CALA Newsletter No. 114, Spring 2016

CHAPTER HIGHLIGHTS

45

2016 CALA M idwest Annual Conference

Innovate! Advocate! Integrate! Reinvigorating Your Library in a Digital Age

CALA Newsletter No. 114, Spring 2016 Chapter Highlights

On Fr iday, May 13, 2015, the 2016 CALA Midwest Annual Conference was held at the Indiana Univer si ty South Bend. The conference adopted a hybr id format, both onsi te and online, to faci l i tate the member par ticipation. A total of twenty CALA members joined the conference, including three l ibrar y school students and two visi ting scholar s from the Univer si ty of I l l inois at Urbana-Champaign, and eleven presentations were delivered, on-si te and vir tual ly. The presentations were well r eceived and the par ticipants were engaged in active discussions and exchanged ideas on a w ide var iety of l ibrar y topics.

The conference featured the keynote speaker Miguel Figueroa, who is the Dir ector of the Center for the Future of Librar ies

(w w w.ala.org/l ibrar yofthefuture), a new ini tiative from the Amer ican Librar y Association that works to identi fy tr ends r elevant to l ibrar ies and the communities they ser ve. Miguel has previously held posi tions at the Amer ican Theological Librar y Association; the Amer ican Librar y Association?s Off ice for Diver si ty and Off ice for Li teracy and Outreach Ser vices; New York Univer si ty?s Ehrman Medical Librar y; and Neal-Schuman Publishers. Miguel presented on the tr ends and signals for the l ibrar y of future and aimed to help the audience f ind a productive role in bui lding l ibrar ies of the future. The breakout sessions covered innovative ideas in a w ide ar ray of l ibrar y ser vices including r esearch and reference, instr uction, outr each, career , and technical ser vice. Below are br ief notes on those

presentations.

Fu Zhou, Learning and Research Librar ian from the Univer si ty of Missour i-Kansas City, presented on a new ?academic l i terature sui te? Docear that can help r esearchers search, organize,

and create academic l i terature. Fu introduced i ts general concept and special features and jump-star ted the learning for those who are interested. Kate Wil l iam, Associate Professor from the Univer si ty of I l l inois at Urbana-Champaign, presented on measur ing and conceptualizing the l i ttle fr ee l ibrar y movement and led a discussion on what the globe profession can learn from this surging movement.

Wen-l ing Liu, Librar ian for East Asian and Tibetan Studies from the Indiana Univer si ty, and Jian Anna Xiong, Government Information Librar ian from Southern I l l inois Univer si ty, shared an analysis r epor t of 2014 CALA self-assessment sur vey and many of the f indings can ser ve as a valuable r eference for future str ategic planning and for car r ying out CALA?s long term goals. Mingyan Li , Resource Access Librar ian and Clinical Assistant Professor from the Univer si ty of I l l inois at Chicago, presented on how to use OPAC search box bui lder to create and customize your ow n search box to ser ve speci f ic group of audience or speci f ic information needs. This approach w i l l improve the accuracy and eff iciency of information r etr ieval especial ly for l ibrar ies w ith large col lection of var ious formats of mater ials.

(Continue on Page 46)

Submitted by Yan He on behalf of CALA MW Chapter Executive Board

The keynote speaker

Fu w ith UIUC students and visi ting scholar s

46

2016 CALA M idwest Annual Conference

Innovate! Advocate! Integrate! Reinvigorating Your Library in a Digital Age

CALA Newsletter No. 114, Spring 2016 Chapter Highlights

Qi Chen, Librar y Dir ector from the Calumet College of St. Joseph talked about how to define your ow n dream job and make your dream come tr ue. The presentation focused on how to search for your ideal job and put together an attr active r esume and cover letter. She also discussed inter view ski l ls both online, by phone and in per son. As a seasoned l ibrar y dir ector , Qi has a r ich exper ience in hir ing. Those str ategies and ski l ls are ver y helpful and practical for l ibrar y professionals to land new dream jobs.

Yan He, Information Li teracy Librar ian from the Indiana Univer si ty Kokomo, shared her faculty-l ibrar ian col laboration exper ience on designing f l ipped information l i teracy sessions w ith the assessment model. The two f l ipped sessions on r eading and f inding pr imar y l i terature were proved to enhance students? learning exper ience.

