Ancient Chinese texts heading for digital frontier

Zhang Zhiqing has just returned from the United States, where, he jokes, he was treated like a rock star. The deputy curator of the National Library of China was in Philadelphia to attend the annual meeting of The Council on East Asian Libraries, the organization for East Asian librarians in North America.

"Everyone wants to know how they can better protect their collections," Zhang says. "One emotional librarian, who is a Chinese-American, told me: Protecting Chinese ancient books is a duty to our ancestors and a responsibility for our sons. This is a precious opportunity."

A joint project between the NLC and CEAL to systematically document the ancient Chinese book collections held by major council members, which include 12 North American libraries, will continue for up to three years. It is the first international collaboration on such large scale. The project is planned to later cover all 50-odd CEAL members.