Libraries Council meetings are scheduled for each month; all UW Libraries staff are open and welcome to attend.

The team’s presentation, “Discovering Modern China: Report on CLIR Project of the East Asia Library,” introduced the background and goals of the project; reported on its progress, challenges, and impact; and showed off some of the many treasures and other interesting materials cataloged.

View the slides for the main presentation

View the slides for the “treasures” part of the presentation

His presentation, which was in Mandarin Chinese, with slides in Chinese and English, was titled “北京大學圖書館和華盛頓大學圖書館的中國古文獻收藏與整理” (“The collection and organization of ancient Chinese materials at Peking University Library and University of Washington Library”).

The presentation was followed by an informal reception, to thank Prof. Yao for his work on the project and to say farewell before his return to Beijing later in May.

Both the presentation and reception were free and open to the public, and well attended by members of the community, UW faculty, students, and staff.

View the presentation slides for the section: “CLIR項目對華盛頓大學圖書館所藏中國古文獻的整理” (“CATALOGING CHINESE ANCIENT BOOKS THROUGH CLIR PROJECT “)

View the presentation slides for the section: “北京大學圖書館古文獻收藏與整理的歷史回顧” (“An Overview of the History of the Special Collections at the PKU Library”)

View the presentation slides for the section: “高校古文獻資源庫”的建設與發展”

View photos from the presentation and reception >>

This microgrant program—”Microgrants for Incentivizing Collaboration”—from CLIR offers small grants in support of further collaboration and cross-project connections among recipients of their Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives grants.

In March, 2015, Project Co-PIs Zhijia Shen and Jing Liu presented at the CLIR Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives Symposium, the capstone event to the seven-year Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives program, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The two-day symposium and unconference brought together more than 180 participants, including many past and current grant recipients.

The proceedings of the symposium—in which more than 20 symposium presenters examine inter-institutional collaboration, student and faculty involvement, cataloging, arrangement and description, audiovisual collections, science collections, and outreach—have now been published.  The full report is available for download or viewing online at http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub169.  Or directly view the paper by Zhijia and Jing, entitled “International Collaboration to Reveal Rare Chinese Materials Hidden for Half a Century”, at http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub169/shenetal.pdf.

On Friday, October 30, 2015, the Univeristy of Washington East Asia Library (EAL) hosted the delegation of the Hidden Collections Program from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR).

The CLIR delegation members at Friday’s visit included Nicole K. Ferraiolo, Program Officer for Scholarly Resources, Adam Leader-Smith, Program Associate, Amy Lucko, Director, Program Administration, and Christa Williford, Director of Research and Assessment.  They visited UW, after a site visit at UBC the previous day, to learn more about our project work, including the collaborative aspects of the project and its wider impacts, and as an opportunity for sharing and discussing best practices and ideas.

The all-afternoon meeting included opening remarks from Betsy Wilson, Vice Provost/Dean of University Libraries, and Professor Emeritus David Knechtges about the importance of the Chinese hidden special collections at UW, which were followed by a series of presentations from the Project PI Zhijia Shen, Director of EAL/Chinese Studies Librarian; Charlene Chou, Project Technical Manager and Head of EAL Technical Services; Stephanie Lamson and Kathryn Leonard of UW Libraries Preservation Services; and Emily Jantz, CLIR Project Cataloging Specialist/EAL Administrative Coordinator.

Paul Constantine, Associate Dean of Distinctive Collections/Director of Special Collections and Karen Brooks, Manager of University Libraries Grant Services of Financial Services, spoke about the project financial situation and possible next steps after the completion of the project.  Anne Graham, Senior Computer Specialist/Project Manager, Digital Strategies Department of ITS, and Sheryl Stiefel, Director of Libraries Advancement, also participated in the discussion.  Several Ph.D. students and faculty members from the Department of Asian Languages and Literatures and the Information School were also in attendance, to share how the cataloging of these materials will positively impact their research.

A particular highlight of the visit was a display of some of the newly discovered treasures, including rare books dating from the early 17^th through 20^th centuries and a selection of rubbings.  Professor Boyue Yao, CLIR Project Librarian and Rare-book Librarian from Peking University Library, curated this display with much able assistance from Justin Johnson, Senior Conservator, and Kathryn Leonard of Preservation/Conservation.  Professor Yao presented about each of the individual pieces and their scholarly significance.

It was a very successful event.  We thank all our colleagues who participated and helped make this important CLIR site visit a great success.

View more photos from the visit >>

Prepared by Emily Jantz & Zhijia Shen

Their presentation, entitled “Collaboration to Reveal Hidden Treasures at PRRLA Libraries: UW-UBC CLIR Project on Chinese Materials”, focused on our project’s collaborative nature.  It addressed issues and challenges facing the collaborative work, such as those of working with policies, laws, and regulations of different countries; shared what was learned in terms of project planning and management, resource sharing, staff exchange and training between the two institutions across national boundaries, and with academic libraries in China; and demonstrated how international collaboration can optimize libraries’ capacity and resources to accomplish difficult tasks, and how we become greater when putting our efforts together.

Click to view the slides from this presentation.

For the UW visit, on the 30th, we’re planning an afternoon of presentations, discussion, tours, and a display of some of the hidden treasures we’ve unearthed so far.  We look forward to a fruitful exchange with our CLIR visitors!

He will continue his work on the CLIR project at UW, assessing and cataloging our rare Chinese materials that date from before the Republican Period (1912-1949).  We are very pleased to welcome him back!

Click to view the slides from this presentation.  (Note:  Presentation slides are in Chinese.)