Mandarin Bookworm

Planning the year

2012-01-09T14:48:00.001-08:00

With the coming of the Chinese Lunar New Year (February 23, 2012), we are very busy with the planning of the whole year. The plan will be finalized next week.

Call for Papers, IFLA Cataloguing Section

2011-12-19T04:59:00.001-08:00

Call for Papers

IFLA Cataloguing Section

Session Theme: Inspired moments in cataloguing!

The IFLA Cataloguing Section (IFLA CATS) invites proposals for papers to be presented at the World Library and Information Congress (WLIC) in Helsinki, Finland, August 11-17 2012.

In the 2012 open session the Cataloguing Committee wants to examine how well our rules and standards support an information infrastructure that fits user needs.

Could they even inspire new ways of using the data?

Proposals from all kind of users - from end users to professionals and researchers in cataloguing, cognitive science, persuasive technology, user behavior, interface design etc.– are welcome

Areas of interest include:

Do cataloguing rules support user needs?

Integration of metadata from different sources (avoiding silos)

OPAC integration with other discovery tools

User centered design

Learning from search engines e.g. relevance ranking, spell check,sorting, faceting, stemming …

User studies

User behavior vs FRBR user tasks

Four successful proposals on the topic will be identified.

Send a detailed abstract (1 page or at least 300 words) of the proposed paper (must not have been published elsewhere) and relevant biographical information of author(s)/presenter(s) by 31 January 2012 via email to:

Hanne Hørl Hansen

Chair, Cataloguing Section

e-mail: hah@dbc.dk

The abstracts will be reviewed by members of the Cataloguing Section's Standing Committee. Successful proposals will be identified by 1 March 2012.

Full papers will be due by 1 May 2012 to allow time for review of papers and preparation of translations; papers should be no longer than 20 pages. 15-20 minutes will be allowed for a summary delivery of the paper during the Cataloguing Section's programme.

Please note that the expenses of attending the Helsinki conference will be the responsibility of the author(s)/presenter(s) of accepted papers.

Shanghai Conservatory of Music: Forum & Workshop

2011-11-22T14:26:00.001-08:00

A series of events concerning music manuscripts and digital libraries is now held in Shanghai Conservatory of Music as "Forum & Workshop".

Please see the following poster:

http://gz.static.photo.sina.com.cn/show_mop.php?pic_id=552a6941gb1e7f483e567&type=orignal&pm=1

The official report of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music:

http://www.shcmusic.edu.cn/html/News/news/95423.html

and the blog post of Dr. QIAN Renping, the librarian:

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_552a69410102dtnc.html

Video about the National Library of China

2011-11-16T21:36:00.001-08:00

BTV (Beijing Television Station) just released a video clip about the National Library of China, as one of its series "The Most Beautiful Beijing" (最美北京):

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzIyOTY4NjQw.html

with three versions respectively in 30", 15" and 10".

Chinese Introduction of the IFLA Bibliography Section

2011-11-15T14:07:00.001-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, I translated the introduction of the IFLA Bibliography Section into Chinese. It is now available at the section's website:

http://www.ifla.org/files/bibliography/ifla_bibliography_section_chi.pdf

Chinese Translations of WLIC 2011 Papers Related to Cataloguing

2011-11-05T20:37:00.001-07:00

The IFLA website just released the last Chinese translation of the papers for the Cataloguing Section Programme of WLIC 2011 (IFLA General Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, August 2011). By now, all the four papers of the Cataloguing Section have been translated into Chinese. I also organized the Chinese translation of some papers in UNIMARC Programme.

编目组(Cataloguing Section)
- Breaking barriers between old practices and new demands: the price of hesitation / MAJA ŽUMER, JAN PISANSKI, POLONA VILAR, VIKTOR HAREJ, TANJA MERČUN and KATARINA ŠVAB (Department of Library and Information Studies and Book Science, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia) = 打破传统实践和新需求之间的壁垒：犹豫的代价 / 中文翻译：李恺（首都图书馆，中国北京）
- Data aggregation and dissemination of Authority Records through Linked Open Data / XAVIER AGENJO (Fundación Ignacio Larramendi, Madrid, Spain), FRANCISCA HERNÁNDEZ and ANDRÉS VIEDMA (DIGIBÍS, Producciones Digitales, Madrid, Spain) = 利用关联开放数据实现规范记录的数据聚合与发布 / 中文翻译：黄亮、刘丹（中国国家图书馆）
- Comparison of metadata schemas: AACR2+ vs. ICDL's metadata schema / JIHEE BEAK and HOPE A. OLSON (School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA) = 比较元数据模式：AACR2+与 ICDL元数据模式 / 中文翻译：王璐、黄晓莉（澳门科技大学图书馆）
- A bibliographic logistics for processing mega-medium collections: a practical system of the NCL (Taiwan) to solve the current barriers in cataloguing and services / CHINGFEN HSU and DIING-JONG YAN (Bureau of International Exchange of Publications, Taipei, Taiwan, China) = 融合處理多元媒體的書目系統：突破當前圖書館編目與服務困境所採行的創新作法 / 嚴鼎忠、許靜芬
UNIMARC
- UNIMARC and FRBR - can we have both? / TROND AALBERG (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway), JAN PISANSKI and MAJA ŽUMER (University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia) = UNIMARC 和FRBR——我们能两者兼顾吗？ / 中文翻译：罗翀、张蕾累（中国国家图书馆）
- FRBRization: using UNIMARC link fields to identify Works / MANOLIS PEPONAKIS, MICHALIS SFAKAKIS and SARANTOS KAPIDAKIS (Laboratory on Digital Libraries & Electronic Publishing, Department of Archive & Library Sciences, Ionian University, Corfu, Greece) = FRBR 化：利用UNIMARC 连接字段识别作品 / 中文翻译：金文昌、朱青青（中国国家图书馆）
- FRBRisation of Koha in the context of CMARC (a UNIMARC-derived format) / NAICHENG CHANG (General Education Center, Tatung University, Taipei, Taiwan, China) and YUCHIN TSAI (National Center for High-performance Computing, National Applied Research Laboratories, Taipei, Taiwan, China = 在CMARC（UNIMARC 衍生格式）環境實作FRBR 轉換——以Koha圖書館管理系統為例 / 張迺貞、蔡育欽

LSC annual conference held in Guiyang

2011-10-26T15:31:00.001-07:00

The Annual Conference of the Library Society of China is now held in Guiyang, Guizhou Province.

I will chair a session for information resource development and sharing today in the morning.

Former Fudan University Librarian passed away

2011-09-25T07:07:00.001-07:00

Prof. QIN Zengfu, former director of Fudan University Library, passed away in Shanghai, August 25, 2011.

Prof. Qin is my teacher of Mathematical Analysis when I entered the Department of Mathematics, Fudan University, in September 1980. His teaching was excellent and left deep impressions on me.

Later, I became a librarian of the National Library of China, and he became the Fudan University Librarian. We met each other several time during international and national conferences and meetings.

Prof. Qin's memorial service will be held in Fudan University Library next Thursday (September 29).

Springer's New Beijing Office opened today

2011-09-22T06:19:00.001-07:00

I attended the opening ceremony of the new office of Springer in China.