Minhao Jiang, Software Development Librar ian from the Wayne State Univer si ty, explored TensorFlow and i ts implications to l ibrar ies. He provided introduction and demonstration on TensorFlow and explained how i t can potential ly benefi t existing l ibrar y systems.

Thomas Burns, Learning and Research Librar ian from the Univer si ty of Missour i Kansas City, r eviewed the r esearch and conversation on help-seeking in the academic l ibrar y in the digi tal age. He also discussed str ategies to encourage and faci l i tate the help seeking.

Vincci Kwong, Head of Librar y Web Ser vices and Associate Librar ian from the Indiana Univer si ty South Bend, presented the ?turning outward? approach and discussed the steps on how to use this approach to engage community through conversations and how to create conditions for change and sustainabi l i ty.

Gar y Brow ning, Lead Secur i ty Analyst from the Indiana Univer si ty, provided a br ief introduction about information secur i ty and what role we al l have in keeping information safe.

Fu Zhuo, the president of CALA Midwest Chapter , w rapped up the conference by acknow ledging the conference planners. We would l ike to thank al l the presenter s and attendees for joining us for the

2016 CALA Midwest Annual Conference and shar ing innovative ideas. We appreciate the hospital i ty of our local host, Indiana Univer si ty South Bend, for providing the conference room and cater ing ser vice. Special thanks to Vicky Bloom, Dean of the Indiana Univer si ty South Bend Librar y, who gave a warm welcome speech to conference attendees and showed her suppor t for CALA and the conference, and Vincci

Kwong who coordinated al l the local ar r angements plus the vir tual conference set-up to make sure that the conference run smoothly. We also appreciate the hard work of the professional development committee on deciding on the conference theme, invi ting the keynote speaker , r eview ing the conference proposals, creating the conference program, and marketing the conference to the CALA community. I t is notewor thy to mention that Li jun Xue (co-chair of Professional Development Committee) made persistent effor t on invi ting the keynote speaker and the featured keynote presentation turned out to f i t per fectly into our conference theme and received ver y posi tive feedback from the audience. We also appreciate the suppor t from the CALA Midwest Executive Board, especial ly Fu Zhou, who provided much great speci f ic advice on the conference planning.

Last but not least, we thank Shuyong Jiang for her di l igent fund raising effor t and we are tr uly grateful for Wanfang Data?s generous f inancial suppor t for our conference.

Group picture

47

CALA MW Chapter Life Member Ning Zou Wins ALA Election

CALA Newsletter No. 114, Spring 2016 Chapter Highlights

ALA Election Off ice just r eleased i ts 2016 annual election r esults. Ms. Ning Zou, Instr uction Coordinator at Rebecca Crow n Librar y of Dominican Univer si ty, won Vice-President/President-Elect (For three-year term) in LIBRARY INSTRUCTION ROUND TABLE SECTION. Her r esults showed that she won 99% of votes and clear ly was the choice of other l ibrar ians in her f ield. Ms. Zou joined CALA in 2003 and she?s cur rently a l i fe member in the MW chapter. She has been ver y active in ser ving CALA Midwest Chapter as well as on the national CALA committees. She is also a fr equent presenter in professional conferences. Please join us from MW Chapter to congratulate her for her w inning of Vice-President/President-Elect in LIBRARY INSTRUCTION ROUND TABLE SECTION in the 2016 ALA Election.

by Fu Zhuo

The CALA MW Chapter Celebrate the Chinese

New Year at Dr. Tze-chung Li?s Home

Repor ted by Shuyong Jiang, CALA MW Public Relation Committee

The CALA Midwest Chapter had a holiday gather ing on Feb. 13, 2016 at Dr. Tze-Chung Li?s home in Chicago. A group of f ive UIUC GSLIS students and some Chapter members from the Chicago area got together to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Mrs. Li ordered Chinese food for the group.

The group had a pleasant time at Dr. Li?s home. Bathed in br ight sunshine, we enjoyed the delicious food, the great view of Chicago and the Lake Michigan, but mostly a good conversation w ith two of the most r espected members of CALA.

