Chinese Version of IFLA LRM Published

The Chinese version of the IFLA LRM (IFLA Library Reference Model: a Conceptual Model for Bibliographic Information) was published on the IFLA website on December 5, 2020. It was translated by catalogers of the National Library of China in the past two years.

Since the publication of FRBR in 1998, there had been little attention from the Chinese library community until September 2002, when Barbara Tillett visited Beijing and introduced it to colleagues in China. During the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, there were quite a lot of articles on FRBR published in Chinese journals of library science, and there were also some experimental projects for the application of FRBR to Chinese library catalogs. The Chinese version of FRBR (jointly by librarians from Shanghai Jiao Tong University Library, the Shanghai Library, Peking University Library and the National Library of China) was finally released on the IFLA website in 2008.

With the adaptation of ISBD to FRBR, the conceptual model family has been paid more attention by Chinese library catalogers and scholars. FRAD (Functional Requirements for Authority Data) was translated into Chinese by Lu WANG and other colleagues from the National Library of China (NLC), and was published in January 2010. Then, FRSAD (Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data) was translated by Sha LIU from the Wuhan University, and was published in December 2013.

However, FRBRoo and LRM had received little attention from China before 2016, when Pat Riva gave a lecture with the title “IFLA Library Reference Model: Overview” in NLC, Beijing, China, October 21. About 120 librarians from NLC and other libraries in Beijing attended the lecture, and got latest information about the IFLA LRM. Then, more Chinese librarians began to keep up with the future development of FRBR/LRM.

Since the RDA Toolkit Restructure and Redesign (3R) Project has implemented the IFLA LRM, we think it important to have a Chinese version. Thus, six catalogers from NLC jointly completed the translation, and finalized it in May 2020. Much time was spent for the deliberation of the text and the understanding of the new terms, and the translation is also a process of comparison and learning of related standards, formats and rules.

We hope the Chinese version of the IFLA LRM will promote the understanding of international cataloging related activities in the Chinese library community. 

https://www.ifla.org/publications/node/11412

How to put humans in cages?

Mr. Ying HAN, one of my friends and a painter from Qingdao (Tsingtao), is very philosophical. Two years ago at the beginning of the Year of the Dog, he made an ex-libris for me, with a dog saying "how to put humans in cages?"

Two years later, faced with the 2019-nCoronaVirus, we have to stay at home for several weeks, just like animals in cages. Animals are coronated at the Year of the Rat. Humans will be punished by the nature, if they continue to be so greedy.

New Book Release for Mr. Changwen Shen

Yesterday, I attended a new book release ceremony in the PageOne bookstore, Qianmen, Beijing.
The book 八八沈公, or Mr. Shen at 88, published by Zhejiang University Press, is a collection of essays by the friends of Mr. Changwen Shen for the celebration of his 88th birthday on September 26, 2019. Most of them talks about funny anecdotes about Mr. Shen.
In my article is 饕餮沈公, or Gourmet Shen, I recollected my friendship with Mr. Shen and several meetings often at dinner tables. Mr. Shen has a wide social circles from various communities, and eating is one of his major ways of social interactions.

National Day Celebration

I spent the whole day at the Tian'anmen Square for the National Day celebration on October 1, 2019. I was very tired and needed several days to recover. The thousand-people Joint Military Band in the morning and the thousand-people joint orchestra in the evening were extremely impressive.

110th Anniversary of the National Library of China

110th Anniversary of the National Library of China, September 9, 2019.

Reading ceremony for the Book Day

Reading ceremony at the National Library of China for the World Book and Copyright Day, April 23, 2019. CCTV reported this event immediately.

New Year of the Dog

Today is the first day of the Chinese lunar new year (the Year of the Dog). We greeted readers in the morning as usual. Many readers received little souvenirs. For the first three readers, they received ten prize-awarded new books, but they arrived as early as 9:00 pm yesterday evening. I was glad to meet a student volunteer with traditional Chinese costume.