The ceremony is a typical Hong-Kong-styled one, during which the Mr. Derk Haank, CEO of Springer, cut a roast pig (see video).

I am familiar with Springer's products, especially Lecture Notes in Mathematics series and Graduate Texts in Mathematics series, and monographs by notable Chinese mathematicians, such as Wang Yuan's Diophantine equations and inequalities in algebraic number fields and Hua Luogeng's Introduction to number theory.

Meeting with Czech National Librarian

2011-09-19T06:59:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I met Mr. Tomáš Böhm, Director General, National Library of the Czech Republic (generální ředitel, Národní knihovna České republiky).

During the dinner, I was surprised to know that there are quite a lot of old staff in the library with full pensions and full salaries. This is impossible in China and in many other countries.

Alex Byrne mentioned National Library of China

2011-09-05T06:36:00.001-07:00

Technology provides new and expanding ways in which to communicate but the desire to do so is an unbroken thread of human history. That was what impressed Byrne when he visited China's national library. There he was taken into its vaults to view its greatest treasures. Before him was a series of inscribed animal bones almost 5000 years old - among the world's earliest written communication.

The Sydney Morning Herald, September 3, 2011.

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/top-shelf-20110901-1jmlu.html

BIBF

2011-09-03T06:54:00.001-07:00

The 18th Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF) is now held in Beijing. I was busy last week for forums, meetings, banquets, cultural events, etc. Many representatives from foreign publishers visited my office.

Farewell to San Juan

2011-08-19T02:41:00.000-07:00

This morning, I will leave San Juan, Puerto Rico.

My trip will take 25 hours, including 17 hours of flight.

When I am back to China, I cannot access Blogspot, Twitter, Picasaweb, Flicker, etc., very often.

See you again somewhere else in the world.

Ross Becker, WLIC Photographer

2011-08-18T17:51:00.000-07:00

Ross Becker is a professional photographer for the World Library and Information Congress in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

My article published in EALRGA Newsletter

2011-08-16T13:30:00.000-07:00

Today, I found that my article "Collection Development in the Digital Age: Changing Roles of the National Library of China" is just published in EALRGA Newsletter (The newsletter of the East Asian Library Resources Group of Australia):

http://coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/NLA/EALRGA/newsletter1107/1107_gu.html

IFLA Journal Editorial Committee meeting

2011-08-16T08:58:00.001-07:00

I just attended IFLA Journal Editorial Committee meeting during WLIC 2011. This is my first time to attend the meeting as a EC member. In the previous EC, Dr. WU Jianzhong was a representative of China.

News about the Newcomers Session

2011-08-15T07:39:00.000-07:00

Today's IFLA Express reports the Newcomers Session and mentions my name.

"Ben Gu, Director of Foreign Acquisitions and Cataloguing Department of National Library of China, spoke of his many past experiences attending IFLA conferences and of the various ways new professionals can share and report on their experiences at the IFLA conference including sharing photos through Flickr, blogging, and creating professional reports and papers to share with colleagues."

Please see the address of the original page:

http://express.ifla.org/node/4848

and the address of the Chinese version:

http://express.ifla.org/node/4900

Please see also the following addresses for the photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ifla/6041475481/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ifla/6042021654/

Vide clips from exhibition opening of WLIC2011

2011-08-14T15:21:00.000-07:00

Please see the video clips from the Opening Session of the Exhibition of the World Library and Information Congress (IFLA General Conference), Puerto Rico Convention Center, August 14, 2011.

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/Xqu4wlpbBS0/

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/l1VFFHWcVls/

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/Cjk0u0folb4/

Video clips from WLIC Opening Session

2011-08-14T12:22:00.000-07:00

Using my iPhone4, I uploaded some video clips of musical performances from the Opening Session of the World Library and Information Congress, Puerto Rico Convention Center, August 14, 2011.

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/7vrgk3B3by8/

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/4Zued7sU2Eo/

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/syIhEr4Nh34/

IFLA RDA Satellite Meeting

2011-08-12T07:09:00.001-07:00

Today, I attended the IFLA RDA Satellite Meeting, August 12, 2011, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

This is a pre-conference of the IFLA General Conference / World Library and Information Congress.

There are about 100 participants and 15 speakers.

Please see the following site for details:

http://lib.rc.usf.edu/ifla2011/

ISBD Consolidated Edition published

2011-07-20T14:54:00.001-07:00

NEW IFLA Publication!

Just off the press as Nr 44 in the IFLA Series on Bibliographic Control:

ISBD: International Standard Bibliographic Description

Consolidated Edition

Edited by the Standing Committee of the IFLA Cataloguing Section

This is the new edition of the first consolidated ISBD that was published in 2007. The first years of usage have led to interesting and useful corrections and additions. Many cataloguers and practitioners worldwide will welcome this updated first class tool, which is useful and applicable for descriptions of bibliographic resources in any type of catalogue.

ISBD: International Standard Bibliographic Description – Consolidated Edition. Edited by the Standing Committee of the IFLA Cataloguing Section. Berlin/Munich: De Gruyter Saur, 2011. ISBN 978-3-11-026379-4. (IFLA Series on Bibliographic Control; Nr 44).

Euro 89.95 / for USA, Canada, Mexico US$ 135.00. Special price for IFLA members Euro 69.95 / for USA, Canada, Mexico US$ 105.00

Also available as an eBook.

Order:

De Gruyter Saur Verlag For the USA - Canada - Mexico

  or
Rhenus Medien Logistik GmbH & Co. KG                 Walter de Gruyter, Inc.
Justus-von-Liebig-Straße 1                                        P.O. Box 960
86899 Landsberg, Germany                                       Herndon, VA 20172-0960, USA
http://www.degruyter.de/cont/imp/saur/saurEn.cfm Phone: + 1 (703) 661-1589
Tel. +49 (0)8191 9 70 00-214                                     Toll free: +1 (800) 208-8144
Fax: +49 (0)8191 9 70 00-560                                    Fax: +1 (703) 661-1501
degruyter@de.rhenus.com                                        degruytermail@presswarehouse.com

FRSAD published

2011-05-27T16:21:00.001-07:00

NEW IFLA Publication!

Just off the press as Nr 43 in the IFLA Series on Bibliographic Control:

Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data (FRSAD) - A Conceptual Model

The main purpose of this report by the IFLA Working Group on the Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Records (FRSAR) is to develop a framework that provides a clearly stated and commonly shared understanding of subject authority data, and how such data can facilitate user tasks.

Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data (FRSAD); a conceptual model. Edited by Marcia Lei Zeng, Maja Žumer and Athena Salaba on behalf of the IFLA Working Group on the Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Records (FRSAR). Berlin/Munich: De Gruyter Saur, 2011. ISBN 978-3-11-025323-8. (IFLA Series on Bibliographic Control; Nr 43).

Euro 49.95 / for USA, Canada, Mexico US$ 75.00. Special price for IFLA members Euro 39.95 / for USA, Canada, Mexico US$ 60.00

Also available as an eBook.

Order:

De Gruyter Saur Verlag For the USA - Canada - Mexico

Rhenus Medien Logistik GmbH & Co. KG Walter de Gruyter, Inc.