48

NCA Chapter?s Spring Activity

CALA Newsletter No. 114, Spring 2016 Chapter Highlights

CALA NCA Chapter visi ted San Francisco Chinatow n on Apr i l 30, 2016. We had 17 people attend.  The tour star ted at the Chinese Histor ical Society of Amer ica (CHSA). The bui lding was or iginal ly a Chinatow n YWCA designed by Jul ia Morgan (1872-1957), an ar chi tect who integrated Chinese moti fs w ith the fr amework of western ar chi tecture. CHSA is the oldest and largest ar chive and histor y center documenting the Chinese Amer ican exper ience in the United States. After a del icious dim sum lunch break at the Saint Mar y?s Square park, we headed to the Paci f ic Her i tage Museum. The Museum is housed in the histor ic US Subtreasur y Bui lding, dating from 1875 and bui l t on the si te of the f i r st US Branch Mint. The bui lding is r ecognized as a histor ical landmark by both the state of Cali fornia and the

ci ty of San Francisco.  In 1984 the bui lding was restored in order to house the Paci f ic Her i tage Museum.  The Museum celebrates the her i tage and achievements of the people l iving along the Paci f ic Rim.  We saw a r epl ica of a bank vault used dur ing the bui ldings operation as a par t of the Treasur y Depar tment.  There is also a display of a col lection of 40 years si lver coins.   

After that we went to the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco. The Center has a galler y, book shop, classroom and off ices.  I t was established in 1965 to foster the understanding and appreciation of Chinese and Chinese Amer ican ar t, histor y, and culture in the United States.  At the galler y we saw a documentar y show ing the l i fe of ear ly Chinese immigrants and a couple interesting modern Chinese ar tworks. 

We also stopped by the For tune Cookie Factor y. The Factor y opened on August 5, 1962 and remains one of the only places you can sti l l f ind handmade for tune cookies in the countr y.  There were 2 women placing for tunes in the hot cookies, then folding the cookies before they harden.  You get a sample when you go in and the cookie is sti l l warm, couldn?t be fr esher.

Lastly we visi ted the San Francisco Cable Car Museum. I t contains histor ical and explanator y exhibi ts on the San Francisco cable car system.  The museum is par t of the complex that also houses the cable car power house, which dr ives the cable car s.  I t is fascinating to see how the cable car s are operated.  The museum is r egarded as a working museum. 

The tour ended w ith ever yone learning something from the past. I t was tr uly an educational and informational visi t.

Hualing Wan

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CALA Southeast and CALA Southwest Chapters? joint online conference to be Held in June

CALA Newsletter No. 114, Spring 2016 Chapter Highlights

The CALA Southeast and Southwest Chapter s joint onl ine conference w i l l be held on June 13th, 2016. Cur rently we are cal l ing for speakers to present at the conference. The online platform w i l l be Anymeeting.

The topic of the joint conference is "New l ibrar y technologies, practices and impacts".

Possible topics include:

1) How l ibrar y technologies impact the workf lows of l ibrar y faculties and staff ;

2) ?Old? l ibrar y technologies that are used in creative ways;

3) Librar y technologies that improve user exper iences and benefi t ser ved communities;

4) Librar y technologies that enhance the discover y of l ibrar y r esources (such as e-resource);

5) Librar y technologies that offer better approaches and solutions in managing data such as stor ing, migrating and preser ving of data.

The online conference w i l l be open to the CALA community and anyone who's interested in joining i t. More information has been sent to the CALA l istser v, websi te and CALA's Facebook page.

