International Digital Libraries JournalILS: 599

By David Vrooman

This journal chronicles my experiences and learning while taking part in Southern Connecticut State University’s Department of Information and Library Sciences study abroad course entitled International Digital Libraries. The class was conducted by Dr. Yan Quan Liu of the Information and Library Science department, and took place on site in China’s capital of Beijing from June 11 – June 24 2011, though June 11th, 12th, part of the 23rd, and the 24th were travel days.

It is important to note that each day (excluding travel days) of the journal is split into two parts: morning and afternoon. Morning and afternoon are loosely applied and more specifically mean before and after lunch respectively. Therefore, a section labeled as morning may indeed run into the afternoon. This is because each day had two main activities that would be both academic, both cultural, or one academic activity and one cultural activity. The amount of time spent at each of the main activities could vary considerably and were not always strictly relegated to a timeframe. The academic activities (library visits) are written in note form except where I feel it appropriate to make a comment, which will be signified by a (*).

At times the journal may digress into personal reflections on a day’s or moment’s events, important notes that do not necessarily fit into a single day signified by an asterisk (*). I also place an asterisk before paragraphs where I make what I feel is an important note. Any event of note is highlighted in bold.

Saturday June 11 and 12

Travel Days

My father drove me from Marlborough, CT, to the predetermined meeting point in front of the Lyman Center for the Performing Arts at Southern’s campus. I found it odd that those of us going on the trip and leaving a car on campus had to park in the main faculty lot in spots that were not easy to distinguish. It would have been better for everyone including the van taking us to JFK to meet at the parking location as those leaving cars would not have to walk across campus with luggage, though everyone seemed to handle it fine.

The two days of travel are slightly muddled in my head because of several factors. Our plane’s trajectory took us far north where in summer the sun is almost always in the sky. At no point on the way to China did I see it dark outside with the exception of the last hour before we landed in Beijing. Another reason is that we lost a significant amount of time just from the time changes. There is a time zone difference of 12 hours from JFK to Beijing. Beijing is 12 hours ahead.

*At JFK: everything went smooth except for finding out that a member of our group is vegan. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but alarms went off in my head because having a restricted diet is not necessarily easy to cater to in foreign countries. There is not a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s on every corner and Dr. Liu might want to add as a note for future students that dietary restrictions will not be able to be accommodated.

Transaero Airlines is the Russian airline we took for our flight. Our one layover was in Moscow, which was surprisingly extremely congested, poorly organized, and unsettling to be in. There were few seats and I stood the entire time. It also took time to figure out where we had to go and there were few markers to show us the way. Those signs that did exist were small. We were often funneled into long lines that went down narrow corridors that were also so long at points that they intertwined with completely different lines making more confusion for everyone. The terminal was at least nice looking and by no means dumpy. The plane’s meals were airplane food and though not gourmet had distinct cultural flavors such as raw pickled herring, which though I tried could not stomach.

*Point of disagreement – Other students on the trip feel that the single layover was a pain. In many ways it was, but from having traveled to Asia before I can attest that most flight arrangements have two layovers scheduled so I feel we still got off rather easy. The idea of a direct flight would probably be very costly and though I would prefer not to layover in Moscow myself again if possible it was good to stretch my legs as the first leg was a 9 hour flight and the second leg was an 8 hour flight.

We arrived in Beijing late in the evening on June 12th. The airport was expansive and barren of people. We passed through all the checkpoints with relative ease. Most of

us were able to exchange our dollars for yuan, with the exception of those of us who had traveler’s checks. Do not, do not, do not bring traveler’s checks to China. They are extremely difficult to cash, which I will expand on later.

We met our translator Mia (Pan Yi) outside customs after existing the final checkpoint. She, along with her boyfriend, led us to the van in the parking garage. People in China who speak English take on American/English names for talking to foreigners because they find it easier on the foreigners to remember their names this way. They do not seem to expect to be called by their real name and it is not rude to call them by their more Anglo name. Our driver, however, did not speak English and I never got his name. We did manage to make it to the B & B Inn after a little confusion as to where it was. At this point I was too tired to recall anything that happened, but we eventually checked in and I went to bed.

Monday June 13

Morning:

We had breakfast at the hotel, which was included. It was interesting to try a variety of foods that people in China would eat in the morning. We later had a meeting in the hotel with Moving Mandarin, which is the company used to handle our traveling, food, and cultural visits while in China. Rachel was our main contact with Moving Mandarin. Her English was excellent. She is actually Korean and went to college at Middlebury in Vermont. We met several other people from the company though the most important was unquestionably Mia, who would be with us all day long every day. We were also given our cell phones with a deposit.

*Milk – This is important. Milk that is not pasteurized like it is in the United States can be extremely upsetting to the digestive track of anyone not used to drinking it, which is everyone from the United States. This is important as this could put someone out of commission for a day or two. I’ve seen it happen in other foreign countries to Americans.

