This chapter details the development of the Penn Libraries’ Japanese Naval Collection, from its inception in our student’s scrapbook discovery to the iterative process of searching for and purchasing other Imperial Japanese Navy Training Fleet materials and related items, and encompasses promotion of the collection online by making digital facsimiles available and posting about its context and import on social media. Here, we re-envision the acquisitions, cataloging, digitization, and promotion process as the result of a network of individuals (both inside and outside the library) collaborating toward a shared vision of special collections. We have been integrating processes rather than functioning as a unidirectional assembly line in which component parts can be passed down a pipeline. Through this network of individuals, who share their complementary but unique skills and knowledge, formerly compartmentalized area studies materials can be more cohesively unified into a global collection and can enhance the value of the library’s distinctive special and research collections in an increasingly international context.

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Leveraging Local Networks and International Partnerships in Japanese Collection Development

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An Unstated Mission: Chinese Collections in Academic Libraries in the U.S. and Their Services to Overseas Chinese

As intellectual immigrants, many of the overseas Chinese librarians have a second advanced degree in a subject area and are active in research and scholarly publication. They are in a unique position to promote Chinese culture in a foreign cultural environment and to find their identities through their scholarly activities. The paper is an attempt to showcase some important research outcomes by overseas Chinese librarians. It illustrates how overseas Chinese librarians bring more perspectives in understanding different cultures of East and West. Their achievements in publishing and research have become part of their selfexpression as Chinese-Americans. Overseas Chinese librarians have made great accomplishments not only in their professional and intellectual pursuit but also in the field of research and scholarship. They have established the identity of the Chinese-American self with their intellectual achievements, adding values to the library profession as well as to the overseas Chinese community. The current study is to analyze the research publications and other scholarly activities of the overseas Chinese American librarians with a view to revealing their unique position in a foreign cultural environment, that is, how they have brought in more perspectives in understanding different cultures of the East and the West. As intellectual immigrants, many of them have a second advanced degree in a subject area and are active in research and scholarly activities. Their achievements in publishing and research have become part of their self-expression in finding their identity as Chinese-Americans. I. Deep Roots in Chinese Traditional Scholarship and Book Culture The tradition of bibliographical study or criticism started with China’s first classified bibliography as early as around 6 BC and the earliest extant bibliography, “Bibliographical Treatises” in the Records of Western Han Dynasty, completed in AD 80. This tradition has continued through the ages. Bibliographical criticism, research, and compilation have been considered the fundamentals in the Chinese scholarship as embodied in the Chinese tenet of “scholarship starts with compiling bibliographies” or 治學先治目. Bibliographical study is a basic skill and a foundation of research methodology for Chinese scholars. Many overseas Chinese librarians have been trained and educated with the knowledge of the history of books, printing, and publishing. And they have implemented such knowledge and skills in bibliographical works. This is especially true among early immigrant Chinese intellectuals. They helped to lay the groundwork for the Chinese collection development in North America and provided great Chinese Librarianship: an International Electronic Journal, 34. URL: www.iclc.us/cliej/cl34jiang.pdf 4 research and reference tools for Sinologists through their bibliographical works. Yuan Tung-li or Yuan Tongli (1895-1965) and Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin or Qian Cunxun (1910) are two representative ones for their achievements in this area. They produced many influential bibliographies that are collected in hundreds of libraries around the world. Dr. Yuan Tung-li, one of the first overseas Chinese librarians who were trained professionally in the United States, was devoted passionately to the bibliographical research and produced a great number of bibliographies and other reference works. His China in Western Literature: a Continuation of Cordier’s Bibliotheca Sinica was considered monumental for its scale and scope (Shen, Zhou &Wei, 2004). The bibliography includes as many as 18,000 English and a few other western language books, documents and publications on China. Looking through the list of Dr. Yuan’s publications, one is struck by the breadth of the topics he covered and the authenticity he possessed in dealing with the materials. He was truly one of those who possess a combination of the qualities of “linguistic proficiency, bibliographic capability, and subject specialization”, as Dr. Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin observed (1975). Dr. Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin himself is also such a pioneer. He is the curator emeritus of the East Asian Library and professor of the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. He worked at University of Chicago for more than 50 years and was very consciously contributing to East Asian librarianship. In addition to his duties as a librarian and curator, he also taught in the East Asian Department and in the Library School on Chinese bibliography and Chinese historiography, two major courses for students in attaining the basic skills required for a Chinese studies librarian. Among more than 150 publications, he compiled several influential bibliographies and wrote on the history of books and printing. His works are well received by scholars around the world. Written on Bamboo and Silk: The Beginning of Chinese Books and Inscription and Paper and Printing are the most influential ones. Compilation of bibliographies is fundamental to building reliable and strong collections for Chinese studies and a great means to introduce Chinese culture. The field of bibliography is one of the primary areas contributed to by overseas Chinese librarians. For generations, overseas Chinese librarians have devoted their times and efforts into bibliographical research. Many of them have in-depth knowledge in the history of books, printing, and classification systems. They possess a combination of the qualities as well as the willingness to make personal sacrifices for the benefit of others (Tsien, 1975). This tradition continued to the present. There are several bibliographic series initiated by overseas Chinese librarians. Eugene Wu initiated the Harvard-Yenching Library Bibliographical Series, in which a few important bibliographies of Harvard-Yenching’s collections were published, including Annotated Catalogue of Naxi Pictographic Manuscripts in the HarvardYenching Library (1997), and Annotated Catalogue of Chinese Rare books in the HarvardYenching Library (2011). Later generations of overseas Chinese librarians have also been following this tradition and have produced some useful bibliographies in a wide range of subjects, from ancient publications to modern. Collectively, these types of publications have contributed to the scholarship from the following aspects: Chinese Librarianship: an International Electronic Journal, 34. URL: www.iclc.us/cliej/cl34jiang.pdf 5  Their works helped to fill gaps in bibliographical works, especially the areas related to Chinese studies. As the area studies evolve, different topics merge at different times due to the cultural and political changes. Realizing the importance of certain topics at a given time, many librarians have worked to fill in gaps in those areas and compiled bibliographies to put together information and resources on these topics, providing a “fairly complete and organized picture of the extent and nature of this material” (Graves, 1961). For example, Dr. Yuan’s bibliography on Russo-Chinese relations, Russian Works on China, 1918-1960 in American Libraries, was published in 1961. This work provides a comprehensive account of Russian publications from Hoover Library, Harvard, Library of Congress, Yale, and many other libraries.  Compilers of bibliographical works offer authentication to the materials in hand and provide reliable information of the research materials. The process of compiling bibliographies is not just to create lists of the titles, but rather a meticulous and careful research for accurate information on publications on certain topic, area or period. It is a time-consuming task, especially when these were done before the Internet age. This was the case when Dr. Yuan compiled his A Guide to Doctoral Dissertations by Chinese Students in America, 1905-1960, when Dr. Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin collaborated with Professor Soren Edgren on the Chinese Rare Books in American Collections, and when many others went through the process and worked in the field of bibliography.  Through their bibliographic studies and research, overseas Chinese librarians also reveal unique collections on China and provide better understanding of the collections in US. Many bibliographies provide surveys on Chinese collections in North American university and research libraries. Dr. Tsien led several surveys of the East Asian collections, and these surveys served as useful references for East Asian collection development and East Asian librarianship. The recent such bibliographies include Wang Guohua’s Guide to archives of missionaries to China Collected in Woodruff Library, Emory University, U.S.A. on a special collection from Emory University Library, and Li Guoqing’s survey of Chinese ancient books in the Ohio State University Library. II. Intellectual Acuity to Foreign Culture and Modern Library Practice Many intellectuals came overseas to study and to receive education in the Western culture. In search for the values in their present homeland, they are eager to learn and share new things. The overseas Chinese librarians are coming from all walks of life and have different educational backgrounds. They have joined the library profession for various reasons, but they all have a similar goal, that is, to understand and learn the concepts and practice of modern libraries. They are introduced into the field of library and information science with great intellectual acuity and interest. One of the areas that have drawn the greatest interest from overseas Chinese librarians in earlier years is the classification and cataloging, an essential function in a library to provide access to its collections. In the technology era of the 21 st century, the technology and information management have become another hot area for overseas Chinese, along with other aspects of library services and information or knowledge management. As to the scholarly achievements by overseas Chinese librarians in mainstream publications,

Finding the Chinese-American Self in Scholarly Activities and Achievements

This study of the East Asian collections in American libraries in I97 5 provides new data on the current status of resources, growth rate, geographical distribution, acquisitions, cataloging, personnel, fiscal support, unit capabilities and cost, use patterns, and services. The analysis is based on information from ninety-three libraries, including twenty-two not previously r e p ~ r t e d . ~ Of the collections in this survey, eighty-nine are located in the United States, three in Canada, and one in Mexico. About one-half of them were established before, the other half since, 1960 (Table I). Sixty-six of the collections are in university and college libraries, six in federal libraries, seven in public libraries, and fourteen in museum and special libraries. The size of the collections varies from a few thousand to as many as over a million volumes-with I I having over 200,000volumes; 5 between ~oo,oooand 200,000volumes; 43 between ~o,oooand ~oo,ooovolumes; and 34 under ~o,ooovolumes. The incorporation of East Asian materials in branches of public libraries is a new trend, primarily for providing materials in vernacular languages to minority groups in the local c ~ m m u n i t y . ~

Current Status of East Asian Collections in American Libraries, 1988-1989

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Thomas C. Kuo

Papers

Current Status of East Asian Collections in American Libraries