• 2024-04-02

National Central Library held the opening ceremony for the 2024 International Seminar for East Asian Library Professional Librarians on the morning of February 19^th, marking the beginning of a four-day seminar from February 19^th to February 22^nd. This year’s Seminar is the first held in conjunction with the Taipei International Book Festival and it invited colleagues from important international East Asian libraries to Taiwan to participate in this grand cultural event. Through introductions by industry experts, the seminar aims to help librarians familiarize themselves with marketing channels for Taiwan’s publications and to understand the development status of books and databases, thereby facilitating the promotion of Taiwan’s research publishing achievements to global academic institutions.

During her opening remarks at the Seminar’s opening ceremony, NCL Director-General Han-ching Wang stated that NCL has held the International Seminar for East Asian Library Professional Librarians every two years since 2009, in order to increase exchanges between East Asian Libraries and Chinese Studies Research Institutes throughout the world. This year’s seminar is centered around the theme: “Librarians: Acquisitions of Taiwan Publications and Digital Research Resources.” The goal of this seminar is to help East Asian Library professional librarians learn about various channels for procurement in order to introduce Taiwan’s academic achievements to their libraries and thereby assist researchers to complete high quality research. Speakers at the seminar include professionals and scholars from Taiwan’s publishing industry to help professional librarians gain a deeper understanding of topics surrounding the acquisition of Chinese-language publications, audiovisual materials, and digital databases. This year’s seminar was timed to coincide with the 2024 Taipei Book Exhibition, incorporating corresponding itineraries to ensure that participants can fully grasp the development trends in Taiwan’s publishing industry and thereby establish an even stronger foundation to assist with future academic research endeavors. In addition, the seminar will arrange visits for attendees to observe and learn about the National Central Library’s “Open Lab” Multimedia Center, in order to gain insights into Taiwan’s maker culture and learn about how the National Central Library transformed this space to become a highlight in the Ximending area. An additional cultural itinerary offers a visit to the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum and its “Silk Road Splendor: DunHuang Caves Art Exhibition.”

This year’s seminar includes over 20 international participants and speakers, hailing from the USA, Germany, Malaysia, Thailand, and Hong Kong. They believe that the 2024 International Seminar for East Asian Library Professional Librarians will facilitate a deepening of academic exchange between Taiwan and the world, and also that linking this year’s events to the Taipei International Book Exhibition and designing relevant classes accordingly will provide them with greater confidence in conducting interviews about Taiwan’s research literature and publications.