For lunch we took a van into a nearby district that seemed to be cordoned off from the surrounding area. We had to stop the van and get a ticket for the vehicle before entering. I never learned the significance of the guards and the ticket other than the driver did indeed pay on the way out. It may have been to discourage vehicles. Most of our lunches and dinners took place in this area. There were several restaurants along the same side street one street back from the road we came in on.

Our first real meal and experience in China was fantastic! Some of the others said the food was oily, but I disagree. There were a variety of dishes and I ate until I could not eat any more. Mia mentioned that most Chinese restaurants have the same menu but differ in how they prepare the meals. Or, that some restaurants will be popular for a particular dish or for a particular kind of food – for instance noodles.

The food in China was much different and distinctly better than what passes as Chinese food in the United States.

Afternoon:

*In order to use our cell phones we had to go buy SIM cards, which are regulated by the government. This took a while and we were mostly standing around. I and one other person were not able to get our SIM cards because the place did not have enough. Each one of us was expected to sign and register their card. As good as it was to have a cell phone in China, I thought it an inconvenience that this was not taken care of ahead of time as we could have been doing something more valuable with the time. This would have been possible as the next day Mia bought SIM cards for myself and the other member of the group that did not get one on her own and signed for them

herself. I would have liked Moving Mandarin to have taken care of this for us if possible.

*After getting some of the SIM cards, we went to a bank so the member of our group with traveler’s checks could cash them. We had to find a specific bank that could cash the traveler’s checks as not all of them were authorized to. It would be a good idea that in the future Dr. Liu suggest to students that they NOT bring traveler’s checks.

We went to the Silk Market, which was only a few buildings down from our hotel. Here we got a tour of the process of how silk products are made. We were then directed into a store where they sold silk blankets, pillows, and clothing. The most amazing thing for sale that I would have liked to bought was here. It was a small silk rug mounted in a frame and hanging on a wall. It was extremely ornate and cost an equivalent of $46,000! Soooooo, I didn’t buy it.

The last activity of the day before dinner was going to the Olympic Forest Park, which was quite beautiful. We went for a rather long walk and both Mia and the van driver accompanied us.

Dr. Liu was unable to join us for dinner. We went to a different restaurant. I was still full from lunch, which was probably good because this was the only restaurant we went to on the entire trip that I did not like. Its style was just unappealing to me.

Tuesday June 14

Morning: (academic)

Today was our first visit to a library in Beijing.

Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications(BUPT)

This morning we were introduced to Bebe (sp?) who is a student from BISTU acting as a liaison. She spent the entire day with us like Mia .

This is the first time Dr. Liu demonstrated his skill at conducting a formal introduction. He spoke first and set up a protocol as to how everyone in the room would go around and introduce him or her self. Dr. Liu is very good at this!

Judy – translatorMs Wu – head of libraryMs Que – lib. DirectorMs Ann – international office in charge of teachers in said department

Library built in 195513,400 square metersabout 40,000 square feetHoldings:1.58 million books4.38 million electronic resourcesJournals# of resources increases each year by about 80,000 print

Future of resources mostly in Posts and Telecommunications- #1 in electronic resources- 7 departments

referencetechnologycirculationreadingcollection developmentexecutive

Also have another campus

- Have 42 databases- 57 people work in the library- They build 5 databases <- Platforms are a commercial cooperation

Chinese academic

Posts + Telecommunications documentary databaseHigher Ed. Fed. GraphicMemory/History of BUPT

They are in charge of the resource sharing for 70 university libraries.- Includes National Library- Information Sharing- CALIS – physical resource transportation service- BUPT – also name of their own interlibrary loan- Community Members can request books- They have prizes to people who borrow a lot – like school bags- This library developed the automated system

-its first functionality is acquisitionThe database can duplicate Also has – IT Catalog

- Circulation- Storage- Resource Relocation + where they are physically located- They use their own national system like LOC- There system has 22 categories and is alphanumeric

Library Automation-technical system used to analyze circulation statistics called Modern Electronic

Library Information Network System (MELINS)

They developed it themselves- leading domestic system (+ international)- almost 200 libraries- whole country uses the system

CERNET – Chinese Education Resource SystemBUPT is in charge of NE Region of China

- wireless in classrooms- students can access resources remotely/distance learning- adopted for Mobile Services (not formatted though)- One interface allows you to search all 42 databases (they developed this)- VOD (video on demand) Multimedia System – ready to develop/in development

– it is online and teachers can use in classroom

BUPT also provides a service that allows someone to find information on whether a project has been done before – related to patents. Investigates for applying for patents. Also regional. For posts, telecommunications, technology, and engineering.

They have an OPAC and information literacy/library instruction

Afternoon: (academic)

Beijing Information Science and Technology University (BISTU)

Dr. Lee – the dean and department headDr. Cui Wei – professorJustinMegan QuanJack Kahn - studying ComputersAnna – professor, student affairs and study abroad departmentBaby (she pronounces it more like Bebe though) – graduate studentVincent – undergraduate in auditingSoon Ven – auditingHo Re HaoThere were several students and faculty who we also met with, but Dr. Lee and Bebe were the only ones we saw again.