Justus-von-Liebig-Straße 1 P.O. Box 960

86899 Landsberg, Germany Herndon, VA 20172-0960, USA

http://www.degruyter.de/cont/imp/saur/saurEn.cfm

Phone: + 1 (703) 661-1589

Tel. +49 (0)8191 9 70 00-214 Toll free: +1 (800) 208-8144

Fax: +49 (0)8191 9 70 00-560 Fax: +1 (703) 661-1501

degruyter@de.rhenus.com degruytermail@presswarehouse.com

Beijing Modern Music Festival

2011-05-24T06:21:00.001-07:00

Official Website:

http://www.bmmf.org.cn/en/index.html

The Polish New Music Orchestra Concert was held yesterday (May 23, 2011) at the Concert Hall of the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, China.

Prof. JIA Daqun's "The Three Images from Washing Painting" was performed by The New Music Orchestra Concert conducted by Szymon Bywalec.

Video clips from the Concert for the 100th Anniversary of Tan Xiaolin

2011-04-22T04:14:00.001-07:00

Tan Xiaolin's 100th Anniversary Ceremony was held in Shanghai Conservatory of Music last weekend (April 17).

Tan Xiaolin (1911-48) was a Pipa player and studied music composition at Yale with Paul Hindemith. He came back to Shanghai and became the director of the Department of Composition of SCM.

He was a pioneer of modern Chinese music composition, but he passed away at the age of 37.

The ceremony was co-organized by SCM and National Library of China, and consists of a manuscript exhibition, a concert and a workshop.

As a librarian, music lover and music history translator, I push the cooperation of National Library of China and Shanghai Conservatory of Music. I am glad that the ceremony was a great success.

The video clips for the concert for the 100th Anniversary of Tan Xiaolin can be found at:

http://www.tudou.com/playlist/txl2011

which was recorded by me with Flip Video Camera and approved by Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

纪念谭小麟先生百年诞辰音乐会
Concert for 100th Anniversary of Tan Xiaolin
时间：2011年4月17日下午2:00-3:15
Date: April 17, 2011
地点：上海音乐学院
Venue: Shanghai Conservatory of Music
一、艺术歌曲(Art Songs)
1. 《小路》（内蒙古民歌，钢琴编配；1947）
2. 《自君之出矣》（唐·张久龄诗）
——演唱：张稚；钢琴：蔡孟熏
3. 《正气歌》（宋·文天祥诗摘句；1947）
4. 《彭浪矶》（宋·朱希真词）
——演唱：李研；钢琴：崔岚
5. 《别离》（郭沫若词；1946）
6. 《春雨春风》（宋·朱希真词）
——演唱：郑斌；钢琴：马思红
二、室内乐(Chamber Music)
1. 《小提琴与中提琴二重奏》（1943）
Duet for Violin and Viola
——小提琴：申丹枫；中提琴：吕翔
2. 中提琴与竖琴《浪漫曲》（1944）
Romance for Viola and Harp
——中提琴：蓝汉成；竖琴：彭佳
3. 《弦乐三重奏》（1945）
String Trio
——小提琴：申丹枫；中提琴：吕翔；大提琴：何思昊
===========================
上海音乐学院与国家图书馆联合主办的《纪念谭小麟先生百年诞辰系列学术活动：手稿展、音乐会、研讨会》
Manuscript Exhibition, Concert and Roundtable for the 100th Anniversary of Tan Xiaolin: Art Songs and Chamber Music
Organized by Shanghai Conservatory of Music and National Library of China

Tan Xiaolin's 100th Anniversary Ceremony to be held in Shanghai

2011-04-09T09:01:00.001-07:00

Tan Xiaolin's 100th Anniversary Ceremony is to be held in Shanghai Conservatory of Music next weekend (April 17).

Tan Xiaolin (1911-48) was a Pipa player and studied music composition at Yale with Paul Hindemith. He came back to Shanghai and became the director of the Department of Composition of SCM.

If he lived longer, he would have deeper impacts on modern Chinese music composition.

The ceremony is co-organized by SCM and National Library of China, and consists of a manuscript exhibition, a concert and a workshop.

Web Chat: Popular E-Books in U.S. Public Libraries: Successes and Challenges

2011-03-31T01:40:00.001-07:00

PROGRAM SCHEDULE (Click here to confirm your local program time.)

Web Chat: Popular E-Books in U.S. Public Libraries: Successes and Challenges
Date: Friday, April 1
Time: 06:00 EDT (10:00 GMT/12:00 Rome)
Location: http://bitly.com/CONXrome

Description: Discuss the future of reading and learn how e-books are changing today's public libraries.

Format: This will be a video web chat in English.

Charlene Chou's RDA lecture at PKU

2011-03-03T14:19:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, we attended Charlene Chou's lecture about RDA testing at Peking University Library.

There were about 150 people in the audience. I met many familiar catalogers from various libraries in Beijing.

More about Charlene's lecture, please download her PPT file:

http://www.columbia.edu/~cc179/RDA_test_CALIS.ppt

NLC middle managers meet in a suburb of Beijing

2011-02-19T22:55:00.001-08:00

Department directors of National Library of China attend a two-day meeting today and tomorrow in a suburb of Beijing.

During the meeting, the plan for the whole year will be discussed.

About 80 department directors, deputy directors and assistant directors are present.

NLC Miniblog opens

2011-02-12T19:35:00.001-08:00

The official miniblog (a Chinese counterpart of Twitter at Sina.com) of National Library of China opened last week and has attracted about 8,000 fans.

Welcome to visit the following site:

http://t.sina.com.cn/1964077187

Last day before the Lunar New Year

2011-02-01T06:49:00.001-08:00

Today is the last work day before the Chinese Lunar New Year (February 3).

Many colleagues take leaves to go their hometowns for family reunion.

NLC section chiefs announced yesterday

2011-01-29T06:37:00.001-08:00

The appointment of about 200 section chiefs of National Library of China was announced yesterday.

According to the middle management rotation policy of National Library of China, department directors and deputy directors were appointed respectively in early December and late December 2010.

All the procedures for the selection of section chiefs took about a week.

In my department (Foreign Acquisitions and Cataloging Department), there are 5 newly promoted chief (or vice-chiefs) among the 14 positions of the 7 sections.

As the Lunar New Year approaching, many colleagues will return to their home towns to see their parents in the next week.

New Position in the New Year

2011-01-12T06:04:00.001-08:00

I became the director of the Foreign Acquisitions & Cataloging Department, National Library of China, on January 1, 2011.

It is my new position, but not quite new. Because I used to be in charge of foreign acquisitions and cataloging work from 1987 to 2004, and in charge of all acquisitions and cataloging work from 2004 to 2007.

During the last three year, I had the position of the director of the Chinese Acquisitions & Cataloging Department, which was split from the former Acquisitions & Cataloging Department in 2008.

Now I am back to my old office, and talk with my old colleagues.

I hope I will enjoy the new position in the next three years.

Rotation of NLC middle managers

2010-12-05T04:50:00.001-08:00

According to the policy of middle manager rotation of National Library of China (NLC), I will become Director, Foreign Acquisitions & Cataloging Department on January 1, 2011.