Provided by Xiaojie Duan, CALA SE Chapter President, and Xiaoyu Duan, CALA SW Chapter President

CALA Newsletter No. 114, Spring 2016

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

51

The 2015 Chinese Library Annual Conference

CALA Newsletter No. 114, Spring 2016 International Collaboration

December 16? 17, 2015, the Chinese Librar y Annual Conference was held at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Convention Center , hosting more than 2800 practi tioners in the l ibrar y profession from the U.S., Germany, South Korea, Russia, Hong Kong, Macao and Mainland China. Some special guests include: Mr. Yang Zhi jin, Vice Minister of Culture in PRC, Mr. Sheng Haixiong, the Deputy Head of Publici ty Depar tment of the CPC Guangdong Province Committee, and Mr. Chen Jianhua, Mayor of Guangzhou, and Ms. Donna Scheeder , President of the IFLA (International Federation of Librar y Associations and Insti tutions), Mr. Kwack Dong Chul, President of South Korean Librar y Association, Ms. Barbara Schleihage, president of Germany Librar y Association and Ms. LianRuan, president of CALA (Chinese Amer ican Librar ians Association).

Mr. Chen Jianhua, Mayor of Guangzhou, who focuses special ly on the l ibrar y constr uction and progress as a cr i tical par t of municipal i ty, presented a speech enti tled ?Librar y Vocation, Converging Social Motivation?. Mr. Chen told the audience, for the f i r st time, that a 30,000-40,000 square meter Tech Librar y w i l l be set up in the most expensive CBD shopping area, Tai GuHui, and that a total of 5,000,000 books w i l l be added to the Guangzhou Librar y in 2016, w ith 2,000,000 books categor ized as technological and scienti f ic books and the al located fund for buying the books be estimated as more than 10 mi l l ion yuan. ?As far as a ci ty is concerned, the l ibrar ies are not just a cultural symbol of the ci ty, but

r epresent the mental power and spir i tual identi ty?, said Mr. Chen.

The theme for this year?s conference is ?Librar y: Push for Social Progress?. There are four symposiums and 21 panel meetings at the conference, w ith the topics r anging from information technology?s impact on l ibrar ies, legal issues of public l ibrar ies, kids? r eading promotion, antique copy protection, modern technology and others, al l concerning the cr i tical issues facing l ibrar ies in present-day China. CALA hosted a panel meeting, featur ing ?Function of Librar ies in Social Progress: Latest Trends of Amer ican Univer si ty Librar ies and Public Librar ies?, lending insight into the new development of Univer si ty Librar ies and the creative ser vice of the public l ibrar ies in the U.S.

(Continue on page 52)

Mr. Chen Jianhua, Mayor of Guangzhou presents a speech enti tled ?Librar y Vocation, Converging Social

Motivation?

Ms. Barbara Schleihage, president of Germany Librar y Association, makes

a speech

Session 21: ?The Librar y's Role in Social Advancement:

Cur rent Trends in Academic and Public Librar ies in the

United States? hosted by CALA

Guangzhou Librar y welcomes the honored

guests

by Qian Zeng

52

The 2015 Chinese Library Annual Conference

CALA Newsletter No. 114, Spring 2016 International Collaboration

And as the host of the conference, Guangzhou Librar y co-hosted an ?After Conference? w ith the Librar y Society of China, and the ?After Conference? ser ved as an international academic conference, w ith the theme as ?the Public Librar y Archi tecture and Function as Social Public Space?. The dir ector s from Los Angeles Public Librar y, Seattle Central Public l ibrar y, the Mayakovsky Central Ci ty Public Librar y of St. Peter sburg, Public Information Librar y

of France Pompidou and the National Librar y of Singapore were invi ted to the discussion of the public l ibrar ies? ar chi tectural bui lding and i ts functions. This is a sign that public l ibrar ies from mainland China are now coming to the agreement that forging the social public space is one of the main functions of public l ibrar ies.

The opening ceremony of the conference star ts w ith the theatr ical per formance of Chinese classics The Book of Songs (?? ? ·? ? ·? ? ?), and the speeches and talks are connected by several theatr ical shows w ith tr adi tional

Chinese cultural glamor and Southern China touch. The conference featured 10 Most Beauti ful Grassroots Librar ies and 10 Pioneer Librar ians, and held an award ceremony for the insti tutions and persons. At the night of December 16th, Guangzhou Librar y prepared a par ty cal led ?Night at Librar y?, w ith a view to communication and shar ing, and also organized an ar tistic show w ith poem reading, modern dance and or chestr a for al l the conference, ar tistical ly taking use of the spatial design of Guangzhou Librar y to create a multi -dimensional exper ience of the mental journey as r elated to books and ar ts. At that

time, at that location, r ight under the dome of Guangzhou Librar y, the ar tists and the audience co-bui l t a novel and interesting sovereignty of culture. The people present could feel the subtly changed and new relationship between people and the environment, r eaders and the books,

r eaders and reading and, who knows, might even f ind new relationships between people. I t is the purpose of the organizer s that the beauty of the l ibrar y and the beauty of r eading could be found and ful ly embraced.