School of Information Management5 majors – information systems-electronic commerce-computer auditing-information systems-management science

640 students60 teachers; ½ have PhDsProgram:Initial Management CourseDatabasesInformation Systems DataHow to design a websiteSystems Analysis

Two Master’s Programs1) Management Science2) Engineering

There is a move away from just theoretical to practical to develop skills.After our meeting with the faculty and students from BISTU, they joined us to go to the Pangu buildings. These are a series of several large buildings in a row. The buildings are placed in a specific order and are designed to look like a dragon. The dragon’s head building has a large IBM office, which we got to go to the top of a see a rare view of the Olympic Park from up high. After which, we went for a walk in the Olympic Park together.

We then had dinner at a buffet restaurant with several people from BISTU including Bebe that Dr. Lee graciously paid for.

Wednesday June 15

Morning: (academic)

Peking University

Dr. Zhu, Qiang (also possibly written as ‘Shao’) – University Librarian of Peking University Library; Dr. JinNote: Bebe from BISTU joined us again for the day.

Dr. Zhu is the governing board memberWe can contact him.He’s the big dog!!!

Vice President of Library Society of China

Founded 1902 – was ‘Capitol Grand’Revolution 1911 – renamed Peking University Library

1952: Relocated Yanjing University Campus1975: old building at this site1998: new building2005: Renovation of the old buildingIn plan: Ancient Materials Library

Library Building51,000 square meters, which is over 150,000 square feet4,000+ seats6.5 million copies

Print CollectionTotal: 7 million

- books- copies- old newspapers = 11,547 title

Rare Books- 16,300 titles- 1.5 million ancient materials

E-resources- 486 databases- E-journals 52,268- E-books: 1.6 million- Multimedia

ServicesLoan

In-house readingILLCourse ReservesMultimedia CenterRare BooksSpecial Collection

Units of PKU Library:Library OfficeCollection DevelopmentCirculationReferenceSystemsRare BooksMultimedia CenterBranch Library Office

Staffing:180 Full-time employees40 full-time non-formal staff (contract)more servicesmore spacemore volumes

longer hoursless people

Tenure Track Levels1) assistant librarian2) librarian3) associate research library4) research librarian

CALIS Administration CenterPublic service systems of national higher education

-CERNET-CALIS

Libraries in China divided into:

Academic (largest and most advanced branch), under the auspices of the Ministry of Education

Scientific/Special, under the auspices of the Ministry of Information Science and Technology

Public, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture

There are various other kinds of libraries.

PKU has free New Oriental School English training Our tour guide for the PKU library was Pei Wei Wei. She is the Deputy Head of the Director’s Office. She took us to the systems office where we had to put plastic booties on our shoes to make sure we didn’t bring in any static electricity. For their systems, the university has 110 TB of storage of which 80 is for backup.

The Deputy Head of the Systems Division is named Do Jao Feng. I also have Doozer written down. He seems to go by Doozer.

Peking University Library’s website is actually open and can be found at www.lib.pku.edu.cn . Their special collection are on it too!

The Digital Library of PKU-is considered a sacred treasurehas an Ancient Materials DatabaseThere are old maps and a catalog too.Unfortunately, visitors to it can only see the metadata, which is in Chinese.GIS – Geographic Information SystemBeijing Historical Geographic Database

- cooperate between PKU and Hong Kong University

There is also the PKU Scholar’s Collection (like DSpace)-this collection takes the works of noted Chinese scholars who either contributed materials or whose family contributed material and adds it to a the collection.

Word of note – Chairman Mao was an assistant librarian at PKU. It is said that he was treated very poorly by the faculty there and that this may have been a large reason why when he came to power that he was not so nice with the intelligentsia.

Also of note – Harvard University has a Yanjing Library, which is a Chinese collection. Yanjing is the old name for Beijing, just like Peking.

PKU videos online4,000 lectures online

E-reserves are linked to their version of Blackboard.

They use Sirsi!But, are moving to a “Google like” interface in order to make their systems more next generation, unified, and with indexed metadata.

They upload all records to OCLC.

Afternoon: (academic)

Department of Information Management of Peking University

First off, our group had a tour of the university from four students from the department:Rachel – MLS student – her real name is Gao JinSarah – MLS student – her real name is YanLily – PhD – her name is Cao, pronounced like TaoRita – PhD – her name is Huang, which is the word for the color yellowBebe was also still with us.*Chinese people have English names for when they are talking to English speaking people because it otherwise is extremely difficult for English speaking people to remember their names. Rachel was a fairly common name because the TV show “Friends” is very popular. *I have to admit that the student liaisons who joined us from time to time was one of the best parts of the whole program as we got to know and learn about them. It was great to interact with Chinese students and get to have often long conversations with them. They were all always extremely friendly and kind. They do their country credit!