I like my new iPhone 4

2010-11-28T14:43:00.001-08:00

Two weeks ago, my old mobile phone (Nokia 6670) did work anymore. I bought a new Nokia (N97mini) and didn't like it. Then, I asked my vendor to change another one (iPhone 4) for me.

I like the functions of iPhone 4, especially the functions of Calendar, iPod, WiFi network, GPS, etc.

OLCC Quality Controller Training in Progress

2010-11-11T23:14:00.001-08:00

The Quality Controller Training of the Online Library Cataloging Center (OLCC) began today in Beijing.

As the director of OLCC, I planned the training course several months ago for the improvement of uploaded bibliographic records of the cooperative cataloging consortium. This training course for senior catalogers of member libraries of OLCC will take four days from Friday to Monday.

National Library of China shares its rich collection with libraries worldwide through OCLC's WorldCat Resource Sharing service

2010-11-03T04:28:00.001-07:00

http://www.oclc.org/news/releases/2010/201028.htm

NLC Games held today

2010-10-24T05:24:00.001-07:00

The Ninth Games of National Library of China began today at the stadium of Renmin University of China.

Today's weather is not very good. All the staff attended the opening ceremony in the rain.

Prof. Yuan Mingdun passed away

2010-10-18T00:19:00.001-07:00

Prof. YUAN Mingdun (1928-2010), former chairman of the Department of Library Science, Beijing Normal University, passed away last week. His farewell ceremony was held yesterday at an hospital.

Prof. Yuan was an early researchers in computer languages, library automation and MARC formats.

National Standards for CNMARC Format in Progress

2010-10-10T01:34:00.000-07:00

The two China national standards for CNMARC bibliographic and authorities formats began early this year.

They are supposed to be based on the newly revised UNIMARC formats (bibliographic format, 2008, and authorities format, 2009).

I am chairing the drafting of the authority format, and Mr. WANG Dongbo is chairing the revision of the bibliographic format.

The translation of the UNIMARC Authorities Format is about to be completed. I hope the job could be done in the next year.

Lea Salonga and Miss Saigon

2010-10-02T07:07:00.001-07:00

I finally found a DVD of Miss Saigon from a friend. It is the version of the performance at Fullerton Civic Light Opera on September 16, 2005. It is the only one I can find with the full stage performance of Miss Saigon, but I don't like the actors very much.

Some months ago, I got a DVD The Heat Is On: The Making of 'Miss Saigon', which describes the first performance of the musical in 1989, with Lea Salonga playing Kim. However, The Heat Is On contains just some pieces of the whole musical, and I cannot get a general idea.

Lea played Éponine in the Les Misérables: The Dream Cast in Concert in 1998. I like her very much, even more than the roles of Fantine and Cosette.

Long holiday for the National Day

2010-10-02T06:31:00.001-07:00

Today is the second day of the long holiday for the National Day (October 1).

The long holiday is a good opportunity for me to recover from intensive and busy work, enjoy life with family, and find time to do something left behind.

IFLA MulDiCat released

2010-09-23T04:07:00.000-07:00

IFLA just released MulDiCat - Multilingual Dictionary of Cataloguing Terms and Concepts.

National Librarian of Australia to retire this week

2010-09-22T05:41:00.000-07:00

I just know from NLA that Jan Fullerton, Director-General of National Library of Australia is going to retire this week:

Director-General Jan Fullerton to retire

A staff of NLA told me that this Friday (September 24) will be her last day in NLA.

The position of Director-General has just been advertised so it will be some time before the new Director-General is appointed.

5th China-North America Library Conference held today

2010-09-09T05:06:00.001-07:00

Today is the 101th anniversary of National Library of China.

The 5th China-North America Library Conference is held in Beijing during September 9-10, 2010.

WANG Wenzhang, Vice-Minister of Culture, ZHOU Heping, National Librarian of China, and Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian of Library of Congress, made speeches at the opening ceremony.

Ukrainian President visited National Library of China

2010-09-03T05:13:00.001-07:00

Today, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych (Віктор Янукович) visited National Library of China and donated Peresopnytsia Gospels (Пересопницьке Євангеліє) to the library.

NLC System maintenance began last Sunday

2010-08-30T15:24:00.001-07:00

National Library of China began its maintenance of the Aleph500 system last Sunday. The purpose of the maintenance is to update all records in the subject database with data from the 2nd edition of the Classified Chinese Thesaurus, and make batch changes of corresponding subject fields of the bibliographic records.

The maintenance will be finished on Thursday (September 2).

Fifth Edition of Chinese Library Classification published

2010-08-20T09:16:00.001-07:00

Fifth Edition of Chinese Library Classification published today by National Library of China Publishing House.

Please see the following details in Chinese:

http://www.nlcpress.com/cn/BookDB/BookDetail.asp?BookID=3945

NLC began submitting Western records to OCLC

2010-08-18T06:50:00.001-07:00

National Library of China (NLC) began submitting bibliographic records for monographs in Western languages to OCLC.

Since the signing of the agreement between NLC and OCLC in 2008, NLC has submitted 2.3 million bibliographic records for Chinese monographs to OCLC WorldCat database.

NLC began to use OCLC Resource Sharing platform for interlibrary lending early this year.

In August 2010, NLC submitted about 1 million bibliographic records for Western languages to OCLC to be uploaded to WorldCat database. Some NLC holdings are already displayed in OCLC records.

The batch conversion and uploading work is done by Online Library Cataloging Center (OLCC) under National Library of China.

I am very glad, because I am the director of OLCC, which is a Chinese counterpart of OCLC.

New edition of Chinese Library Classification to be published soon

2010-08-13T07:34:00.001-07:00

The fifth edition of Chinese Library Classification (CLC) is to be published next month by National Library of China Publishing House.

First published in 1975, CLC is revised regularly, with the editorial office hosted by National Library of China.

The last edition (fourth edition) was published 11 years ago in 1999.

The revision work of CLC began in 2007, with the editorial board consisting of experts from all around China.

In January 2008, the editorial office (5 full-time staff) became one section of my department, i.e. Chinese Acquisitions & Cataloging Department.

I am very glad that CLC5 will be published very soon. It will be an important event in Chinese library community.

9 cataloging-related Chinese translations of IFLA papers uploaded

2010-08-08T00:18:00.001-07:00

I organized 9 volunteers for the Chinese translation of IFLA papers for Cataloguing, Bibliography and UNIMARC sessions. They have been uploaded to the IFLA websites at the following address:

http://www.ifla.org/en/conferences-sessions/216

with the following details:

编目组(Cataloguing Section)
- Using relator codes in connection with accesspoints instead of quoting statements of responsibility - the Danish implementation / HANNE HØRL HANSEN (DBC, Copenhagen, Denmark) = 与检索点一起使用责任方式代码而不引用责任说明——丹麦的实践 / 中文翻译：王彦侨（中国国家图书馆）
- Bibliographischer und universeller Zugriff: Schriftliche historische Quellen und Werke der fiktionalen Literatur in FRBR / FRANK FÖRSTER (Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, Kiel, Germany) = 书目和普遍获取：史料和虚构作品的FRBRoo应用 / 中文翻译：王璐（中国国家图书馆）
- Identifiers: bridging language barriers / JAN PISANSKI and MAJA ŽUMER (University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia) and TROND AALBERG (University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway) = 标识符：跨越语言的障碍 / 中文翻译：陈宁（中国国家图书馆）
- Incorporating multilingual bibliographic records into library databases: the case of Lesotho / 'MABAFOKENG MAKARA (National University of Lesotho, Maseru, Lesotho) = 把多语言书目记录并入图书馆数据库：以莱索托为例 / 中文翻译：刘雅（中国国家图书馆）
书目组(Bibliography Section)
- Bibliography of Serbia - free online edition / VESNA INJAC (National Library of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia) = 塞尔维亚书目——免费联机版本 / 中文翻译：刘伟（中国国家图书馆）
- Content analysis of open access manuscripts in National Library and Archives of Islamic Republic of Iran (NLAI) / FATHOLLAH KESHAVARZ, SAEEDEH AKBARI-DARYAN and AFSANEH TEYMOURIKHANI (National Library and Archives of Islamic Republic of Iran, Tehran, Iran) = 开放存取手稿的内容分析——以伊朗伊斯兰共和国国家图书与档案馆为例 / 中文翻译：吴晓静（中国国家图书馆）
- PDF, CSV, RSS and other acronyms: redefining the bibliographic services in the German National Library / LARS G. SVENSSON and YVONNE JAHNS (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Frankfurt, Germany) = PDF，CSV，RSS和其他缩略词：重新定义德国国家图书馆的书目服务 / 中文翻译：中文翻译：朱青青（中国国家图书馆）
- Open access to national bibliography: Polish approach / MAGDALENA KRYNICKA (National Library of Poland, Warsaw, Poland) = 开放存取国家书目——以波兰为例 / 中文翻译：刘佳（中国科学院国家科学图书馆）
UNIMARC
- UNIMARC in The European Library and related projects / NUNO FREIRE (National Library of Portugal, Lisbon, Portugal) = 欧洲图书馆和相关项目中的UNIMARC / 中文翻译：李恺（首都图书馆，北京）

Speech at LSC Annual Conference

2010-07-27T00:29:00.001-07:00

I just gave a presentation at the "Information Resource Development" session of the Annual Conference of the Library Society of China, focusing on hot topics in information resource development and sharing, and the practices of National Library of China.

I will leave for Beijing this evening.

LSC Annual Conference to be held next Monday

2010-07-23T20:08:00.001-07:00

The Annual Conference of the Library Society of China is to be held in Changchun, Jilin Province, next Monday.

There will be more than 800 participants from all around China, and about 80 from National Library of China.

I will have a 30-minute speech at the Resource Development and Sharing session, and lead about 20 colleagues from my department, the Chinese Acquisitions & Cataloging Department.

I am sorry, Gothenburg!

2010-07-20T04:51:00.001-07:00

I am sorry, Gothenburg!

I will not attend the World Library and Information Congress (WLIC), or IFLA General Conference, in Gothenburg, August 9-15, 2010.

Of course, I will not attend the meetings of the Standing Committee of the Cataloguing Section and the ISBD Review Group.

I have organized the Chinese translation of 9 papers of the conference, among which 4 for the Cataloguing Session, 4 for the Bibliography Session and 1 for the UNIMARC Session. Most volunteers are my colleagues from the National Library of China, and two are from other libraries. I would like to express my sincere thanks for their efforts for IFLA.

CNONIX Working Group Established

2010-07-15T15:42:00.001-07:00

CNONIX Working Group was established on July 14, 2010.

CNONIX is a Chinese localization of the international standard ONIX, which is for the information exchange of book publishing and trade industry.

The working group is sponsored by GAPP (General Administration of Press and Publication) of the government, organized by a secretariat under China Publishing Group Corporation.

The working group is divided into Steering Subgroup, Expert Subgroup, Drafting Subgroup and Secretariat.

I am one of the members of the Expert Subgroup. The expert subgroup members are mainly from publishers and booksellers and responsible for the review of the new standard.

OLCC UCS Training Held in Beijing

2010-07-09T19:09:00.001-07:00

A training course for UCS system for OLCC is held in Beijing during July 10-11, 2010. 80 trainees from OLCC users and members attend the training.

UCS system is an union library cataloging system developed by Ex Libris specially for Online Library Cataloging Center, National Library of China.

The new system will be put into use in August as a new module of Aleph 500 of Ex Libris.

As the director of OLCC and the chair of the UCS project team, I spent five years for the system. I am very glad to see that the new system will be completed very soon.

30th Anniversary Reunion of Class 7906 of the High School Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University

2010-06-28T05:00:00.001-07:00

I. Photos

新浪（顾犇） / Sina: http://photo.blog.sina.com.cn/category/u/1230856804/s/253976
网易（顾犇） / NetEase (Ben Gu): http://photo.163.com/bgu61/list/#aid=205322510&m=0&page=1
网易（顾犇） / NetEase (Joseph Yan): http://photo.163.com/josephyan/list/#aid=205388865&m=0&page=1
Flickr (Ben Gu): http://www.flickr.com/photos/guben/sets/72157624248405831/

II. Video Clips

新浪（顾犇） / Sina: http://you.video.sina.com.cn/a/4157103-1230856804.html
优酷（顾犇） / YouKu: http://www.youku.com/playlist_show/id_4622976.html

Second National Conference on Library Cataloging held in Nanjing, May 31-June 1

2010-06-01T00:16:00.001-07:00

The Second National Conference on Library Cataloging is held in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, May 31-June 1, 2010. 120 participants attended the conference.

The conference is sponsored by the National Library of China, co-sponsored by Information Organization Committee of the Library Society of China, Nanjing Library and China Library Weekly, and supported by Ex Libris.

Yesterday, Prof. Wang Songlin gave keynote speech, and some experts from various libraries and library schools in China spoke about hot issues in international library cataloging and information organization community.

During the first session of the second day (June 1), about 10 speakers presented their papers for the conference, which are already published in the conference proceedings in May 2010.

Major topics of the conference are: outsourcing, roles of catalogers, ICP, FRBR, FRAD, FRSAD, name authority file, VIAF, Chinese Library Classification, Classified Chinese Thesaurus, SKOS, RDA, etc. Managing Director of Ex Libris China Office introduced the newly development Union Cataloging System of Aleph500 system.

During the first conference in Wuhan in 2006, participants discussed seriously about the unification of cataloging rules in China. The situation has been improved very much.

Both the first and the second conferences is mainly coordinated by me. I spent quite a lot of time for call-for-paper, review of submitted papers and arrangement of presenters. About 10 of my colleagues from the Acquisitions & Cataloging Department volunteered to do all the arrangements for the conference. I am glad that the conference is very successful, and is much better than the first conference in 2006.

OLCC held annual meeting in Nanjing

2010-05-30T14:35:00.001-07:00

Online Library Cataloging Center (OLCC) of the National Library of China held its annual meeting in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.

During the meeting, the Jiangsu Provincial Sub-Center of OLCC was officially established.

Established in 1997 and operated by the Chinese Acquisitions & Cataloging Department of the National Library of China, OLCC have 14 sub-centers and 1160 users.

About 80 participants from 46 member libraries attended the meeting, and technicians from Ex Libris and OLCC showed the newly developed Union Cataloging System especially for OLCC and to be released next month.