At the concluding ceremony, Mr. Wu Jianzhong, Dir ector of Shanghai Librar y delivered a speech on ?Seeing Now from Future: the Next Ten Years of Librar ies (2015-2025)?. Mr. Wu proposed that l ibrar ies of 2025 w i l l be the center s for know ledge, learning and communication, and also the enabler s of social, economic and cultural development which forms a closer tie w ith the whole society.

Fang Jiazhong, the dir ector of Guangzhou Librar y accepts the pr ize for 10 Pioneer

Librar ians

The deputy accepts the pr ize for the 10 Most Beauti ful Grassroots Librar ies

The poet Xi Chuan tel ls his l ibrar y stor ies in the "Night at Librar y"

The music per formance in the ?Night at Librar y?

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Jiangxi Provincial Public Library Expands Its Digital Presence

CALA Newsletter No. 114, Spring 2016 International Collaboration

The Jiangxi Provincial Public Librar y, located at the capital ci ty of Nanchang, is the largest public l ibrar y of Jiangxi Province. Additionally, i t is my mother l ibrar y and spir i tual home. Having not visi ted for a long time since I went overseas to study my Master of Librar y Science (MLS) in 1999, I noticed that the l ibrar y has exper ienced digi tal tr ansformations over the past 15 years. Racing w ith the Information Age of the 21st centur y, the l ibrar y not only offer s physical l ibrar y ser vices, but also vir tual l ibrar y ser vices. The l ibrar y has a paral lel medium of ?Jiangxi Digi tal Librar y? in compar ison w ith ?Jiangxi Provincial Public Librar y? l isted on i ts home webpage.

Having had the chance to visi t my family and ser ve as the ?Summer Librar ian? for 3 months in the summer of 2014 for my local l ibrar y, this shor t visi ting ser vice greatly sharpened and deepened my understanding of those cutting edge tools and popular ser vices the l ibrar y ini tiated to i ts local community patrons, scholar ly groups, international and national visi tor s as well as senior and youth r esidents, etc. And w ithout any doubt, those innovative and diver si f ied ser vices have strongly impacted and inf luenced people?s r eading habits, human-computer interactions, information-seeking behavior s, data analytics, mind settings, wor ld points of views, etc. Here I br ief ly elaborate a couple of digi tal highl ights the l ibrar y has implemented.

DIGITAL LIBRARY EXPERIENCE CENTER

As a r esult of the ?Digi tal Librar y Promotion Project? al located by the Chinese Central Government, 12 major public l ibrar ies scattered across the whole Jiangxi Province w ithin the Jiangxi Public Librar y System were granted this special project fund. Al l of those 12 l ibrar ies have alr eady f inished the equipment acquisi tion, instal lation and adjustment; they have alr eady connected to the Digi tal Librar y National Center and other levels of web nodes. Patrons from those 12 l ibrar ies can dir ectly access as much as 120TB digi tal r esources shared w ith the China National Librar y from var ious multimedia terminals. (Continue on page 54)

Digi tal exper ience center and internet café

Home page of "JIangxi Digi tal Librar y"

Lianglei Qi

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Jiangxi Provincial Public Library Expands Its Digital Presence

CALA Newsletter No. 114, Spring 2016 International Collaboration

Along w ith this digi tal l ibrar y promotion activi ty, Jiangxi Provincial Public Librar y especial ly established and opened a ?Digi tal Librar y Exper ience Center? aiming to educate patrons to understand the constr uction of the National Digi tal Librar y, to operate multimedia terminals and to immerse themselves into multimedia presentations. This center also seeks to educate patrons on uti l izing i ts local and national digi tal l ibrar y ser vices, including, but not l imited to the fol low ing: exper iencing the television l ibrar y, the mobi le r eading platform, the chi ldren?s digi tal l ibrar ies, the digi tal l ibrar ies w ith disabi l i t ies, the Librar y for the Blind, the Chinese government public information ser vices platform, etc. By doing so, the l ibrar y increases patrons? reading interests and pursues ?national r eading? promotion.