Dr. Liu – Department HeadDr. Zhang – Associate ProfessorDr. Han – Associate ProfessorThe university was founded in 1898.1st known as Imperial University of Peking

Note:Ta = PagodaHu = LakeTu = Library“Tahutu is an idiom for “the mess”The university has a large pagoda, a lake, and the library.Formal education of library science in China began in 1920.The department has 32 full-time staff and faculty (23 with PhDs).310 students163 undergraduates77 graduate70 doctoral

- We had dinner at a restaurant and the vegan among us broke into tears over the food. Though the trip was a growing experience for this individual, she would have done better if she could have left her preconceived notions in the United States.

Thursday June 16

Morning: (cultural)

Temple of Heaven

Today we spent the entire morning at the Temple of Heaven, which may translate better to Temple of the Sky. While heading in we learned that the left gate was meant for a minister, the right gate for the emperor, and the middle gate for God. There is a marble path going to the center gate.

Emperors went to the temple to pray for a good harvest.

Among other things we saw at the Temple of Heaven were people exercising and people dancing.

*We ate lunch at the temple that Moving Mandarin packed for us. I could not eat it. They were American style sandwiches, but they were poorly done. We are in China and are better served eating Chinese food than we are by eating Chinese attempts at American food. I could tell after two bites that I had to stop eating or would be ill.

Afternoon: (cultural)

-Pearl Market

We stopped at a building whose upper floors sold pearls. We spent about an hour there? I lost track of time, but some people did buy pearls.

*One can bargain and haggle with vendors in China*It is often difficult to tell no matter where one is in China what items are authentic versus what items are counterfeits.

-798 Art District

We drove to an area of Beijing that was full of old factory buildings that were converted to art studios and exhibition areas. This was a large area spanning several streets dedicated to modern art and was quite progressive. I enjoyed this immensely. It was very different from everything else we did. Art was often for sale and the exhibits were mostly free. The building were formally used as munitions factories. We spent a couple hours there and in that time I was able to tour over twenty exhibitions scattered around the area.

-Dean Lee’s Home

After dinner, we returned to the hotel for a little while and then were picked up by Dr. Lee from BISTU and his wife in a separate car. They had invited us over to their home for the evening. I was in Dr. Lee’s car for the drive and he mentioned that the area of Beijing that we were going to called Wangjin is the most densely populated area in the world. I do not know if this is true but would not doubt it as the entire area just seemed to be one gigantic apartment complex after another for as far as the eye could see. His family’s building alone appeared as if it could probably hold about 5,000 people, but that is only a guess. I believe he lived on the 23rd floor?

At his home, we met Dr. Lee’s son Leo and his son’s best friend Eric who happens to be a student at the University of Indiana. Dr. Liu spent the evening in the kitchen with Dr. Lee and his wife while the rest of us sat in the living room and conversed with Leo and Eric. They served snacks and refreshments. I ate as much as I could, which was difficult because we were practically coming from a big dinner already and were already full. Not all of us were able to eat because we were so full, but I made it a point to eat for several of us as I didn’t want it to seem like we were rude and didn’t want to eat their food.

Their home was a good size for three people. It was a valuable experience to see how a family in China lives.

Afterwards, Dr. Lee and his wife drove us home. It was a very nice evening and they were kind to have us over. It was late into the evening when we returned back to the hotel.

Friday June 17

Morning: (academic)

Beijing Normal University

The day we went to Beijing Normal University was the same day the Premier of China was also making a visit. This created an atmosphere with much greater security than we would otherwise see. When we met with people from the department, I felt like we were on stage as there were several faculty and 26 students in a classroom and we sat at two tables in the front facing them. It also felt like we were being interviewed at some sort of news conference.

Xiao Mie – Dean of Information Management DepartmentZhao – professorAnother Zhou – professorQiao – professorLiu – assistant professor+ 26 students

BNU – Dept. of Information Management19801 full-time major in management and information systems for undergraduates.

About 100 undergraduates and 60 graduates3 full-time professors2 part-time professors

six fields = concentrations1) digital library technology2) information resources3) information management technology4) information retrieval5) information visualization6) information description = cataloging

Notes on student comments:

Leslie – how do students search for information?“mostly by using search engines”- part of big base to search the ocean for what you are looking for- social networking – students have to “climb the wall” to get it.

Feng Xaio WeiHao Dung Yang – going to PhD program at Drexel University and leaves September 5th.

As part of their program students do gain experience working in the field.

We were given a tour of BNUs library. There were two notable things. The first was that they were working on a self-checkout system. The extremely impressive thing though was a large blue contraption that looked like a giant DVD Red-Box in the United States. It was actually similar to a Red-Box, but for books and even some electronic resources. It contained popular fiction and other information could be downloaded from it by students. The idea itself is brilliant! Unfortunately, they tried to demonstrate it for us and it didn’t work. They said it was inside because they were still working on getting it right. It felt like the future of libraries was before us.

