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This is the third instalment of what I am afraid has turned into a much
longer saga about my three decades at the National Library than
originally intended. The first article on my early years at the Library
appeared in the EALRGA Newsletter, January 2004. Part 2 on my time in
Indonesia and return to Orientalia is in the August 2005 issue. This
third piece covers the period 1986 to 1990, my first five years as
Chief Librarian of what was initially the Orientalia sub-section of
Area Studies, but later became the East Asia sub-section of Asian
Collections.
Orientalia had been established in 1962 to manage the Library's East
Asian language collections and services (and later Thai as well). In
1979 a new section was established to cover Orientalia, the South and
Southeast Asian sub-section and also the other foreign language
collections. Originally called the Australian International and Ethnic
Library (AUSINTEL) the section's name was changed to Area Studies in
1982, and in 1987 to Asian Collections, after which it had a focus just
on Asia. As part of the change in 1987 Orientalia became the East Asia
sub-section. In the same year the two sub-sections were housed together
on the Third Floor for the first time.
The name Asian Collections adopted in 1987 has an odd history. Staff
wanted to use the term Asian Studies Section, but this was rejected by
higher management as being more appropriate to a university.
Alternatives were Asian Materials, which might have been mistaken for a
shop selling batik or Thai silk, and Asian Services, which sounded to
some staff more like a seedy dive than a library. Asian Collections was
the compromise, which seemed not to have any unfortunate connotations.
Funnily enough the area is often called Asian Studies by readers and
other staff.
In one of my first memos as Chief Librarian in January 1986 I wrote
that "we are desperate for shelving." Books were on floors, crammed
between shelves and we had been forced to send many items to the
Library's Mitchell warehouse. Although space for staff and the rapidly
growing collections remained an issue for many years, the situation did
gradually improve. In January 1988 staff moved into a new Asian
Collections staff room, formerly the Personnel area, and a new
processing area was created next to it. The old General Reference work
area on the Third Floor was turned into stacks. The Korean collection
which had been housed in old, manually operated compactus shelving on
the Lower Ground 2 level was brought up to be with the other East Asian
materials. It proved possible to have all Asian script holdings
returned to the main building apart from back issues of newspapers
which were stored at a warehouse.
The Library's Asian resources increased rapidly during the 1980s. In
particular the Chinese language monograph collection nearly doubled in
size during the decade from 106,000 volumes in 1980 to 201,000 volumes
in 1990, as publishing boomed in the PRC and Chinese book prices
remained comparatively low. The Japanese, Korean, Indonesian and Thai
holdings also saw major growth. By 1990 the National Library clearly
had the largest and most actively developing Asian holdings in
Australia. In 1990/91 it spent A$700,000 or 17% of its total book
acquisition budget on Asian language sources, plus additional funds on
Western language works about Asia. Nevertheless cooperation on
collection development with other libraries, especially the Australian
National University, remained a high priority.
The largest single donation of Asian books during these years was that
of the Australian Buddhist Library. This contains over 3,000 books on
Buddhism in English, Chinese and several other Asian languages. It also
includes a replica of a 12th century Thai Buddha. The Liao family and
other benefactors had originally developed the library in Sydney's
Chinatown as a privately funded resource open to the public. Later,
Eric Liao presented it to the National Library for long-term security
and access by scholars and readers. At the time of its transfer early
in 1987 I visited Sydney to supervise the packing of the collection,
then housed in George Street. All went well, despite a few anxious
moments when the heavy bronze Buddha, some 115 centimeters tall and
weighing 184 kilograms, was carried down the rather rickety wooden
stairs to a van below. At this point I should confess that when Eric
Liao had originally told me that the collection contained a Buddha
image, I had assumed it was a small metal or porcelain piece, and had
failed to ask the obvious question, "How big is it?"
In 1990 a substantial collection of Chinese monographs, pamphlets and
newspapers was acquired from the writer and oral historian Sang Ye, who
had recently moved to Australia. These publications relate to the
People's Republic of China between 1949 and the early 1980s.
Additions were made to some of the collections about Asia which had
been donated earlier. Mrs Pamela van der Sprenkel, widow of Professor
Otto van der Sprenkel, presented a set of off-prints collected by her
husband about Chinese history and an oil painting of Otto. The latter
hung on my office wall for many years. During 1989 further books about
Japan and the West were acquired for the Harold S. Williams Collection.
An oral history interview was also carried out with Mrs Jean Williams,
widow of Harold Williams.