DIGITAL NAVIGATORS AND ONLINE OPAC

Inspir ed by emerging and w ir eless technologies, the l ibrar y decided to adopt the ideas of self-help and automatic machine-help ser vices. Six large touch-screen self-help machine navigator s were set up at the hallway as well as side entr ies to the l ibrar y. Eight computer s were set up at the front gate of

the main entr y connected to Gigabyte w ir eless internet spread around the whole l ibrar y area and ready to ser ve patrons. Wireless smar t phones and tablets are encouraged inside of the l ibrar y and patrons can scan two-dimensional codes from those touch screen navigator s and be able to dow nload thousands of digi tal books including Chinese and multi -language col lections at any time. Navigator s also offer voice prompts which can help patrons to f ind the r ight l ibrar y locations, per sons, depar tments and even the col lections. Final ly, patrons can access the local onl ine catalog (OPAC) and databases as well as the online databases through those navigator s by uti l izing vir tual keyboards popped up on the touch screen.

SELF-CIRCULATION AND LIBRARY CARD VENDING MACHINES

To meet the national and international automation tr ends, and to improve the eff iciency of uti l izing the l ibrar y col lections to r each the high l ibrar y turn-over r ates, two l ibrar y card vending machines and four self-ci r culating machines were put into use and set up at the front hal lway of the main gate of the l ibrar y. The cir culation depar tment was canceled, the cir culation l ibrar ian and staff were merged into the social science col lections depar tment as well as the natural science col lections depar tment. (Continue on page 55)

Librar y card vending machines and self-ci r culation

Touch screen navigator s and online OPAC

55

Jiangxi Provincial Public Library Expands Its Digital Presence

CALA Newsletter No. 114, Spring 2016 International Collaboration

CUTTING EDGE LIBRARY SERVICES

Multimedia and cutting edge technologies are w idely spreading across al l depar tments of the l ibrar y, High speed WI-FI covers the whole and even beyond the l ibrar y r egion. Patrons are encouraged to br ing their ow n mobi le devices, or to uti l ize l ibrar y?s equipment; Patrons can sur f the Internet individually, or can work on assignments as a team. Over 300 computer s were instal led into each l ibrar y depar tment including the main computer room which is opened to al l l ibr ar y users. Touch screen ful l-text electronic journal r eaders/devices are r eady for patrons at the per iodical r eading room. LED TEXT Banners w ith 3D projector s as well as large LED LCD TVs offer 180 degree angle panoramic views for PowerPoint presentations and videos inside of the public presentation/lecture room. The chi ldren?s r eading room was designed and renovated w ith new book shelves and the most r ecently updated reading mater ials along w ith touch screen electronic chi ldren?s r eading devices. 24-hour self-help cir culating kiosks can be reached at the main str eets of the whole ci ty.

MY LIBRARY PRESENTATONS IN 2008 AND 2011

By invi tation of the Librar y Association of Jiangxi Province, an open academic seminar on ?Introduction to US Librar y Systems? was offered and presented by me in the summer of 2008 at the Jiangxi Provincial Public Librar y public presentation/lecture room. Hundreds of peer l ibrar ians from local and sister l ibrar y associations as well as l ibrar y patrons/users attended my seminar , asked

numerous challenging and interesting questions and offered me tr emendous valuable feedback, al l of which helped me a lot in my later l ibrar y professional work. In the summer of 2011, I made another public academic seminar on ?Introduction to Digi tal Librar y,? which ini tiated an active discussion on l ibrar y digi tization at our local l ibrar y system and community.