Afternoon: (cultural)

Houhai

with Tanya (daughter of dept. head from PKU) and Rachel (the MLS student from PKU)

This area is mostly a series of bars around a lake that is home to a rather robust nightlife. There are also some temples and if you go back a street from the lake area you arrive at one of the cultural hutongs in China. A hutong is basically an area that has not been modernized and looks like old Beijing, or Yanjing, or Peking as the city has had many names over time.

I also went with Tanya and Mia to the Drum Tower, which was slightly outside of Houhai. There we watched five Chinese teenagers put on an old fashioned drum performance on gigantic drums. It was an impressive showing, though I must admit I felt badly for the five drummers as it was astoundingly hot out and they were wearing traditional clothing that was long sleeved. They must have been very hot. The stairs going up to the drum tower were considerably steep, but not a problem.

We also went to the Bell Tower, which was directly across a plaza from the Drum Tower. Again, we had to climb a long, steep set of stairs within. We did not wait for the ringing of the bell however.

From both the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower, we were able to get breathtaking views of the city even with the pollution.

*Pollution is a problem is Beijing. After a few days, we could gauge the severity of the air pollution by how many buildings we could see in the distance, and whether or not we could see the Olympic Bird’s Nest stadium or not. I never had a problem with the air, but noticed that if I breathed really deeply then I could not help but cough.

Saturday June 18

Morning: (cultural)

The Great Wall of China

Today was the long awaited trip to the Great Wall at Badaling. We had heard that the drive to Badaling was a treacherous one, but found that notion to be unfounded as the drive was quite easy. The only difficulty with getting there was that the roadways were recently redirected and the driver was not sure how to proceed. He had to ask on several occasions.

The Wall itself was my favorite experience of the trip. I have a long hiking and outdoor background and made it to the summit of the Wall at Badaling rather quickly. I then turned back and made my way back down to the visitors center area at which point I went back up the Wall in the opposite direction. I only turned back when I got very hungry and my energy was beginning to wane.

The Great Wall does get steep at points and was not an easy walk. Several people in the group did not go all the way to the top and several more took a cable car back down. Yes, there are cable cars that can take one to a variety of sections on the wall. I even saw a mini-rollercoaster built along the ground on the inner side of the wall at one point though I did not even think about riding it.

Climbing the Great Wall offered beautiful vistas! I took more pictures here than at any other place we went to on the whole trip. The air was also much clearer here and the hike was a real exercise.

Afternoon: (cultural)

Ming Tomb

We actually didn’t get to the Ming Tomb until the late afternoon as the Great Wall took up most of the day so the designations of morning and afternoon really only designate two different events here.

This is one of thirteen Ming Tombs and is called the Dingling Tomb, which means “Tomb of Stability.” It is the only one built underground and the only one to have been excavated. It is the tomb of Emperor Wanli.

The tomb was rather grey and dingy. It did in fact feel like a tomb.

Sunday June 19

Morning: (cultural)

Summer Palace

Rachel from Moving Mandarin joined us today.

In Pinyin the Summer Palace is referred to as Yihe Yuan, which means “Gardens of Nurtured Harmony.” The area is mostly comprised of Kunning Lake, which covers of three quarters of the area. The lake is man-made and the soil was used to create the other striking feature called in English – Longevity Hill. The Summer Palace is used by locals as a recreational park. In 1888, the Summer Palace served as the summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi.

The Long Corridor extended along the lake for at least as far as we walked along the lake. We ate lunch in one of the Long Corridor alcoves. While eating lunch, there was a young child sitting in a stroller crying. Her mother was no where to be found. Rachel brought the child to someone who worked at the Summer Palace and they went in search of the mother. Apparently, according to Rachel, children do get abandoned. Rachel also told us that children are at times abducted in one part of the country and brought to another part of the country. There is a story about a mother seeing a picture of her abducted daughter with no legs online and contacting the authorities. Her daughter was found and returned. There is a place online where parents can go to search for pictures of their abducted children or to post pictures of their abducted children.

One of the more striking features of the Summer Palace was the Marble Boat, which was made completely out of rock and shaped like a river boat though it was immobile and had the ability to only function as a dock. It was striking because all the palatial buildings in all the parks and temples seem similar whereas this one completely unique.

Afternoon: (cultural)

Old Summer Palace

The Old Summer Palace is basically no more than ruins now. It was the home and center of government during the Qing Dynasty until 1860 when the British and French destroys it during the Second Opium War. The Old Summer Palace now stands as a park for tourists and locals, but more ominously a symbol of foreign aggression and Chinese humiliation.

From walking in and amongst the expansive ruins, the Old Summer Palace must have been marvelous like the other temples and palaces we visited. Of note is that the ruins

standing only represent buildings that existed at the time which were built in the European style and not in the Chinese style. So the ruins do not even do justice to the scale of the destruction that occurred.