I have been the director of OLCC since 2004, and have spent quite a lot of time for the development of the new system.

Children's Library of National Library of China to be opened today

2010-05-30T14:19:00.001-07:00

National Library of China will open its Children's Library today. It will end the long-lasting controversy over the issue whether the national library should have a children's library or reading room, and will play a leading role in Chinese library community where children's library services are not well developed.

National Library of China shares its rich collection with libraries worldwide through OCLC's WorldCat Resource Sharing service

2010-05-28T01:22:00.001-07:00

OCLC News:

http://www.oclc.org/us/en/news/releases/2010/201028.htm

Herbie Hancock and Dee Dee Bridgewater in Beijing

2010-05-11T08:05:00.001-07:00

Herbie Hancock and Dee Dee Bridgewater with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Ensemble

Forbidden City Concert Hall, Beijing, China

May 11, 2010

Chinese Library Classification at the Final Revision Stage

2010-05-06T15:52:00.001-07:00

The final version of the fifth edition of Chinese Library Classification (CLC) is reviewed by experts from major libraries in China. The final revision meeting is now held in Xiamen (Amoy).

CLC was first published in 1975, and is now widely used in almost all libraries in China.

The fourth edition of CLC was published in 1999, and the electronic version of the fourth edition (version 1.0) was published in 2001.

The fifth edition was planned to be published in 2009, but it has been postponed until now.

Second National Conference on Library Cataloging to be held in Nanjing in late May

2010-04-03T06:19:00.001-07:00

The Second National Conference on Library Cataloging is to be held in Nanjing during May 31-June 2, 2010. The conference is sponsored by National Library of China and supported by Information Organization Committee of the Library Society of China, Nanjing Library and China Library Weekly.

The first conference was held in Wuhan in 2006, with some topics such as the internationalization of Chinese library cataloging and the unification of cataloging rules. Since then, Chinese library catalogers have been studying latest developments in international library cataloging community, and have reached some agreements on library cataloging rules.

Chinese version of Guidelines for National Bibliographies officially released

2010-03-26T18:02:00.001-07:00

The Chinese version of National bibliographies in the digital age : guidance and new directions is just released at the IFLA site:

http://www.ifla.org/en/publications/guidelines-for-national-bibliographies-in-the-electronic-age

with the direct link to the PDF file (800 KB):

http://www.ifla.org/files/bibliography/national_bibliographies_in_the_digital_age-zh.pdf

The original English version is published in August 2009:

National bibliographies in the digital age : guidance and new directions / IFLA Working Group on Guidelines for National Bibliographies ; edited by Maja Žumer. — München : Saur, 2009. — 140 p. : some ill. ; 25 cm. — (IFLA series on bibliographic control ; v. 39 )

and the Chinese translation is done by staff in National Library of China.

Web version of CCT officially released

2010-03-23T06:37:00.001-07:00

The Web version of CCT (Classified Chinese Thesaurus) has been officially released. It was developed during 2008-2009, and the trial version was released in June 2009. After an official assessment, it was officially released last week.

The Web version integrated the contents of the printed version of CCT and Chinese Library Classification, and becomes a powerful tool for catalogers in their subject indexing.

The trial free accounts will be valid until June 15.

Please visit the CCT site the have a look:

http://cct.nlc.gov.cn/

Chinese Counterpart of ISO 5127 Published

2010-03-15T06:07:00.001-07:00

The Chinese counterpart of ISO 5127 (Information and documentation -- Vocabulary) is published today:

《信息与文献术语》 (Information and documentation -- Vocabulary) (ISO 5127:2001, MOD)（中华人民共和国国家标准，GB/T 4894—2009，代替GB/T 4894—1985, GB/T 13143—1991）（2009年9月30日发布，2010年2月1日实施）

I am one of the Working Group members during 2008-2009. I am glad to see that the Chinese National Standard is finally published.

Chinese National Standard for Bibliographic Description Released

2010-03-04T01:05:00.001-08:00

Today, I received a copy of the new National Standard Bibliographic Description -- Part 1: General, published by Standards Press of China in January 2010.

It is based on ISBD(G) and ISBD Preliminary Consolidated Edition.

The Working Group for the Standard consists of four members:

HU Guangxiang (Chair) (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences),

LIU Xiaoling (National Library of China),

GU Ben (National Library of China) and

SHEN Zhenghua (Peking Universityy Library)

However, the new Standard is also controversial. Some experts think that there is no need for such a counterpart of ISBD(G), because we have already the ISBD Consolidated Edition.

Listening to Evita

2010-02-19T03:42:00.001-08:00

I bought a CD "Evita: Music From The Motion Picture" in Frankfurt and listened to the music during my travel. I like it very much, especially the following pieces:

Oh What A Circus / by Antonio Banderas
Don't Cry For Me Argentina / by Madonna
High Flying, Adored / by Antonio Banderas

I am looking for a DVD of the original motion picture. I hope I could borrow one after the holiday.

ISBD RG Extra Meeting held in Frankfurt

2010-02-05T08:01:00.000-08:00

ISBD Review Group Extra Meeting is held in Frankfurt during February 4-6, 2010.

Chinese version of FRAD available online

2010-01-20T05:02:00.001-08:00

The Chinese translation of FRAD (Functional Requirements for Authority Data) is available on the IFLANET today:

http://www.ifla.org/publications/functional-requirements-for-authority-data

PDF file (700KB):

http://www.ifla.org/files/cataloguing/frad/frad_2009-zh.pdf

The translation is done by Miss WANG Lu and her colleagues in National Library of China.

Forever Sutra

2010-01-11T21:53:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, I received a CD from Zhao Cong, a famous yong Pipa player.

The CD is a new collection of classical pieces played by her (with Pipa) and a piano, which includes:

1. Liuyang River;

2. Jazz -- Dvorak's Humoresque;

3. Dance Music of the Yi Tribe;

4. Beethoven's For Elise;

5. Butterfly Lovers, or, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai;

6. Romeo and Juliet;

7. Moonlight over Spring River;

8. Schuberts' Serenade;

9. Old Melodies of Yingzhou -- The Moon High Above;

10. Chopin's Nocturnes.

As one of Ms. Zhao's friends, I have several CD collections by her, which feature the mixture of traditional Chinese music, Western classical music and modern music. I like them very much.

She gave a lecture in National Library of China in March 2009 and had an audience of more than 100 people.

Here is Zhao Cong's blog (in Chinese):

http://blog.sina.com.cn/zhaocongpipa

Chinese version of ISBD Area 0 published

2010-01-05T22:49:00.001-08:00

Chinese version of ISBD Area 0 (ISBD Area 0: Content Form and Media Type Area) has just been published:

http://www.ifla.org/publications/isbd-area-0-content-form-and-media-type-area

The PDF file is at the following address:

http://www.ifla.org/files/cataloguing/isbd/area-0_2009-zh.pdf

I just completed the Chinese translation during the long holiday for the New Year (January 1-3, 2010).

Mr. ZHOU Heping becomes National Librarian of China

2009-12-23T00:40:00.001-08:00

Mr. ZHOU Heping, ex-Vice-Minister of Culture, becomes Director of National Library of China today.

