In an e-mail released December 13, Dr. Hwa-Wei Lee, Chief, Asian Division of the Library of Congress reported that the Chinese Section abolished two years ago will be reinstalled. When Dr. Lee was appointed as Chief of LC Asian Division, he restructured the division by abolishing country sections. Many scholars and users considered the re-structure not adequate. At the hearing of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on September 16, 2005, the Chinese Section should be re-installed. One of the strong supporters for the move is Dr. Chi Wang, former Section Chief. His testimony was summarized below.
The most notable change was the abolition of the Chinese Section in 2004 without explanation after more than 75 productive years. Without a Chinese Section, the Library of Congress has no means to develop a strong China collection. The decision came as a surprise to all scholars in the East Asian library field.
The Chinese language holdings in the Library of Congress do, however, remain among the most thorough in the United States. Over the past decade, the Chinese Section has been trying to increase its collection of contemporary China materials, including the history of Chinese Communist Party, China's military development, China's economy, US-China relations, American studies in China, etc. The Chinese collection in the Library of Congress has the best materials on traditional China studies; no other library is comparable. As for the contemporary China collection, there is much room for improvement.
Since the Chinese Section was abolished in October 2004, two new sections have been created: the Collection Service Section and the Scholarly Service Section. There are no more sections devoted solely to individual countries. . . this system greatly hinders the development of a superior Chinese collection.
. . . [The government needs], particularly national security needs, should be met by the Library of Congress China collection. . . the government should have more materials on China's political development, its foreign policy, especially toward the United States, China's military development, which would address the national security needs, China's economic development, and China's understanding of the United States. These materials are of paramount importance to the federal government. . . With more than 175,000 titles published annually in mainland China during the past three to four years, there are many materials devoted to the previously mentioned subjects that the Library of Congress should be collecting. . .
[Recommendations][First] the first priority is for the Library of Congress to re-establish the Chinese Section as a independent division not affiliated with the Asian Division. The Chinese Section had been handicapped in its operations depending on who was serving as chief of the Asian Division. This would no longer be a problem if the Chinese Section were allowed to run its own operations without outside interference.
Secondly, there needs to be a section head with full authority to manage, develop and service the Chinese collection. The Chinese section also needs to hire additional China area specialists, reference librarians and experienced technicians to support the head and to help develop a better collection, with a special emphasis on contemporary China. In addition to the Chinese Section head, there should be an outside advisory committee comprising China scholars to review the progress of Chinese collection development and to meet with the section employees to discuss ways to improve the collection.
[Thirdly] . . .the China Commission start an inquiry focusing on the Asian Division's management approach. Three or four China scholars could investigate why the 2004 re-organization was adopted and why the individual country sections were abolished and downgraded to teams.
[In the forth place] There also is a need to establish a Chinese acquisition facility in Beijing. This facility should have a China area specialist from the Chinese Section, technical assistance personnel and two local employees in China to monitor important Chinese publications that ought to be recommended to the Library of Congress. The Library has six overseas bureaus in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nairobi, Cairo and Rio Di Janero. Why can't we have an acquisition center in China?
[last] I also would like to recommend acquiring more electronic databases that contain contemporary China materials. For example, before I retired, I recommend a subscription to CNKI online database from Eastview Information Service in Minneapolis. CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) contains between 6,000-9,000 periodical titles online in social sciences, humanities and many other subjects. There are many digital resources from China the Library of Congress should acquire. Additionally, the Library of Congress should digitize its entire Chinese collection so scholars around the world can have electronic access to its materials.