• 2024-02-27

In an effort to promote Taiwan’s digital research resources and to experience a merging of research findings in the humanities and social sciences, National Central Library and the Bibliothèque universitaires des langues et civilizations (BULAC) in Paris, France worked together to establish the first Taiwan Academic Digital Resource Center. Both parties signed a collaborative agreement and launched the center on November 13, 2023 in Paris. The signing ceremony was co-hosted by BULAC Director Marie-Lise Tsagouria and National Central Library Director-General Shu-hsien Tseng. The Taiwan Representative to France Chih-chung Wu and Education Division Chief Mei-chen Lu were also in attendance to witness this historic event.

Director-General Shu-hsien Tseng stated that this is the second time NCL has collaborated with BULAC, the first time being in 2012 when a donation of 519 books was made. Of even greater significance is the fact that this is the first time NCL has promoted its new online service, Taiwan Academic Digital Resource Center, to the international scholarly community. It provides top-quality research resources to reputable research institutions around the world. Differing from the Taiwan Resource Centers for Chinese Studies established in the past, which provided printed books as part of the collaboration, this new brand is an online service that collates a list of digital resources from Taiwan. It provides research resources developed by NCL, academic organizations, and businesses in Taiwan, as well as e-books and other items. We hope to create a model that is sustainable, substantial, and even more systematized so that our partners overseas can benefit from this in a very significant way. This will promote scholarly exchange, drive cultural marketing, and increase the visibility of research done in Taiwan.

BULAC has more than 43,000 Chinese book titles (70,000 volumes) in its holdings and 900 journals. It also has more than one thousand books that were published before 1911. These are very important in teaching and research, making it the top institution in France in this regard. After the signing ceremony, this new center in effect doubled its research capabilities. In addition to its physical holdings, researchers from France and other countries can access important research in Chinese studies, Taiwan studies, digital humanities, and e-books over the past twenty years from public and private institutions in Taiwan. In the future, NCL will continue to provide BULAC with even more digital resources. BULAC will co-host lectures on related topics so as to promote research resources from Taiwan and to increase the exchange between the two countries.

In addition, the two libraries also signed an agreement regarding NCL’s Rare Chinese Book Union Catalog. Beginning in 2005, NCL worked with renowned university libraries and national libraries around the world to digitize their holdings of ancient Chinese works, the results of which have been published on the Rare Books and Special Collections Resource System. This is open to researchers and the public alike. The catalog of ancient works from each library is uploaded to the system’s Ancient Chinese Book Union Catalog. Currently there are 92 collaborating partners that have contributed to this union catalog.

Lastly, to commemorate this collaboration, NCL gifted two classics to the library—a replica copy of the 800-year-old book The Annotated Poetry of Su Dongpo (a national treasure) and the Diamond Sutra. It was hoped that this donation would add to the collection at BULAC, as well as witness the historical nature of this collaboration. They will also provide more opportunities for collaboration in the future.