Automation was gradually becoming more significant. By the end of the
decade the current intake of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and
Indonesian monographs was being entered on the Australian Bibliographic
Network (ABN) and all current serial titles in these languages were
also on the national database. A major project to convert the Japanese
monograph catalogue began in 1990. However card catalogues containing
Romanization and Asian scripts continued to be maintained for Chinese,
Japanese, Korean and Thai as ABN records were purely Romanized. In 1988
the ABN Network Committee stated that it was "not feasible to put
non-Roman scripts onto ABN for the next 5 to 10 years." In fact it was
almost another decade before a separate national system for East Asian
script records was implemented in Australia. In May 1988 acquisition
records for Asian language monographs and serials began to be entered
on the Library's Financial Information and Accounting System, though
again only in Romanized form and non-Roman script data had to be added
manually. Various Asian script software packages were tried out. For
example in 1986 Asiagraphics was used to produce a published list of
the Library's Chinese newspaper holdings.
In May 1986 I attended the biennial Asian Studies Association of
Australia (ASAA) conference at the University of Sydney. This was my
first ASAA conference, and I have been to and enjoyed all their
conferences since. There was a session on "The Book in Asia" at which I
gave a paper entitled "Books from Asia : cooperative collection
development in Australia" which was published in the December 1986
issue of the EALRGA Newsletter, as were papers by Nikki White and Y.S.
Chan. The National Library also lent a number of Asian books for an
exhibition at the Fisher Library during the conference. EALRGA met
during ASAA in Sydney with Y.S. Chan then Chair, Sidney Wang as
Vice-Chair / Editor and myself Secretary / Treasurer. From 1987 to 1989
the EALRGA committee consisted of myself as President, Nikki White as
Secretary/Treasurer and Susan MacDougall as Editor. The 1988 ASAA
conference was held in Canberra at the ANU and the 1990 conference at
Griffith University in Brisbane.
One of the highlights of this period was my visit to China in October
1987 as part of the Australian Library Delegation. My detailed report
on the trip can be found in EALRGA Newsletter, November 1987. The
delegation consisted of five Australian librarians, all men, as was
commented on by our Chinese hosts. Warren Horton, Director-General of
the National Library, was delegation leader. The others were Lawrie
Ryan, State Librarian of Queensland; Euan Miller, State Librarian of
South Australia, V. Nadanasabapathy (known to all as Nada), Librarian,
Murdoch University and myself. I was very much the junior member of the
group. The visit was made particularly enjoyable because of the
hospitality of our hosts, led by Mr Du Ke, Director of the Chinese
Ministry of Culture's Bureau of Library Administration and Mr Li Xunda,
Vice Head of the Library Affairs Office as well as many others. Our
interpreter Mrs Wang Lan was also most helpful and kind to us. The
inevitable tensions of travelling with a group were also lightened by
the good humour of Nada. Being originally from Malaysia and of South
Indian background, his dark skin, white hair and white beard caused
considerable interest in China. To one person who asked him where he
was from he replied with a straight face that he was a part owner of
Uluru.
Highlights of the two week visit included the opening of the new
National Library of China building in Beijing and tours of many
different academic, public and special libraries in Beijing, Shanghai,
Guangzhou and Shenzhen. It was good to see the progress being made in
the development of Chinese libraries. On one of the most enjoyable days
we went from Guangzhou to the prosperous Pearl River delta town of Pan
Yu, where in addition to seeing their impressive county library we had
what was probably the most memorable of the many excellent banquets we
enjoyed in China. The menu included frogs, which I liked, but which
were a challenge to some others in the group. One of the delegation on
being asked if he wanted frog misheard, thinking he was being offered a
fork rather than chopsticks so answered "No problem" and was duly
served frog. The older buildings and tropical vegetation in and around
Guangzhou reminded me of Indonesia.
In 1988 there was a return library delegation from China. The five
person group was led by Mr Bao Zhenxi, Deputy Director of the Bureau of
Library Administration, Ministry of Culture. The visit went well apart
from one day when everything seemed to go wrong. The delegation was
booked to see a local sheep station an hour's drive from Canberra.
Elissa Leung of the Chinese Unit and I accompanied them. The tour got
off to a late start as the bus driver was ill. His replacement could
not find the correct property. Eventually we arrived at the right place
and managed to see one sheep shorn. However there was no sign of the
kangaroos, boomerang throwing and barbecue that had been advertised.
Instead we were taken to a local pub for a dismal lunch of badly cooked
meat and vegetables, a far cry from the splendid banquets we were given
during the previous year's delegation to China. Subsequently the
Director-General wrote a strong letter of complaint to the tour
company.
During 1987 and early 1988 the National Library held its first major
Asian exhibition for many years. It was organized in conjunction with
two international conferences at the Australian National University on
the theme Europe and the Orient. Originally I was to have been the
curator, but because of continuing eye problems had to take several
extended periods of sick leave during 1987 and 1988. Nikki White did an
excellent job curating the Europe and the Orient exhibition which
contained many of the Library's most precious holdings on China, Japan,
India and Southeast Asia.
In July 1989 I attended the inaugural conference of the Chinese Studies
Association of Australia (CSAA) at the University of Melbourne.
