CALA in the CSLS 2000

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The Second Annual Conference of the China Society for Library Science (CSLS) was held at Hailar, China from July 17 to 21, 2000. The Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) had a seventeen-member delegation of fifteen different libraries from ten states attended the conference.

More than seven hundred librarians, library educators, policy makers, and local officials took part in the conference. At the opening ceremony, Yu-Lan Chou, CALA President, delivered ALA President Nancy Kranich and Executive Director Bill Gordon's congratulatory greetings. She also presented a plaque to Mr. Zhou Heping, Deputy Vice-President of CSLS and Deputy Director of the National Library of China, as a token of friendship for the future collaboration between CALA and CSLS. Mr. Too Young Lee, President of the Korean Library Association, also attended the the conference. In his speech, he reported the planning progress on the 72nd IFLA conference to be held in Seoul, 2006.

The 2000 CSLS conference had 6 themes on models & functions of developing the 21st library; strategies to realize the information sharing; management, development, and utilization of the networked information resources; new trend in library management; continuing education for librarians; and constructing libraries in the minority regions. Dr. Hwa-Wei Lee, Dean Emeritus of the Ohio University Library and Prof. James Ho, Associate Director of the Howard University Library both served as keynote speakers. They addressed the knowledge information management and library's role in today's information society. In addition, the 9 members of the CALA delegation (Karen Wei, Linda Tse, Thomas Lee, Cathy Chiu, Yu-Lan Chou, Lisa Zhao, Charles Wu, Julia Tung, and Wen-kai Kung) gave 9 presentations at group discussion sessions. All received favorable responses from the audience. Their papers are well sought after by the Chinese colleagues and will appeared at various Chinese library journals soon.

After the conference, several CALA members continued with a study tour to Harbin, Jilin, Changchun, Shenyang, and Dalian for visiting libraries. Not only the collections held at each institution but also the rapid growth in utilizing the information technology impressed the delegation. The journey was well planned with assistance from the International Cooperation Division at the National Library of China. The National Library of China also hosted library visits in Beijing for the CALA delegation members to conduct business negotiations in acquisition/exchange programs, staff training, and interlibrary loan agreements.

The fruitful experience has assured most of the CALA members to consider joining the group again next year. The CSLS 2001 conference will be held at Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China and CALA will organize the delegation again for sure to facilitate the professional exchange between U.S. and China. (Report by Yu-lan Chou & Lisa Zhao)