Eleanor Yuen(袁家瑜)-Head, Asian Library, University of British Columbia, Asian Library
At the University of British Columbia Library, “Manage Collections in a Digital Context” is one of the five overarching strategic directions for the next five years. While developing on-line access to and preservation procedures for research and teaching materials, opportunities presented themselves for national and international collaborations. With recognized milestones and many years of hard work at the Asian Library on connecting research and communities, we are ready to build upon our experiences working with local organizations, families, national and international partners. As a result, a number of projects with funding support and partnership fortified outside UBC are established, which in turn open up the window for more initiatives in the future. Three projects are featured here to illustrate the model for national and international collaboration, namely the Canadian Historical Recognition Program (CHRP), the Korean Canadian Heritage Archives Project and the digitization of southern China clan association publications. Capitalizing on the Asian Library’s on-going engagement with communities and its rich collection of Chinese-Canadian historical materials, we have been playing a pivotal role in the Canadian Historical Recognition Project and Multicultural Canada projects, both funded by the Federal government of Canada and aim to provide sustainable venues for a myriad of provincial and local neighbourhood projects such as the digitization of Ming Pao, a western Canada Chinese language newspaper. The Korean Canadian Heritage Archives (KoCaHA), on the other hand is developed in tandem with our Korean Collections Consortium of North America (KCCNA) membership which requires the Asian Library to collect publications on Korea and Koreans published in Western Canada. Our partner of this project is the Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library at the University of Toronto. Thirdly, the digitization of 5,600 pages of Chinese clan association publications project has celebrated the completion of the scanning task which was funded & completed at UBC by the Genealogy Society of Utah in 2009. UBC has yet to develop an index to the database which subsequently will be open to all. A project in the pipeline that also calls for international collaboration is the digitization of Chinese rare materials. There will be more attempts to team up with libraries in China that can contribute expertise, experience and funding after the 5th China North America Conference in Beijing in September.
Presentation [PPTX]