Oddly, there is not much here besides its being a park with ruins so there is an abundance of blow up items all over the place, which looks somewhat tacky. On the lake, which is covered in lily pads, are the two largest blow up items – a dragon and a phoenix, which are the symbols of the emperor and empress respectively.

Monday June 20

Morning: (cultural)

Tiananmen Square

The culturally and politically historic square in Beijing also happens to be the second largest city square in the world. I felt a little at odds being there as this was the site where a pro-democracy movement was put down in 1989, ending in the deaths a hundreds. The square is impressively large and the government buildings unattractive. The most memorable feature is the complete lack of shade as the temperature today quickly sky-rocketed. It is a good place to make sure one has sun-block on. The sculptures depicting Chinese people were impressive.

Other than that we did not spend too much time in the square and soon headed to a walkway that ran under the road to go across the street to the Forbidden City. The Tiananmen Square Gate is at the entrance of the Forbidden City.

Still morning and into the afternoon: (cultural)

Forbidden City

The Forbidden City is as expansive as it is beautiful. The roofs here are yellow, unlike the Temple of Heaven where the roofs are blue. It is said to have 9,999 rooms and was the imperial palace for both the Ming and Qing dynasties. We walked from one large courtyard to the next over the course of several hours. We also found ourselves in an air-conditioned museum where we stayed a little longer than we probably would have if it had not been so hot outside. We spent most of the day here and probably would have explored more except for the heat.

Afternoon: (cultural)

“Snack Street”

After the Forbidden City, we took the van to what is familiarly referred to as “Snack Street.” The area is basically a few streets with vendors either selling to tourists or food vendors. The most memorable part about this place is that this is where several of us including myself ate scorpion. The scorpion was on display with three apiece on impaled on a chopstick like they were on a kebob. If you looked close you would see that the scorpions were still alive and moving. The scorpions were then prepared by frying them in oil killing the scorpion and neutralizing any potential poison. They had an initial crunch, but were afterwards chewy. They were not very large and within the market I did see bigger ones, but none of us ate those.

Tuesday June 21

Morning: (academic)

Chaoxing

Kelley Lawrence is the name of the American working for Chaoxing.-Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure – is the largest national database (CNKI) – other company besides Chinamaxxdigital

Chaoxing products = Duxiu Academic www.duxiu.com

Kelley – Duxiu18 year company’s history – Superstar founded in 1993came online in 2000Kelley’s job is to consult with academic librariesSpecializing in mobile librariesOffers broad collection of Chinese librariesDuxiu book searchDuxiu full text searchDuxiu reminds me a lot of www.sheetmusicplus.com

Copyright options1 – ten year readers contract2 - pay author for rightscompany pays author based on # of downloads3 – each user pays per productDuxiu’s document delivery should deliver in minutes.

Collection:Over 900 million pages240,000 kinds of booksall words, charts, illustrations, etc., can be found in text.

E-books and videos (education videos)They have 700 people working on videos-aim of video business is to become digital content. The videos are streamed.1997 – books were placed on CDs (this is what Superstar Digital Lib. did).HOYAH – collection of e-books

Duxiu uses a search function like Google that indexes by keywordThey’ve digitalized 97-98% of books of all published after 1949 in libraries in China

- there are 13 factories working on the digitalization2 kinds of contentHTML content

Duxiu searches

Superstar Duxiu searches several databasesLike a metasearch engine searches multiple search engines and indexes it.

Videos – 50,000 clips (about 30 minutes)Video turned into product

-mirror services-source –no need for services by IP

Chaoxing Study Center-total search of resourcesso that other file formats based o the video will show up like ppts on the video or exams, teaching materials, etc.

Superstar Bailian – foreign documents section on Study Center as well as Duxiu30 languages

-foreign texts-periodicals (foreign)

BLCU – Beijing Language and Culture UniversityChinamaxx – mirror of product in North America

Arya – video databasewww.ssvideo.cnSuperstar

Duxiu Want to cover all majorsHopefully people who cannot go to university can learnPartially free

Superstar – biggest e-book publisher in China

Chinamaxx Digital Libraries350,000 authors who have contracted300 publishers95% of e-books are only for Chaoxing to get copyrightother groups have to go through Chaoxing to get copyrightPDG = PDF for ChinaBooks can be accessed with IPADs300 DPI – 600 DPIoversea@chaoxing.com

Afternoon: (academic)

National Science Library

The Chinese Academy of ScienceLiu Hong; does database construction and Chinese web designDr. Chu – director; works on 17 journals (the library has 17 journals!)

Web-based information service is big at this place!

Yang – 2nd year PhD – studying e-books and e-readingLili – works in the library doing information serviceCui Yan – 1st year PhD student – studying and interested in customer service

Outline-NSL background-Digital Library Development in CAS

a national research organization focusing on basic sciences and bio-medical sciences45,000+ researchers50,000+ grad. Students (1/2 doctoral)Average user distance is 1,000 kmThere is 1 central library (the one we are in), 3 branches, and 90+ institutional libraries. They are a government supported institute like the NIH.

