The Asian Division of the Library of Congress

A Progress Report

(March 3, 2004)

Hwa-Wei Lee

Chief, Asian Division, the Library of Congress

Thank you very much for inviting me to give you an update on the latest development in the Asian Division of the Library of Congress. The focus of my talk will be on East Asia.

When I was introduced to you last year by Dr. Carolyn Brown, I was brand-new then in my position as the Chief of the Asian Division. Now I am one year old and have just learned the excitement of walking, including how to get into all sorts of trouble.

Well, to be serious, one year has also been long enough for me to get a good sense of what the priorities are that need immediate attention and what necessary action my colleagues and I need to take.

I am very pleased to report to you that the Asian Division is beginning implementation of our second year of a five-year strategic plan. We are also in the process of reorganization in order to better discharge our responsibilities.

In the Asian Division, we now have five Area Collection Teams: China and Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. Our collections in Asian languages in all of these five areas continue to grow at a rapid pace. The latest statistical count shows that we have more than 2.5 million volumes in our Asian collections. Of these, 1.1 million are in the Japanese collection, 900,000 are in the Chinese and Mongolian collection, 210,000 are in the Korean collection, and 350,000 are in the South and Southeast Asian collections.

We are very fortunate to have added six new professionals, one each for China, Japan, and South Asia and two for Southeast Asia. We also added for the first time an information technology specialist to take care of our automation needs. This was accomplished despite a very tight budget experienced by the Library of Congress these past two years.

It is very sad, however, that we lost a highly experienced and dedicated colleague in our Japan Area Team – Ms. Yoko Akiba. Yoko, who is well known and well liked by so many of you, passed away on February 10 after suffering from cancer.

In the Chinese Area, efforts were made to improve the contemporary Chinese studies collections. We are very grateful to the Henry Luce Foundation for a three-year grant which has enabled the Chinese Area Team, working closely with the Chinese Acquisitions Section in the Division of African/Asian Acquisitions and Overseas Operations, to experiment with a new acquisition model in order to acquire many hard-to-obtain publications in six major regions of China. Under this model, local scholars/researchers in social sciences and law in six Chinese regions are engaged to provide lists of important publications in their respective regions that are of interest to LC. These lists are then screened by Chinese area specialists for acquisition. This model is to compensate for the deficiencies in vendor supplied lists and selections. In anticipation of the desire to continue the Luce funded project, the Library has requested additional funding in the 2005 budget from the Congress.

Last year, 2003, was the 75^th anniversary of the establishment of the Chinese Literature Division in the Library of Congress. Since then the name of the Division has changed five times as the scope of the collections expanded. In 1978, the Chinese Section became a section of the Asian Division. For the celebration of the 75^th anniversary, a day-long symposium was organized which was divided into four panels: (1) The development of the Chinese collection in the Library of Congress, (2) the Chinese Section and the American academic and East Asian libraries, (3) scholarly interpretations and digitization of Chinese materials, and (4) the future role of the Chinese Section: Service to the Congress and the American people. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao gave the keynote speech at the luncheon.

A multi-year grant from the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation in 1998 was responsible for the successful completion of a highly visible Naxi Pictographic Manuscripts Project. The grant enabled the Asian Division to invite Professor Zhu Baotian of the Yunnan Provincial Museum to review and compile an annotated catalog of the 3,337 Naxi manuscripts in the Library’s Chinese collection and to prepare this unique collection for digitization. Dr. Mi Chu Wiens, an area specialist for China, was the principal investigator of this project. She and Professor Zhu gave many interviews and lectures. Dr. Wiens has also published several articles. We anticipate the entire project will be done and be accessible online in the next six to nine months.

Dr. Wiens and I were in Taiwan last week to discuss a new collaborative cartobibliographic description and scanning project with the Academia Sinica concerning the digitization of the Library’s map and atlas collections on China made in Europe prior to1900. We also discussed other collaborative projects with the National Central Library, the National Taiwan University Library, the National Palace Museum, and the National Museum of History. Dr. Wiens has also submitted another proposal to the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for support of two other projects.

In order to provide better housing and care of the much-treasured Asian rare book collections, we also visited several excellent rare book vaults in Taiwan to help us in the planning for a greatly improved rare books vault in the Asian Division.

With the growing availability and sophistication of electronic resources in China in recent years, including e-books, e-journals, e-newspapers, and other full-text e-databases, we have investigated various options in obtaining them for easy access by our readers. Some of them will soon be available in the Asian Division.

In the Japanese Area, I have become a member of the North American Coordinating Council for Japanese Library Resources and attended two meetings as the representative of the Library of Congress. It is an excellent opportunity for me to become more familiar with the collections and services for Japanese studies in North America.

Last November, I was invited by the National Diet Library to attend a one-day symposium held at the Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library on November 19, 2003 and to present a paper. The theme of the symposium was on “New Horizon of Library Services: Toward the Better Understanding of Asia.” I took the opportunity to discuss possible future cooperation with the National Diet Library and to visit the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) to follow up on previous discussions that Yoko Akiba had with Prof. Atsushi Aiba for a joint digitization project for collections relating to Japan on the eve of its opening to the Western world and the subsequent development of U.S.-Japan relations.

A very interesting recent discovery in the Library’s map collection is the famous “Inoh Maps” – the first modern maps of Japan created originally by Tadataka Inoh between 1800 and 1821. Copies of 207 of the Inoh’s original 214 sheets in large-scale set (1:36,000) that cover the Japanese archipelago from Hokkaido to Kyushu are in the Library’s map collection. The discovery of these maps in the spring of 2001 has caused great excitement in Japan. In order to make these maps available for exhibition and for online access, all of them have been digitized and sent to the Japan Map Center. A selection of the actual-size reproductions of these maps was on exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum from October 31- December 14, 2003. Some of the original maps will also be loaned and exhibited in Kobe, Sendai, Atami, and Nagoya in 2004.

During the National Book Festival on October 4, 2003, Sonya Lee, Coordinator of the Korean Area Team, contacted the Minister of Korean Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Mayor of the City of Jeonju, and the ambassador of the Korean Embassy and successfully arranged a major presentation on the art of traditional Korean papermaking, wood block printing, and big brush calligraphy. In addition, a Korean paper-made fashion show was staged.

As a part of our outreach program, the Asian Division has established a Friends Society after its By-laws were approved by the Board of Directors on January 20, 2004. The Board also elected Mr. Frank Joseph Shulman the President and Dr. Jeremy Wu the Vice-President. The purpose of the Friends Society is to foster a close relationship between all those who value the Asian Division’s collections and services and the Asian Division itself. You are invited to visit the website of the Friends Society: http://www.lcasianfriends.org and to join the Society. Membership brochures are available at this meeting.