All posts by Emily Jantz

Allen Signature Award Received for Project Preservation Work

News and Events

On November 20, 2014, Charlene Chou (Head of Technical Services / Chinese Studies Cataloger at the East Asia Library and Technical Manager at UW for our CLIR Project), Stephanie Lamson (Head of Preservation Services), and Kathryn Leonard (Conservation Supervisor) applied for an Allen Signature Award for funding to begin much needed preservation work on the many CLIR Project items at UW that are in poor physical condition.

On February 24, 2015, the team was notified by the Allen Signature Awards Review Committee that we would receive our full requested amount of $12,510.  The award will provide enough support to fund student hourly and materials costs to stabilize and house 1,000 items over the course of the 2015 year.

Congratulations to Charlene, Stephanie, and Kate for their successful application, and our sincere appreciation to the Review Committee and to the Kenneth S. and Faye G. Allen Library Endowment for providing this award!

More about the project’s preservation needs and work >>

 

UBC Team Visits UW (2015-02-04)

News and Events

DSCN1655On February 4, 2015, the team from UBC came down to UW for a day of meetings and discussion about the project, plus tours of the collections and work spaces.  It was a great visit and very productive, resulting in many good ideas that will give us more to think about and plan for our continued collaboration.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015
10:30 a.m. : UBC Team arrives, tea & coffee
11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. : Meeting & tours
4:30 p.m. : UBC Team departs

Continue reading UBC Team Visits UW (2015-02-04) →

Professor Yao Arrives!

News and Events

On Tuesday, January 6, 2015, Professor Boyue Yao arrived in Seattle.  Wednesday, January 7 marked his first day at UW.

Professor Yao, Chinese rare-book librarian of Peking University Library in China, joins us at the UW East Asia Library for a 13-month appointment as the CLIR project librarian for Chinese rare-books and cataloging.  He will also spend two months at UBC providing special consultation and assessment of their Chinese rare-books.

We are very pleased to have him as part of our CLIR Project Team.  Welcome, Professor Yao!

密乘寳藏 (Mi cheng bao zang)

Stories and Treasures

This beautiful book was found in our first search through materials with traditional East Asian binding.  (Although this one has a different style than the the majority of our string binding.)  Fortunately, the item, published in 1936, and its case are in great condition, not marred by insect or other damage.  This book consists of a number of Buddhist prayers and incantations, and includes text in Chinese and Tibetan, as well as sections where the Tibetan pronunciation is shown in a romanized form.IMG_20140620_164613-tiny

The record for this item was one of the very first that I enhanced—adding subject headings and a call number, as well as notes detailing the contents (in vernacular and roman scripts), language information, etc—for this project.  Larry Epstein, retired professor of anthropology at UW,  graciously transcribed the Tibetan title, and spotted several typos in it.  (With such a gorgeous cover, what a shame that it should have typos!)

OCLC WorldCat shows only one other holding for this book—truly, a treasure!

—Emily

送茶壶 (Song cha hu)

Stories and Treasures

This book, although not particularly old or rare, was one of my personal favorites.  It contained two stories:  送茶壶 (roughly, “Delivering a pot of tea”), and 送雨衣 (“Delivering a raincoat”).  In both, good patriotic children bring the titular items to Chinese soldiers.  In the first, a young girl and her auntie bring tea to a grateful group of soldiers (patriotically) working out in the fields.  In the second, a little boy and girl walking home in the rain come across a soldier whose motorbike has broken down; the girl holds her umbrella over the man, while the boy runs away (?!)—only to return shortly with the rainslicker that he proudly gives to the soldier.

The book measures only 13 cm tall.  Each page is illustrated in vivid, full color (which is also an enchanting change of pace from the vast majority of the materials).  Moreover, having been published in 1973 in Beijing, it provides a very interesting window on attitudes and behavior (and also fashion) of the time.  According to OCLC Worldcat data, the book is held by only three other U.S. institutions, and to me it was a very enjoyable and interesting find.

—Emily