Stage 1: Digital Library Development: CSDL Project (2001-2005)CSDL Project

- Collaborative collection development- Adjusted lib. Acquisition policy from p -> p+e -> e- Lit. digitalization project! Sino-America million book project- Convergence of resource + service system

Chinese Science Citation DatabaseStage 2: Digital Library Development

- a service-oriented digital library (user-based digital service system)- library Reorganization

NSL founded to establish as a service oriented group- Redefine library’s collection- Comprehensive science literature - Open access- Journals/books/reports

Stage 3: Digital Library Development- An embedded knowledge service (still being established)- Conduct customized knowledge environment in institute or research group- SKE (subj. knowledge environment)

The trend is to go from digital library -> knowledge services

*The National Science Library is a very different institutional program than in the U.S. It is not a school, but it is funded by the government and does confer degrees.

Emphasis on Services that Create KnowledgePublications:17 journals10 in Beijing7 among 3 branchesThe Chinese Journal of Library and Information Science (only English journal of Lib. Sci.)

Wednesday June 22

Morning: (academic)

National Library of China

Zhang – International Cooperation DivisionChao Dayang – Rare book and Special CollectionsMeng – IT Dept.

Approved in September 2005, with an investment of about $75,000,000 over 5 years-there are 58 subproject tams and about 400 staff

Design Ideas:services:expanding channelsrangequalityresources:

resource:construction and organizationsharing services – to avoid redundant developmentLong term preservation

standard:processingdescriptionorganizationserviceinteroperation

technology:compatibilityinteroperabilityopennessreusability

National Digital Library-collection and prod.-org. and pres.-delivery and service-search-unique identifier system-copyright management

1. Mobile Service – NLC on your palm

-sms-WAP website –for book search-Mobile Digital Library – News briefing delivery, Channel subs.-strolling in NLC, Dynamic Navigation, user guide

2. Digital TV – NLC Space-***1st professional TV channel produced by a library

features includes - wenjin lecture- book recommendations- featured collections- classic album- illustrated encyclopedias- children’s reading material

Intelligent ServicesSelf-service card app. And recharging

International Collaboration1. Overseas Rare Ancient Books Return

A. Harvard-Yenching Library6 year contract

B. Princeton University East Asia LibraryC. Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia

2. International Dunhuang ProjectPartners include the British Library

3. World Digital LibraryParticipated in 2007

Future PlansPromotion Project whose aim is to connect libraries across China

Chinese Culture DemoLifelong LearningInternational Culture Exchange

Virtual Family Digital Library- aims to use TV set box to deliver services

Goals in 5 yearsIncrease quality of resources by ten times to 10,000 TBIncrease cellphones to 740 millionIncrease Digital TV to 68 million familiesIncrease Internet covers 420 million people

National Strategic Repository Chinese docs: 16.8 million volumes/items

140,000 titles “added/year”14,000 journals5,000 bound newspapers

Basic functions:- LT pres- Remote disorder recovery for dig res- National doc. Supporting center- Preservation and protection of web info resources

Extended functions:- Deposit for local ancient books and important pubs- Trusteeship for stagnant docs. Of local pub. Lib.- Cataloging trusted docs electronically- Public lib. databases coordination and dispatch

Ancient Books LibraryDigitization + Promotion of Classic Literatures

Rare book section-Chinese and foreign languages-manuscripts of modern famous people-Dunhuang manuscripts

Si Ku Quan ShuComplete Library of the Treasures

Wooden shelf + boxes are original

There Are Lots of Collections!!!!!

Afternoon: (academic)

Still at National Library

Fu Ping – former director of digital library division; worked in library for 36 years; in charge of book buildingLibrary founded 1909- started in Bayhei (near Houhai)- moved to present location in 1980s-25,000 square meters-about 15,000 visitors per day including all three locations-3rd location near Houhai

Acquisition Budget100,000,000 RMB, which is about $15,400,000

Digitization30,000,000 RMB, which is about $4,615,000 For both – almost $20 million

Materials digitized w/access to public= all materials without copyright issues

32 provincial libraries contribute digital material

National Library in charge of metadata standards- therefore standardized index

the building is called the digital library building (it looks like a book)

1,200,000,000 RMB for building, which is about $185,000,00040-50% went to equipment, servers, and computers

- there are about 3,000 seats in the digital library building

Building Designer is German-the building has a lot of Western influence too-WiFi-300 computer stations

Some databases can only be accessed from computer stations – other groups licensing agreement require no WiFi

In order to build this library Fu Ping visited several libraries in the U.S.

