for the meeting with Trish, and need to follow up with Sheryl on the CCR donation, need to schedule another meeting in IAR. Wonder if my answer to her translated literary works has left anything out.
Interrupted by visiting scholars half way through the letter to Canadian Embassy in Beijing. My paper in Chinese Classics & Culture lead them here. Phoebe thought they were my friends. Let them browsing the stacks while I brought some rare items out of the vault. They were shocked to see 18th Century’s books on open shelves. A New York Prof who is teaching in Hong Kong just emailed me for Deng Zhimo’s Chan Yin Gao. Wrapping up within 45 minutes and had a quick stop at the Digital Initiatives, thanked all folks there for the testing with Asian rare books.
Prof. Rea’s new student was waiting in Asia, answered her questions and realized the seniors have been helping the new comers like her. Good for you, guys! Some one is making my life easier. This post is getting too long, and emails are still rushing in…
Chris wrote from Australia on TARUMOTO Teruo’s 樽本照雄 新編增補清末民初小説目錄, which can be made into a value-added project by librarians. I am glad Harvard colleagues share the same interest. Tarumoto sensei reminds me about those independent scholars at the Conference two weeks ago.
Rudy Chiang’s presentation on BC salmon canneries was fascinating. I figured he must have come up with those questions from his own work as fish quality specialist, like “Who were those 76 Chinese fishermen recorded in New Westminster’s 1881 Census?” “What’s the dollar amount of 1904 canned salmon pack from the Chinese and First Nations crew (1.7 million)?” I could sense his excitement from his findings.
Maurice Guibord’s project on transformations of landscape, architecture and burial practices in local cemeteries is quite different from UBC folks’ projects. He sounded even more exciting when the attendee lady from Cuba asked him question in Spanish. I had a pleasant chat with him at lunch time, and he left after lunch for his Francophone Historical Society event.
It is time to have some reflection on the conference, which now seems to go down in history.
The campus is so quiet on this rainy Monday, as if I could hear the petals falling off the magnolia trees by IKBLC. Solving a mystery of a series with messy bib records as soon as I walked into the library, turned out it’s a call-back set from Surrey storage. This reminds me several recent reference requests, the Three-year Plan and a new in-depth research season.
Just confirmed with Katherine on new Forestry students’ orientation in July, still owe Bronwen the DigitalProjectApproval forms this week, and would love to develop my online course when Caroline is here to help.
Dr. Cheng, Prof. Gu and Patrick are still waiting for my part. More urgent research tasks are our book charpter for SCSL and the PPT for WCILCOS conferecne, although I don’t understand why we need to submit the PPT, since our whole papers are already on files. With this much workload, not sure if I can get away for Shangri La and Guilin this summer, although I miss the harmonious beauty in these two places.
Professor Kellee Tsai from Johns Hopkins was invited to Political Science as a distinguished speaker. Lots of my friends attended Johns Hopkins Nanjing Centre. Prof. Tsai’s talk was held in Buchanan Penthouse in the unusually warm and bright Friday afternoon. She compared migration and diaspora capital flows in China and India, which she thinks should be incorporated into explainations of development. Prof. Tsai proposed to reconsider conventional capital in the two countries. She used the stats of 56 millions of Chinese residing in 120 countries and regions, which is pretty close to the Chinese official number–45 millions in the past 30 years, just difference time span. She explained that the number is more general and diasporas more refers to network. She made a joke of herself as not networked, alone and from New Jersey.
I wasn’t suprised to see many familiar faces at the talk. Reference requests from PolSci are increasing, and now with a list of new book purchasing request. I can’t wait to read Prof’s Tsai’s two most cited books in her field. Hope to see her new book soon.
My regular Thursday TS work was interrupted, and I had to return to Asian. Peking U. Library Director, Dr. Zhu Qiang, just arrived in town for Ingrid’s Presidential program. Shakeela came to Asian Library first to arrange for another group of VIP visitors. I picked enough rare objects from the vault right before Dr. Zhu showed up accompanied by Alvan and Jo Anne.
I met Dr. Zhu last Oct. in Xiamen. He only spent three days here. He asked about current teaching and research in China Studies, and he knows some profs at UBC. The upper floor didn’t impress him much, and he requested to see the special collection right away. He pointed out that our Puban Collection cataloguing is incomplete. PKU has a scientific lab that can test the age of ancient rarebooks. He even invited me to PKU. 朱馆虽然话不多，但是颇有气场。