FRBR / LRM Lectures in China

FRBR / LRM LECTURES IN CHINA

Ben Gu, National Library of China

Published in IFLA Metadata Newsletter, Vol. 2, no. 2, December 2016

http://www.ifla.org/cataloguing/newsletter

Pat Riva, Associate University Librarian, Collection Services at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, gave a lecture with the title "IFLA Library Reference Model: Overview" in the National Library of China (NLC), Beijing, China, October 21, 2016. As the chair of the FRBR Consolidation Editorial Group since 2013, Pat Riva spoke about the evolution of the IFLA models, describing the user tasks, modeling decisions, entities, properties, attributes, relationships, aggregates, seriality, and the plans for the next steps. About 120 librarians from NLC and other libraries in Beijing attended the lecture, and they asked many questions about the conception, the details and the future of the IFLA LRM.

Before the lecture in Beijing, Pat Riva gave the plenary session "Resource Discovery in the Internet Age" at the Zhejiang Forum on Public Digital Culture, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, October 17-19, 2016, and also talked about the library models in the Semantic Web and the relationships among library, museum and archives models.

Prior to that, the Shanghai Library had invited Pat Riva to present a Workshop on the FRBRoo Model and its Environment, Shanghai, October 14. During the workshop, Pat Riva introduced FRBRoo and its relationships with FRBR(ER), CIDOC CRM and IFLA LRM to the colleagues from the Shanghai Library and other librarians in Shanghai.

Since the publication of FRBR in 1998, there had been little attention from the Chinese library community until September 2002, when Barbara Tillett visited Beijing and introduced it to colleaguesin China. During the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, there were quite a lot of articles on FRBR published in Chinese journals of library science, and there were also some experimental projects for the application of FRBR to Chinese library catalogs. The Chinese version of FRBR (jointly by librarians from Shanghai Jiao Tong University Library, the Shanghai Library, Peking University Library and the National Library of China) was finally released on the IFLA website in 2008. However, FRBRoo and LRM had not received much attention from China. Pat Riva's lectures in Hangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing will therefore have a special importance. I hope more Chinese colleagues will pay attention to the future development of FRBR/LRM.

Sixth National Conference on Library Acquisitions held in Wuhan

The Sixth National Conference on Library Acquisitions was successfully held in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, May 12-13, 2016.

The conference was jointly sponsored by the National Library of China (NLC) and China National Publications Import & Export (Group) Corporation (CNPIEC), and also supported by China Publishing & Media Journal, Library Society of China, Hubei Provincial Library and Library Society of Hubei Province.

The conference included Opening Session, Expert Speeches, Forum, Discussion, Lecture and Closing Session.

Experts from Wuhan University, Xiamen University, Nanjing Library and Chinese Academy of Sciences gave their speeches on different aspects of library acquisitions, and guests from Peking University, Digital Media Company of the China Publishing Group, National Library of China, Shanghai Library, Wuhan University, Gale, The Commercial Press and CNPIEC attended the forum between the library community and the publishing community.

The conference was firstly held in Kunming, Yunnan Province, in 2005, and has become an important conference for the exchange of information among acquisitions librarians, publishers and booksellers.

The conference was also suported by Elsevier, John Wiley & Sons, Cengage Learning Gale, Oxford University Press, OverDrive, Cambridge University Press, Brill, Springer Nature and ProQuest.

Reports about the conference was published by more than 10 media, and has been republished by more than 50 media.