Chinese Culture Digitization Project

Thursday June 23 and Friday June 24

Today was a wrap up day. We had a meeting in the dining room at the hotel after breakfast with Moving Mandarin where we returned our phones and got our deposits back. We also did some shopping. We went to a building that depending on what floor you were on sold a specific kind of item. I did not buy any souvenirs as I could not tell what was junk and what was not. I also find it a turn-off that whenever you try to stop and look at what a vendor has they immediately pounce on you to try and get you to buy something. I find this very obnoxious personally and there were many instances where I may have bought something except that I found the vendor so pushy that I just walked away. They would be better off.

We ended up going to a Starbucks in Beijing. Many of us were tired and had not had what we felt was a decent cup of coffee in a while. Good tea was easy to find in China. Good coffee was more difficult. I also feel like some of the others may have been tired of the food and possibly a little homesick. I could be wrong.

Right before it got dark out we finally saw rain. It started slowly with big drops and then turned into a torrential downpour. We ran for cover back into the shopping building until the van arrived.

For our final dinner, we went to a buffet called “The Golden Jaguar,” which was suggested to us by Rachel from Moving Mandarin. This was absurdly impressive. There were multiple stations for getting food each representing a different culture. There was Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Western, and Indian. There was a dessert section too. I actually got lost for a moment in the beginning because the place was so big. It took me a minute to walk directly from one end to the other. The food was incredible and was all you could eat. I ate a lot of raw fish from the Japanese section and oysters that were actually from the Indian section. I tried every area with the exception of the Western style buffet…what’s the point really? The dinner was phenomenal and was a great way to conclude the trip. I do not think that I will ever forget that meal. It was truly amazing!

It took us a long time to get back to the hotel because the traffic was terrible and drivers stopped paying attention to traffic lights where it was congested. Making a left turn at a busy intersection would have been quite the nightmare in this country, but driving is just so much different in China. As a note, one should be extremely careful when crossing streets as you may be taking your life in your hands.

We made it to the airport from the hotel, however, with relative ease. We had a late flight. I slept most of the flight from Beijing to Moscow. Moscow was only a little better than it had been on the way to Beijing, but several of us hunkered down at a Viennese style café where we mostly drank cappuccinos. The flight back to JFK was rather uneventful as well, but both were the two longest flights I have ever been on both to Beijing and back to New York.

I actually found the security getting back into the United States at JFK to be the most strict. I was taken aside for questioning and the security officer was rather rude.

We had arranged for a van to take us back to Southern. The van driver was a nice man, but between the stiffness of the van’s suspension itself and his driving style where he hit the brake rather hard every time he touched it, it made for a rather dismal drive. There was also a lot of traffic. Several people got sick including one person who was already sick before the van even started. I did not get sick, but admit that I did feel a little queasy before we got to the rest stop. Of the entire trip, the most difficult and lowest point was the time it took us to get from JFK back to New Haven. The driver obviously felt bad and would not accept tips.

I feel the trip was a success! There were things that could have been better, but overall I am quite pleased with the adventure.

Some additional notes:

***The SPAR office at Southern that handled the pre-trip logistics was like a poorly run travel agency set up to clear Southern of any liability. They handled getting the visas for getting into China atrociously, and on many occasions had the wrong information, which I ultimately had to correct them on. I had to get the visa on my own after weeks of them delaying me because they were going to handle it. This became a great personal expense above and beyond what was necessary if the SPAR office had done what they said they were going to do. I do not know if was inexperience or ineptitude, but they did not do anything that impressed me and they always demonstrated a great deal of disorganization. They also did not give us parking information or our flight details until right before the trip. I actually ended up getting the flight details from Dr. Liu at the small meeting that not everyone could come to. I then emailed those who couldn’t make it with the flight details. The SPAR office should have handled this better too. They also lost my medical form and only found it while on the phone with me telling me that they had lost it. It had been missing for a long tine at this point too. If I were a business manager and the SPAR office was my business, people would be losing their jobs!

*For future consideration, it is going to be a much more difficult trip for anyone with dietary restrictions. Dr. Liu might want to inform future trip members that dietary restrictions may not be possible to accommodate as this proved a point of difficulty throughout, though to no fault of Dr. Liu’s.

*The pace of the trip was excellent in my opinion. I like that we had such a packed schedule. I did not go on the trip to sit around a hotel room. I liked that at the end of the day when I returned to the hotel room that the day was always so busy that I was so tired I fell asleep as soon as I hit the bed. It made for a much more action packed

adventure. That being said, having a break in the middle of the day in order to rest did prove highly beneficial. I think I would add in time for breaks in between the days’ major activities, but I would not reduce the number of activities.

*I would have preferred an additional week myself even if that meant a higher cost. It would have been nice to travel outside Beijing and see a more rural area. Maybe we could have even visited a library outside the city as well.

*Many of the library visits did not seem relevant to the course description.

*We should have had readings and discussions going on before we left for the trip itself.

*Future students should be told to get an anti-diuretic such as Ciprofloxacin in case of diarrhea. Students should also be advised about the rest room facilities in China and that they should always have multiple packages of Kleenex or other tissues to use as toilet paper.