Professor Bill Newell of Sydney (a major donor to the National Library
of anthropological publications about East Asia) played a strong role
in the establishment of this society. The main conference organizer was
Dr Carney Fisher, who had been a Harold White Fellow at the National
Library. July 1989 was a difficult time to be holding a conference
about China, just after Tiananmen, but the CSAA has prospered. I am
pleased to have been able to attend all their conferences to date,
including the latest in Bendigo in 2005.
I spent much of 1990 carrying out a project linked to the Library's new
Collection Development Policy (CDP). As part of the CDP's
implementation I analysed Western language monograph and serial
collecting from and about Asia. This included checking holdings against
major bibliographies and selecting items, in particular for high
priority collecting countries such as China, Japan and Indonesia. There
is some similarity between this and the selection project I have been
undertaking in Asian Collections since retirement in 2003. My overall
conclusion based on the six detailed country and region reports I
prepared in 1990 was that collecting of Western language material about
Asia published in Europe and North America was generally good but that
there were gaps in coverage of English language works published in Asia
itself. The exception was Indonesia where no serious gaps were found.
While carrying out the project I sat in the Overseas Selection area,
and participated in the tasks of that section. I have always enjoyed
selection and found this project most rewarding.
The main staff change during this period was the retirement of the
first head of Asian Collections, Pauline Haldane, in March 1989.
Pauline had run the section for a decade. She is remembered for
bringing together the formerly separate Orientalia and South and
Southeast Asian areas as a united team. She also strongly promoted the
Asian collections and services both within Australia and
internationally at academic and library conferences as well as through
collection guides, current awareness bulletins listing important
acquisitions and by other means. Marie Sexton succeeded Pauline in
August 1989.
There were various other staff changes. Early in 1986 Beatrice Tam was
promoted to my former position of Senior Librarian, Chinese Unit. Soon
afterwards C.P. Tang became the Librarian Class 1 for Chinese with Lily
Li and Chuen-chi Brace as Library Officers 1, Chinese Unit. Nikki White
was in charge of the Japanese collections and services throughout this
time. Fumika Clifford retired in December 1990 after many years in the
Japanese Unit. The staff secondment scheme with the National Diet
Library in Tokyo continued to work well. Mr Masaki Nasu was seconded to
Canberra from December 1985 to September 1988. He was succeeded by Ms
Kaoru Nakajima in July 1989. Mrs Jung-hee Fry had been the sole member
of the Korean Unit for a number of years and her position only became
permanent and full-time in 1986/87. Later a second position was created
with Mrs Jung-ok (Okki) Park as Mrs Fry's assistant. Others who started
during this period were Irina Chou and Angela Chan in the Chinese Unit.
Norma Chin, Chuen-chi Brace and Elissa Leung left the section.
It was always a pleasure dealing with friends and colleagues from other
East Asian collections across Australia. Formal and informal
cooperation with the Australian National University Library involved
Y.S.Chan, Susan Prentice and many others. Kay Cherry at the Fisher
Library, University of Sydney retired in 1986 and was succeeded by
Magdalen Lee. Lily Hu had been in charge of the East Asian collections
at the University of Melbourne for many years. Flora Chiou was at the
University of Queensland, Elsie Leow at Griffith University, and
Sit-ling Tull at Murdoch University.
I should make some brief general comments about Asian studies and
library collections in Australia during this period. The late 1980s saw
the beginning of an exciting boom for Asian studies in Australian
schools and universities. Enrolments in Asian languages at universities
almost doubled between 1988 and 1991. Japanese showed the most
spectacular growth. The number of doctorates on Asia completed annually
at Australian universities also more than doubled between 1989 and
1991.
A review of Asian studies carried out in 1988-89 was important as the
first major examination of Australia's Asian library resources in many
years. The Asia in Australian Higher Education or Ingleson inquiry
provided advice to the Australian government on future directions. It
devoted a chapter to libraries, pointing out major challenges and
recommended action. It proposed a national co-operative acquisitions
policy for Asian materials, given the difficulties faced by individual
libraries in building adequate collections. Cataloguing problems were
seen as serious, in particular the need for an automated system capable
of supporting Asian scripts. The report referred to a staffing crisis
and the need for training to produce more professional librarians with
Asian expertise. Unfortunately the library aspects of the Ingleson
Report were not taken up by government. Instead they were referred to a
review on Library Provision in Higher Education Institutions (Ross
Report). The Ross Report supported Ingleson's recommendations including
overcoming the lack of trained staff, acquisitions difficulties,
cataloguing backlogs and the need for script automation. In the next
part of this series I will cover further developments in library
cooperation during the 1990s.
I will conclude by mentioning that in March 1989 a new EALRGA committee
was elected : Susan Prentice as President, Susan MacDougall as Vice
President and Editor and C.P. Tang as Secretary and Treasurer. They
continued to serve for many years (in fact Susan Prentice is still a
member of the committee) and all deserve great credit for keeping the
group alive and active and producing a regular, informative newsletter.
Later in the 1990s I joined this committee as President. |