SUMMARY

In r ecent years, the INTERNET and computer technologies have alr eady strongly impacted the development of l ibrar ianship. Al l l ibr ar ies w ithin the Jiangxi Public Librar y System are in the process of migrating from the ?Ser vice-based? to the ?Technology-based? l ibrar y pattern and now are able to offer both pr inted col lections and digi tal r esources. Digi tal l ibrar y infr astr ucture has been established and is able to accommodate more electronic devices and patrons. This w i l l enable the l ibrar ies to develop more advanced digi tal col lections and ser vices in the coming years. The l ibrar y?s goal for the next 10 years w i l l be investing more human, capi tal and technology r esources to bui ld up an ?Intel l igent Librar y? environment; to per fect the WeChat l ibrar y, mobi le l ibrar y ser vice platforms, etc.; to form a distr ibuted digi tal l ibrar y ser vice network which is r esourceful, fast-ser viced, technology advanced, stable and rel iable; and, ultimately, to benefi t al l community members, r esidents, users, patrons and visi tor s.

My scheduled local l ibrar y presentations in 2008 and 2011

Computer room, digi tal ser vices rooms, chi ldren?s r eading room and 24-hour l ibrar y kiosks

56

Every Chinese Child Ready to Read

The State of Private Children?s Libraries in China

CALA Newsletter No. 114, Spring 2016 International Collaboration

In November of 2015, I attended the China Shanghai International Book Fair (http://w w w.ccbookfair.com/) as par t of a continuing project to obser ve and assist chi ldren?s l ibrar ies operating as pr ivate businesses in China. I f i r st learned of these l ibrar ies in 2011, and have subsequently visi ted more than twenty of these ?picture book houses? ( ? ? ? ) in f ive major ci ties, inter view ing ow ners and parents about their motivations and str ategies.

At the book fair Li Na, the ow ner of Shanghai?s ? ? ? ? ? ? (which she tr anslates as "Tiny Sweet Kids Librar y"), and I presented an

over view of the phenomenon aimed at encouraging publishers to r each out to this entr epreneur ial community. As so many things in China do, these chi ldren?s l ibrar ies have grow n rapidly.  Fir st obser ved in 2006, by 2013 a map shows 1,700 pr ivate chi ldren?s l ibrar ies across the whole countr y (http://w w w.shuguanhui.com/hbgmap.asp). There are a number of di f ferent business models.  Some l ibrar ies are subsidized by parent businesses (Bei jing?s Baby Cube and Nanchang?s Centur y Librar y), whi le other s are par ts of chains or fr anchises.  Most, however , are ow ned and operated by individuals.

Librar ians and their employees tend to be self-conscious of their programming abi l i t ies, and fr equently r equest advice on how to inspir e young readers, choose age-appropr iate books (especial ly for English language learning), and keep parents and kids engaged w ith the l ibrar y. Many str uggle w ith l imited r evenue sources and ask for business advice that I cannot give.

Parents express fr ustr ation at China's r igid school system (and i ts high stakes high school and col lege entrance exams) whi le simultaneously asking how to best give their chi ldren a head star t w i th learning character s and English. Not only have I obser ved

disagreements over how to parent, I have seen individuals str uggle w ith their ow n confl icted feel ings about pushing their chi ldren to be competi tive whi le at the same time tr ying to give them room to be creative, playful, and well adjusted.  Many l ibrar ies have parenting mater ials on hand or mothers' book clubs.  One operation in Bei jing has shi f ted i ts focus to teaching parenting seminars. The picture book l ibrar ies are an exci ting microcosm of the contemporar y Chinese middle class urban exper ience. I greatly appreciate the openness that the l ibrar ians and parents have show n to me the past several years and hope that this industr y continues to develop, organize, and seek increased contact w ith the global l ibrar y community.  More information about this work is avai lable at w w w.readingever ywhere.org.

(Jon Jablonski is a member of CALA?s Southern Cali fornia Chapter and is Spatial Data Librar ian at the Univer si ty of Cali fornia Santa Barbara.)

John Jablonski

The entrance to the Shanghai Wor ld Expo Exhibi tions and Convention Center dur ing the China Shanghai International Chi ldren's Book Fair.

A German tr ade representative points out some interesting features of a

picture book.

The author r eading 'Stinky Poop' to members of Shanghai

l ibrar ian, mother , and graduate student Li Na's picture book l ibrar y, located in a housing

compound's r etai l space south of Hongqiao Air por t.