For photos: http://dwz.cn/wuhan2016

For video clips:http://dwz.cn/wuhan2016v

Please see CNTV site for text and video report: http://kejiao.cntv.cn/2016/04/26/ARTIztukcSTXldiwOC4usXul160426.shtml

Chris Oliver: Moving forward with RDA

The Journal of the National Library of China just published Chris Oliver's article "Moving forward with RDA: Based on the presentation given at the National Library of China, October 26, 2015". The original English version is available at:

http://gtxk.nlc.cn/ch/reader/create_pdf.aspx?file_no=201601014&flag=1&journal_id=jtnlc&year_id=2016

and the Chinese version is available at:

http://gtxk.nlc.cn/ch/reader/create_pdf.aspx?file_no=201601013&flag=1&journal_id=jtnlc&year_id=2016

UNIMARC in China and the Publishing of Chinese Edition of UNIMARC Manual: Authorities Format

I have just published a new article in Library Journal, published by Shanghai Library:

UNIMARC在中国以及《UNIMARC手册：规范格式》中文版的出版

UNIMARC in China and the Publishing of Chinese Edition of UNIMARC Manual: Authorities Format

Details can be found at the following site:

http://www.libnet.sh.cn:8081/tsgzz/CN/Y2014/V33/I10/108

Chinese Interpretors in WLIC2012

Yesterday evening, I had dinner with six Chinese interpreters and translators from National Library of China for the IFLA General Confernce (WLIC 2012). Three of them are from my department, the Foreign Acquisitions & Cataloging Department.

My article published in EALRGA Newsletter

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

Web Page for ISSN Directors' Meeting opened

A special Web page for the ISSN Directors' Meeting to be held in Beijing in September opened today:
http://www.nlc.gov.cn/yjfw/issn/about.html

Chinese PM visisted national library

Today in the afternoon, Chinese Prime Minister WEN Jiabao visited National Library of China and participated in a reading salon there.

The Howard University Choir visits Beijing

Today, I attended the performance of The Howard University Choir in the Embassy of the United States in Beijing. Among the music from the African American Experience, I like "St. Louis Blues" very much.
The choir consists of 16 members under the leadership of Dr. J. Weldon Norris.

IFLA Chinese Language Centre established!

Forwarding the latest news from IFLA Headquarters:

IFLA Chinese Language Centre established at the National Library of China, Beijing

In February 2009 the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the National Library of China (NLC) in Beijing signed a cooperation agreement by which NLC received a status of IFLA Chinese Language Centre. It can now be seen as a permanent representative of IFLA/HQ for the Chinese speaking community, as well as the other way around: it is hoped that IFLA/HQ will get improved access to Chinese speaking library and information professionals.
The IFLA Chinese Language Centre will promote IFLA, support IFLA’s Asia and Oceania Section as well as other relevant IFLA professional bodies and liaise with IFLA/HQ. Among the priorities of the Centre are:
1. Active membership recruitment. This will be conducted with the help of national or other association members and/or national libraries. Institutions and associations (including specialist and state associations) within the Chinese language community will be actively encouraged to join IFLA.
2. (Co-) organising regional IFLA events. These will be co-organised with IFLA/HQ, and/or with IFLA professional units (Sections and Core Activities). This activity includes seeking sources for funding of IFLA projects.
3. Seek involvement in local or regional professional events to gain support within the Chinese language community, trying to get IFLA “branding” of local or regional events.
4. Contribute to more effective communication within the Chinese language community and with the IFLA bodies involved. These activities include the publication of newsletters, translations of key IFLA documents and publications and the production of a Chinese translation of IFLA Express during IFLA’s annual congresses.
5. Representing IFLA in the Chinese language community, in a pursuit to make IFLA more visible in that community, promoting IFLA goals, principles and core values.
6. Translation of key IFLA documents, guidelines, press-releases, papers prepared for the Assembly Meetings etc.

For further information about the Centre and its activities please contact
Mr. Yan Xiangdong
Email address: interco@nlc.gov.cn
Fax +86-10-68419271
The Hague/Beijing, March 2009

NLC Staff Congress Held Today

The Congress of Staff Representatives of National Library of China was held today. The representatives reviewed NLC's 2008 Annual Report and 2009 Annual Plan, 2008 Financial Report and 2009 Annual Budget, and the report for the bills submitted during 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.

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.