Hand-Made Copper Relief Ex-Libris for George Steiner's Book

Hand-made red copper relief ex-libris for the book After Babel: aspects of language and translation by George Steiner. The Chinese version was published by Zhejiang University Press in 2020. This ex-libris is very special even in the world. It is designed for the 15th anniversary of Qizhen Library, which is the Beijing office of the publisher. The four steps of translation, trust, aggression, incorporation and restitution, are reflected on the relief. This ex-libris is recently made by Anjianda, one of my friends.

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

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 Interpreters at WLIC2014

Chinese interpreters at the IFLA General Conference (WLIC2014).

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.

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.

Chinese translations of IFLA papers posted

After the work of a month, all the eight Chinese translations of cataloging-related papers for the IFLA Conference (WLIC) have been posted to the IFLANET at:
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/Programme2008.htm

• 编目组(Cataloguing Section)

  • 面向对象的FRBR：实现记忆机构对信息的共识 / 吴晓静翻译 = FRBRoo: enabling a common view of information from memory institutions / PAT RIVA (Bibliothèques et Archives nationale du Québec, Montréal, Canada), MARTIN DOERR (Institute of Computer Science, Crete, Greece) and MAJA ŽUMER (University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia)

  • 图书馆和档案馆为实现文化遗产存取而进行的标准领域的合作 / 王璐翻译 = Bibliothèques et archives: partager des orms pour faciliter l’accès au patrimoine / FRANÇOISE LERESCHE (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France)

  • 21 世纪初，让我们分享标准与专业经验：为编制元数据建立一种合作、“跨行业”的运作模式 / 陈宁翻译 = Sharing standards: developing a cooperative/collaborative model / MURTHA BACA (Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, USA) and ELIZABTH O’KEEFE (Morgan Library and Museum, New York, USA)

  • 档案馆、图书馆、博物馆的通力合作、标准共享——拉脱维亚的方案 / 许旭翻译 = ALM convergence in the field of standardisation /ANITA GOLDBERGA (National Library of Latvia, Riga, Latvia)

• 分类和标引组(Classification and Indexing Section)

  • 交叉语词索引：术语映射及其对信息检索的影响 / 刘华梅翻译 = Cross-concordances: terminology mapping and its effectiveness for information retrieval / PHILIPP MAYR and VIVIEN PETRAS (GESIS Social Science Information Centre, Bonn, Germany)

  • 21世纪的标题表：lcsh-es.org双语数据库 / 喻菲翻翻译 = Subject headings for the 21st century: the lcsh-es.org bilingual database / MICHAEL KREYCHE (Kent State University, Kent, USA)

• 书目组(Bibliography Section)

  • 书目数据提供者之间的合作：意大利国家书目取得的成果与未来改革措施 / 张蕾累翻译 = Collaboration among producers of bibliographic data. Achievements and planned initiatives at the Italian National Bibliography / FEDERICA PARADISI (National Central Library of Florence, Florence, Italy)

  • 数字时代的加拿大国家书目 / 韩玲翻译 = Canadiana, the national bibliography for Canada, in the digital age / LIZ McKEEN (Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Canada)

Translators are from three departments of the National Library of China:

• Chinese Acquisitions & Cataloging Department: 6
  
• International Cooperation Division: 1
  
• Foreign Acquisitions & Cataloging Department: 1
  

I hope Chinese librarians will get more information from the important international conference through this channel, and catch the latest developments in cataloging-related researches and practices.

National Library of China to provide translation records to UNESCO

National Library of China has begun to submit bibliographic records to UNESCO for Index Translationum. Founded in 1932, Index Translationum contains about 1.7 million bibliographic records of translations from about 100 UNESCO member countries. Before 2008, Index Translationum contacted related organizations many times for Chinese records, but failed. In January 2008, I received a letter from Peter Lor, Secretary General of IFLA, concerning Index Translationum. I contacted the editor immediately and submitted 1,000 test records. By now, we have gone through all the procedures and begun to submit records on a regular basis. I hope users can search Chinese records in the database in the near future.