On Nov. 14, the International and Area Studies Library at Illinois hosted a ceremony to celebrate a new Taiwan Resource Center for Chinese Studies.
The center was established through a memorandum of understanding between Illinois and the National Central Library of Taiwan. Illinois joins fellow Association of Research Libraries member institutions, the University of Washington, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Toronto in hosting a center. The center will serve as a platform to share both Taiwanese and Chinese studies with faculty, scholars, students and the community surrounding the university.
Through this partnership, the National Central Library of Taiwan donated academic books to the center. The center’s books are shelved within the IASL’s newly available public service space and new books area. In addition to roughly 1,000 books annually, the National Central Library of Taiwan will provide access to its Center for Chinese Studies digital resources and support visiting scholars to share their research and promote scholarship and engagement focused on Chinese and East Asian studies.
Chinese Studies Librarian Shuyong Jiang, Ph.D., serves as the director of the Taiwan Research Center for Chinese Studies and coordinates its activities. The opportunity to host the center resulted directly from Jiang’s 2015 International Field Work project in Taiwan.
“TRCCS provides another platform to international library collaboration, which will increase the potential for sustainability in supporting teaching and research on campus,” Jiang said.
Also on Nov. 14, the International and Area Studies Library celebrated the opening of an exhibit, “The Fascinating Culture of Books,” which includes materials from the Rare Book Collection of the National Central Library and contemporary publications in Taiwan. The IASL exhibit runs through the end of December.
For more information, visit http://library.illinois.edu/ias/chinesecollection/trccs.
