Friday, December 26, 2008

NLC Records Displayed in WorldCat.org

National Library of China (NLC) submitted automatically converted MARC21 records of all its holdings of monographs to OCLC early this month. Today, I realized that some records (of the year of 2007) have been uploaded to WorldCat.org, such as:
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/288942397&tab=holdings?loc=china
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/181359658&tab=holdings?loc=china

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Chinese Version of ISO 5127 Completed

The Chinese version of ISO 5127 (Information and documentation -- Vocabulary) has just been completed. It will be submitted the Standardization Administration of The People's Republic of China, and will become a national standard.
The Working Group consists of five members from National Library of China, National Science Library of Chinese Academy of Science, Tsinghua University Library and Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China.
The national standard is based on ISO 5127, and is added with some terms and explanations suitable to be used in China.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Fu Lei's Manuscripts donated to National Library of China

All the manuscripts of Fu Lei (1908-1966), one of the greatest literary translators of contemporary China, were donated to National Library of China last week by his sons Fu Cong and Fu Min.
Fu Lei was born near Shanghai, studied art and art theory in France during 1928–1932. Upon his return to China, he taught in Shanghai and worked as a journalist and art critic until he took up translating. His translations, which remain highly regarded, include Voltaire, Balzac and Romain Rolland. He developed his own style, the "Fu Lei style", and his own translation theory. His family letters to his son Fu Cong, a world-renowned pianist, were published posthumously and have become a bestseller in China to this day.
When I was an university student, I read quite a lot of books translated by Fu Lei, including Romain Rolland's Jean Christophe and Les Trois Vies (Vie de Tolstoï, Vie de Michelange and Vie de Beethoven), and was deeply impressed by them.
National Library of China has a special collection of contemporary notable authors. There was an exhibition of Fu Lei's manuscripts upon the donation ceremony.
Fu Lei dedicated himself to literary translation with a kind of religious passion, which is very rare in contemporary China. At the exhibition, I see even 3-4 versions of manuscripts for one title during his translation, and all the manuscripts were written carefully with pens or Chinese writing brushes. The manuscripts themselves are models of Chinese calligraphy.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Information Organization Standardization Seminar Held in Beijing

Today, the Seminar on Information Resource Organization and Its Standardization is held in a suburb of Beijing. With 15 speakers and 50 participants, the seminar is co-organized by Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (ISTIC) and National Technical Committee for Information and Documentation Standardization (also under ISTIC). I gave a presentation about the recent developments of international library catataloging standardization and some hot issues in international library cataloging community.
The National Technical Committee for Information and Documentation Standardization is a Chinese counterpart of ISO TC46 and is responsible for the standardization of library and information community in China.

NLC MARC Records Submitted to OCLC

After 8 years of discussions and 2 years of formal contacts, we submitted all the restrspective records (about 1.5 million) of National Library of China (OCLC Symbol: N5L) to OCLC this week. Today, I received a group mail from OCLC CJK Users Group to explain the characteristics of the converted Chinese records. This is the first step for Chinese bibliographic records to enter the international library community. I hope we can further promote the internationalization of library cataloging in China.

Monday, December 8, 2008

China Association for International Visitors Host Successful Membership Conference

News form the American Embassy in Beijing:

Posted on 2008-11-19 9:22 am BEIJING, China -- On November 15, 2008, the China Association for International Visitors (CAIV)* hosted their first membership conference. The conference attracted International Visitor Leadership Program alumni from over a dozen provinces and municipalities. Alumni were enthusiastic about the conference, the opportunity to network with other alumni and the future of their forthcoming alumni association (CAIV).
The Chinese Humphrey Alumni Association (CHAA) Secretary General also attended the conference and provided useful advice for CAIV based on the experience CHAA has had in registering and carrying out alumni projects. The conference was a working meeting during which attendees elected Preparatory Committee members, discussed the organizational by-laws and determined the necessary steps for achieving formal registration and the establishment of local chapters. Hou Qie’an, Director of the Graduate Department of the Beijing Administrative College, was elected President of the Preparatory Committee.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Chinese Standard for Information Terminology about to Be Completed

The Chinese counterpart of the ISO 5127 (Information and documentation -- Vocabulary) is about to be completed this month. The Chinese national standard (GB) began in March of this year, with a working group consisting of six members from National Library of China, Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China, National Science Library and Tsinghua University Library.