Category: Libraries in China

Wake-up call worked loudly at 6 am on October 16th. It’s a bright and warm day. Our visit started in the new building of Peking U Library. 肖珑老师的笑腼仿佛窗外的徐徐微风。她提纲挈领地介绍了全馆的发展历程，并带领我们来到古籍阅览室。乃文先生的京腔和对古籍善本的激情感染了我们。伴随着他的介绍是一阵阵的惊叹！程家的戏谱又为北大增添一宝，但愿我们的教授也能受益。 I am suprised that they have the money to continue to purchase rare materials and they have the space to keep all the card catalogues. What I really like is that they are investing more on document delivery and ILL, the service fee sounds reasonable.在超星，大家齐赞读秀，并像实现商量好了似的起劲bargain，as a team first and then in smaller groups。史超和朱平摆出海外的市场实在微不足道的架势，告诉大家“好商量”。

I didn’t have enough time to ask whether we could buy direct from the bookstore in Vancouver owned by CNPITC. The company has made transition online. Hope we can place orders online soon.

To get back to Mindy’s comment on July 31st, CALA is organizing another event in “Guangdong Dongguan City in December 2007, exchange ideas with Chinese colleagues; introduce the US experience of public library services; and find further cooperation opportunities for CALA. This is a part of CALA 21st Century Librarian Seminar Series.” I am glad that Mindy and other folks are willing to contribute to libraries in China, “no matter how little it seems to be”. Mindy’s words remind me what I learned from CALA colleagues in Kunming.

One of them, Caroline (Han Xiaofang) from Cleveland Public Library, impressed me the most. She has super communication skill that is crucial for a public librarian and made her a great contributor for the event. Through her smooth and well-prepared presentations, the audience made up by over a hundred Chinese librarians shared her proudness. They admire her for working so hard for the first class public library in the world. We teased her that her library should give her an award for promoting the library like that. What she did and we could learn from her as a multicultural librarian includes inviting speakers from China for the library program, setting up a listserv for new Chinese material list and promoting her collection at local universities.

What inspired me more was her thoughtfulness and willing to go one step further in Kunming, after she made the audience interacting and found out their concerns. Xiaofang worked in her hotel room all nights to tailor her next day presentation to better fit the audience. The comments and questions we received on the floor proved that she made them think to the root of public library mission in current China’s context. The young attendees shook our hands at the end one by one and expressed their appreciation. They said that we have made a diffence in the way of thinking about their library work, they wish all the heads and relevent government officials attended the sessions as well.

Caroline made the Kunming event from technology oriented to a different way of thinking on our profession. She has touched many souls including mine. I feel lucky knowing a colleague like her and hope I will work with her again for the future events. Miny, I am sure we can make a difference for we have members like you and Caroline.