During the meeting of senior staff of National Library of China this afternoon, Mr. CAI Wu, Minister of Culture, announced that Mr. ZHOU Heping becomes Director of the Library, and Mr. ZHAN Furui, ex-Director, becomes Deputy Diretor.

Mr. Zhou took the position of Deputy Director of National Library of China during 1995-2001 and the position of Vice-Minister of Culture during 2001-2009.

Chinese version of "Call for Papers" of the Cataloguing Section available at IFLA site

2009-12-11T01:08:00.001-08:00

Chinese version of "Call for Papers" of the Cataloguing Section:

http://www.ifla.org/en/calls-for-papers/1987

now available at IFLA site at the following address:

http://www.ifla.org/files/hq/annual-conference/ifla76/calls-for-papers/cataloguing-zh.pdf

Chinese version of Call for Poster Sessions uploaded

2009-12-07T01:42:00.001-08:00

Chinese version of "Call for Poster Sessions" for the next IFLA General Conference (WLIC) has been uploaded to the IFLA site:

http://www.ifla.org/en/ifla76/call-for-poster-sessions

The Chinese file (PDF file) can be downloaded from:

http://www.ifla.org/files/hq/annual-conference/ifla76/call-for-poster-sessions-zh.pdf

Chinese Periodicals information available at Ulrich's Directory

2009-11-26T00:34:00.001-08:00

Today, ProQuest staff visited our department and reported recent development of our cooperation.

National Library of China signed an agreement with ProQuest last year and began to provide Romanized records of Chinese periodicals early this year. I am very happy to see that all records have been converted and uploaded to Ulrich's Periodicals Directory.

CCEU Conference is held in Beijing

2009-11-24T14:11:00.001-08:00

Annual conference of China Consortium of Ex Libris Products User Group (CCEU) is held in Beijing during November 23-25, 2009. This time, the conference is hosted by National Library of China. I have been too busy and didn't attend the conference.

Seminar on Rare Book Cataloging held in Beijing

2009-11-16T14:25:00.001-08:00

The Seminar on Rare Book Cataloging in the Digital Age is held in Beijing. It began yesterday afternoon and will be concluded today at lunch time.

There are participants from major rare book collecting libraries in China and also from U.S.A., Japan and U.K.

As an observer, I attended several sessions of the seminar.

In China, there are differences in cataloging rules concerning rare books and modern books. This is my first time to attend any seminars in the rare book community, and I hope to find some opportunities for the coordination between the two communities.

NLC System Upgrading begins today

2009-11-10T14:21:00.001-08:00

In the final days of the system testing before the Aleph 500 upgrading in National Library of China, we were extremely busy with the coordination with the System Department and the system vendor, because some functions disappeared during the testing and and some indexes did work. The data of the Classified Chinese Thesaurus (CCT) with be uploaded to the subject authority database during the upgrading, and we hope to use CCT in NLC four years after it was published in 2005. In the last hours yesterday, it seemed that the problems had been solved.

The upgrading will be finished in the next Sunday. I hope everything will go smoothly.

LSC Annual Conference is held in Nanning

2009-11-03T05:34:00.001-08:00

The annual conference of the Library Society of China is being held in Nanning, Guangxi, China, during November 3-5, 2009. I will co-chair a session jointly by the Information Organization Committee and the Resource Development and Sharing Committee tomorrow morning, during which I will give a presentation about the latest developments of international and national cataloging issues.

The conference venue is just beside Zhongshan Road, which is famous for many restaurants of local cuisine.

First Snow in Beijing

2009-10-31T17:47:00.001-07:00

The first snow came to Beijing during the last night. I didn't remember such early snow in Beijing before.

NLC Aleph500 to be upgraded

2009-10-28T00:34:00.001-07:00

Staff of National Library of China are preparing to upgrade its Aleph500 system in the next month. We are testing the test system and examining the parameter setting tables to ensure that all indexes have been considered.

NLC Scientifc Research Seminar held today

2009-10-20T23:40:00.001-07:00

The Tenth NLC Scientific Research Seminar was held today in the new building of the National Library of China. There are 138 submitted papers and 56 papers selected for three levels of awards.

Today, about 150 staff attended the seminar and 8 award winners gave their presentations to the audience.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

2009-10-16T08:22:00.001-07:00

Last week, I watched the DVD of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, another musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Like Jesus Christ Superstar, it is also based on Bible (see Genesis, Chapter 37).

LSC Annual Conference to be held in Nanning

2009-10-15T06:34:00.001-07:00

The annual conference of the Library Society of China (LSC) is to be held in Nanning during November 3-5, 2009. Nanning is a city in the Guangxi Autonomous Region and is also one of the Southernmost cities in mainland China.

We have just planned a joint open programme of the Information Organization Committee and the Resource Development and Sharing Committee of LSC. I will be one of the co-chairs of the programme, and will speak about the latest development of international and national cataloging standards.

Jesus Christ SuperStar

2009-10-09T15:20:00.001-07:00

During the long holiday, I watched the DVD Jesus Christ SuperStar (Andrew Lloyd Webber) I bought recently in Shanghai. I bought another DVD several years ago, but the DVD has a problem of audio and video synchronization in the first half of the drama, and I was unable to view the whole musical at that time.

With new musical composition and stage performance techniques, it doesn't lack expressiveness and tension, and reflects different aspects of human nature.

I like the movies The Passion of the Christ and the song "By the rivers of Babylon", which are also based on stories in the Bible. The text of the song is almost entirely derived from Psalm 137.

Photos of the IFLA Cataloguing Section in Milan

2009-10-07T07:17:00.001-07:00

During the long holiday (October 1-8) for the National Day (October 1), I spent time to upload some photos of the IFLA Cataloguing Section (Standing Committee meeting and Open Programme) and the Division IV (Bibliographic Control) Open Programme during the IFLA General Conference in Milan to my personal website at the following URL:

http://www.bengu.cn/homepage/library/ifla_catsection_milan2009.htm

Actually, the Open Programme of the Division IV is the last one, because the new IFLA structure will be effective after the Milan conference. We didn't have our social hour this year, and celebrate the publication of IFLA Cataloguing Principles (in 20 languages) immediately after the open programme instead. During the reception, Barbara Tillett told me: "It is a hard job, but we did it." I am glad that the Chinese version is done by some Chinese catalogers and me. I saw our names in the Chinese part of the book.

National Day Celebrations

2009-09-30T21:15:00.001-07:00

Today is the first day of the long holiday (October 1-8) for the 60th National Day (October 1) of the People's Republic of China. We all stay at home and watch the military review and the parade. The little girl is especially excited to see the "rainbow planes", which are the fighters ejecting colorful smoke. Looking through the windows of my home, we can see these "rainbow planes" flying from Tian'anmen Square.

Please see photos about it at:

http://www.chinaview.cn/60thprc/

Beijing Subway Line 4 opened yesterday

2009-09-29T07:14:00.001-07:00

Beijing Subway Line 4 opened yesterday in the afternoon. It is important to the users and staff of the National Library of China, because there is a National Library station of the line just in front of the main entrance of the old library building beside the Zizhuyuan (Black Bamboo Park). With the National Library Station is in the middle, the Line 4 has stations at some important locations, such as South Railway Station, Beijing Zoo, Peking University and the Summer Palace.

