• 2014-02-26

On February 26, 2014, NCL’s Director-general Tseng visited the Australia National University to sign a Chinese Rare Book Catalog Database Cooperative Memorandum, raising the total number of participating libraries to 46.

NCL’s Director-general Tseng visited Australia National University’s library while in Australia to attend the 22nd Conference of Directors of National Libraries in Asia and Oceania. ANU’s Chinese collection is full of very unique books, including Poems of the late Kang Youwei [relating to the travel in the“South Sea”] in Manuscript and Lord Lao's Eighty One Transformations, Illustrated. In addition, they have collected many modern portraits and manuscripts. Starting in 1995, ANU began an East Asian Digitization Project, which was the inception of the Asia-Pacific Digital Collections. Director-general Tseng visited the Director of ANU Library Roxanne Missingham. Both libraries determined that since participation in the union catalog would make available priority consideration for visiting scholars, it would be in the best interest of both parties to bring about a cultural exchange between Taiwan and Australia.

The Union Catalog of Chinese Rare Books as of February 2014 already has over 625,000 records. It shows to what extent Chinese books have been scattered all over the globe waiting to meet the needs of scholars.

Union Catalog of Chinese Rare Books can be accessed at http://rbook2.ncl.edu.tw