Very few people in the library world could be as dynamic and energetic as Ching-chih Chen in the application of new information technologies to libraries. Dr. Chen has spent almost forty years serving the library and information science community as an award-winning librarian, teacher, speaker, consultant, research and innovator. She is an author and editor of more than twenty-nine books, 150 journal articles, and numerous reports, and has produced several electronic publishing products.
Dr. Chen's career started with scientific, technical and medical librarianship in early 1960's and later, she became associated with teaching at Simmons College where she was also the Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (1979-1997). Her early work brought us a number of essential reference sources which includes Scientific and Technical Information Sources (MIT Press, 1977), Quantitative Measurement and Dynamic Library Service (Oryx Press, 1978), Library Management without Bias (JAI Press, 1980), Health Sciences Information Sources (MIT press, 1981), and Information Seeking: Assessing and Anticipating User Needs (co-author) (Neal-Schuman, 1982), to list only a few. Since 1981, her publication emphasis has shifted to the technology-related areas.
When the microcomputer was first introduced, Dr. Chen began to concentrate her energy and professional activities on the application of new information technologies to libraries.Her interactive videodisc and multimedia CD-ROM product entitled The First Emperor of China were awarded a Cindy Award of the Association of Visual Communicators and was chosen by MacUser as one of the "Best 50 CD-ROMs" in 1994. Recently, Dr. Chen launched a Global Digital Library (GDL) initiative which demonstrated how the repository information of various types of educational institutions, such as national libraries, national archives, major museums, networks, and research/academic libraries, can be linked together in one single global digital library system with a coherent and consistent interface (Chen, 1998 and 1999). Her interactive videodisc and multimedia CD-ROM product entitled The First Emperor of China were awarded a Cindy Award of the Association of Visual Communicators and was chosen by MacUser as one of the "Best 50 CD-ROMs" in 1994. Recently, Dr. Chen launched a Global Digital Library (GDL) initiative which demonstrated how the repository information of various types of educational institutions Her interactive videodisc and multimedia CD-ROM product entitled The First Emperor of China was awarded a Cindy Award of the Association of Visual Communicators and was chosen by MacUser as one of the "Best 50 CD-ROMs" in 1994. Recently, Dr. Chen launched a Global Digital Library (GDL) initiative which demonstrats how the repository information of various types of educational institutions can be linked together in one single global digital library system with a coherent and consistent interface.
Dr. Chen has become one of the most decorated information professionals with numerous awards and recognition, including the Distinguished Alumni Award (University of Michigan, 1980), the Distinguished Alumni Award (National Taiwan University, 1983), the Distinguished Service Award (Chinese American Librarians Association, 1982, the Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award (ASIS, 1983), the LITA/Gaylord Award for Achievement in Library and Information Technology (1990), the LITA/Hi-Tech Award (1994), the ALISE-Pratt/Severn National Faculty Innovation Award (1997), and the Grazella Sheperd Memorial Award for Excellence in Education (Case Western Reserve University). In 1985, she was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Dr. Chen's professional career was even highlighted when she appointed by President Clinton to serve as a member of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC).
Dr. Chen is also an international consultant to over 25 countries. Because of her genuine commitment to the developing countries, she has organized since 1987 mostly with her own resources a series of 11 international conferences called NIT (New Information Technology) in many countries. NIT has been so successful in bringing library and information professionals from both developing, less developed, and developed countries together, that she has built up a powerful network of over 30 countries. (From Mengxiong Liu, "The History and Status of Chinese Americans in Librarianship",Library Trends, v. 49, no. 1, 2000).