The opening of the Subway Line 4 will change the life of the staff of the library, and facilitate their transportation everyday to the library.

New Academic Research Committee of the Library Society of China established today

2009-09-22T23:55:00.001-07:00

The conference for the establishment of the New Academic Research Committee (2009-2014) of the Library Society of China is held in Putuo District Library during September 23-24, 2009.

To be opened in December of this year, the newly building Putuo District Library has a floor space of about 30,000 square meters, costing about 200 million RMB yuan.

The 2009 National Library (Suzhou River) Forum: a Workshop on Library Service Case Analysis was held in the morning immediately after the opening of the conference. The Putuo District Library demonstrated its new services, such as Information Supermarket and Self-Service Book Floating.

The 34th Meeting of Directors of ISSN National Centers Held in National Library of China

2009-09-21T07:19:00.001-07:00

Report (with photos) of the ISSN Directors' meeting in Beijing at the NLC site:

The 34th Meeting of Directors of ISSN National Centers was held in National Library of China during September 14th to September 18th of 2009 shortly after the library celebrated its centennial birthday on September 9th. Over 30 delegates from 25 countries attended this meeting, during which directors of ISSN national centers and library professionals around the world had many in-depth discussions, view exchanges and experience sharing. Among issues on the agenda, the implementation of ISSN-L and ISSN assignment policy such as Criteria for the Selection of ISSNable Integrating e-resources and ISSN projects PEPRS received the highest concern.

ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) is an eight-digit number which identifies periodical publications, including electronic serials. The ISSN database, ISSN Registry, is the most comprehensive and authoritative source for the identification of serial publications world-wide. The number of records in the ISSN Register totaled 1,450,268 (including current and dead) by August, 2009.

ISSN China Centre was established in National Library of China in the year 1985. Through years of efforts, the number of serial records in CNMARC format in the ISSN China Centre database totaled 13,100 by June, 2009, which covered almost all records for periodicals officially published in mainland China and some bibliographic records for almanacs.

ISSN China Centre has signed agreement concerning access to ISSN China Centre records with the world-renowned information service provider ProQuest, which further promoted the application of bibliographic records of Chinese serials to an international level.

ISSN has been applied to many fields. ISSN is used in libraries for identifying titles, ordering and checking in serials, and claiming missing issues. ISSN simplifies interlibrary loan and cooperative cataloging workflows. Employed as a standard numeric identification code, ISSN can be used in computers for updating and linking files, for retrieving and transmitting data. ISSN also provides a useful and economical method of communication between publishers and suppliers, making trade distribution systems faster and more efficient. ISSN results in accurate citing of serials by scholars, researchers, abstracters, and librarians.

The ISSN Directors' Meetings are technical meetings, held on annual basis, which provide an opportunity for members of each ISSN national centers and the International Center to discuss issues related to the assignment and management of ISSNs, learn of new developments and harmonize the practices of the various ISSN national centers. The meetings are held in a different country each year since 1974, hosted by one of the ISSN national centers. It is the first time for ISSN China Centre to host the meeting after the ISSN national centers of the U.S., France and Switzerland, etc. as hosting organizations.

Recently, new types of resources such as continuing electronic resources are constantly emerging as the rapid development of digital technologies, which poses new challenges to ISSN assignment and management in many countries. This meeting will facilitate exchange and cooperation between ISSN China Centre and other ISSN centers, keep ISSN China Centre informed of the latest development of ISSN, which in return, will promote the ISSN assignment and management in China.

Original URLs:

English version: http://www.nlc.gov.cn/en/news/nlcnews_2009092101.htm

Chinese version: http://www.nlc.gov.cn/syzt/2009/0921/article_374.htm

Discussion of Cataloging Rules in Forbidden City

2009-09-17T15:06:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, during the second day of the agenda of the Meeting of Directors of ISSN National Centres in Beijing, I gave a presentation about the special characteristics of major changes of titles for CJK serials. I summarized proposals from Chinese colleagues, ISBD Review Group, and CJK colleagues in ISBD RG. It seems that all participants understand the proposals very well. We will have to do further work in the next couple of months to consult all members of the ISSN Network.

In the afternoon, we visited the Forbidden City. Standing before the Hall of Preserving Harmony, Françoise Pellé, Director of the ISSN International Centre, said that it is the best place for us to discuss the harmonization of different cataloging rules, because we have so many harmonies here - the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony. It is an interesting idea indeed!

Meeting of Directors of ISSN National Centres begins in Beijing

2009-09-13T18:34:00.001-07:00

34th Meeting of Directors of ISSN National Centres begins in Beijing today. ISSN China Centre, which is located in National Library of China, hosts this meeting. During the first two days (September 14-15), there is a ISSN/Virtua training session.

NLC Staff got IFLA/OCLC Early Career Development Fellowship

2009-09-13T03:25:00.001-07:00

OCLC names six librarians to participate in 2010 Jay Jordan IFLA/OCLC Early Career Development Fellowship Program.

Jay Jordan spoke at NLC

2009-09-11T03:39:00.001-07:00

Today in the morning, Jay Jordan, CEO of OCLC, spoke at National Library of China about information strategies of OCLC and libraries in the age of WWW. This is almost the last event in the series of activities for the centennial celebration of NLC.

NLC centennial celebration held yeserday

2009-09-09T15:10:00.001-07:00

The Centennial Celebration of the National Library China was held yesterday at the Concert Hall of the library. About 1000, including 300 guests, attended the ceremony, and some central government leaders gave speeches at the ceremony.

In the morning of the day, a workshop on the internationalization of librarianship was held in the new building of the library, with guest speakers from around the world.

NLC hosts welcoming dinner for guests

2009-09-08T07:49:00.001-07:00

Today, National Library of China hosted a welcoming dinner for 200 domestic and international guests for the centenary celebration to be held tomorrow. Ellen Tise, IFLA President, and some CEOs of national libraries attend the dinner.

English "Annual Review of Library Science in China" published

2009-09-07T07:32:00.001-07:00

Annual Review of Journal Library Science in China is just published this month by National Library of China Publishing House. It is edited by the Editorial Office of the bimonthly Journal of Library Science in China of the Library Society of China, and published annually in English. It is the first time for the Library Society of China to publish an English journal. It is hoped that it will published more frequently, bimonthly or quarterly, in the future.

8th NLC Art Festival held today

2009-09-03T07:39:00.000-07:00

The 8th Art Festival of the National Library of China was held today. With 20 titles in the program, all performances were presented by staff of the library. Among them, there were a chorus and a musical by the Chinese Acquisitions & Cataloging Department.

Attending IFLA in Milan

2009-08-27T03:50:00.000-07:00

I has been a week since we arrinved in Milan last Saturday. We are all busy with meetings (Wording Group and Standing Committe meetings) and open sessions.
Translators for IFLA Express and simultaneous interpreters and also very tired. It is not easy for these young girls to do so much work in a short period of time. Since they have done it for several IFLA conferences and have got experiences, I do not have to spend to much time in taking care of them.
Today is the last of the conference, and I will finish my meetings at about 7 o'clock in the evening.