|
| You are in: WCILCOS Directories |
| Genealogical Sources | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
at Hong Kong Baptist University Library Shirley W. Leung Irene S. M. Wong Kit Wah Lee Hong Kong Baptist University Objective The objective of this report is to introduce the Hong Kong Baptist University Library Collection of clippings on Overseas Chinese with two goals. The first is to publicize and promote this collection for use by students, scholars, and researchers interested in the topic of Overseas Chinese, and the second is to explore opportunities for collaborative efforts in enhancing the collection accessibility. A brief introduction The collection contains 707 files, each with an average of 200-250 pages. It is also available on 141 microfilm reels. The clippings were taken from approximately 230 Chinese language newspapers and 40 periodicals, published in 17 countries or regions: Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, Macao, Malaysia, Japan, India, Canada, and USA. As shown in Appendix A, Hong Kong and China publications received more comprehensive and sustained attention than those of other countries. There may be a number of reasons for the uneven coverage. One would be the ephemeral nature of the source newspapers and periodicals, as they were Chinese language materials published locally in the Chinese communities in the countries involved. Furthermore, it should be taken into consideration that there was probably no organized dissemination method or structure for a good number of these publications. The years of coverage also varied considerably with some titles spanning a twenty-one year period and others limited to only one year. Overall, the collection covered a twenty-one year period from 1950-1971, presenting information on a tumultuous and dynamic period of political, social, and economic changes and developments in the history of China and Overseas Chinese. With the founding of the People Republic of China and the retreat of the Nationalist Government to Taiwan in 1949, there were major efforts on both sides to woo Overseas Chinese for political, economical, social, and cultural reasons. The files were categorized into (1) Chinese -- Foreign countries -- Government policy -- Taiwan; (2) Chinese -- Foreign countries -- Government policies -- China; and (3) Chinese in different foreign countries (sub-categorized by country). A perusal of the clippings in the collection showed several areas of focus:
The HKBU collection of clippings on Overseas Chinese is a small subset of a large collection of clippings on China, made up of 11,900 files. Out of this group, it appears that 8,627 files, or about 72.5%, have been microfilmed (see Appendix B). The collection as a whole was purchased by Hong Kong Baptist University in the mid-1980 from the Union Research Institute (Yu lien yen chiu so -- ÓÑ Áª ÑÐ ¾¿ Ëù). This organization was actively involved in gathering information on the People Republic of China from the years of 1950-1975, essentially the period of its grand isolation from much of the Western world and during a time when internal events and developments were closely guarded. It has been alleged that many of the source newspapers and periodicals were taken out of China clandestinely to Hong Kong. Apparently, with the gradual opening of China in the mid 1970 , the need for having an information gathering organization such as the Union Research Institute was diminished. Although efforts were made by the Union Research Institute to find a home for the collection in the United States, including negotiations with several US research libraries, the decision was eventually made to keep the collection in Hong Kong. In conversation with some library colleagues with subject expertise in Chinese studies, we were given the impression that the entire collection of clippings file of the Union Research Institute was microfilmed and, therefore, already held by a number of large U.S. research libraries with strong East Asian studies. Although we made the effort of searching OCLC and the online public access catalogs of several libraries, the results were not conclusive. The only accurate way to ascertain the microform holdings of this collection by major U.S. East Asia libraries would be to enlist the assistance of the libraries themselves by having their staff verify their holdings. In the process of checking the microform holdings of several libraries against their own online public access catalogs, we did recently discover that the Chinese University of Hong Kong has a good portion of the clippings file on microfilm, including the files on the Overseas Chinese. Appendix B lists HKBU Library holdings of Union Research Institute Clippings Collection. At the same time, we were surprised to find that approximately 27.5% of HKBU clippings file may be a unique information resource, that is, no microfilm copies have been made at all. These include 2,581 files of two subject categories, one on Taiwan and the other on International Affairs, as well as 692 files of other subject categories which were compiled in the 1970s. The HKBU Library has maintained a clippings program from 1985 to 1998 focusing on topics related to China studies. Ten major newspapers from Hong Kong were systematically clipped. One area receiving special attention was information related to the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China in July 1997. In 1998 we established an indexed Contemporary China Newspapers Clippings Database (CCNC). Users can now retrieve appropriate citations of clippings of 1992, 1996 and 1997 by searching the headlines, authors, newspaper titles, publication date, and/or subject headings. We do plan to add citation records for the earlier years and up to the end of 1998. Complementary research areas: clippings on Overseas Chinese and the larger collection of clippings on China The HKBU Library collection of clippings on Overseas Chinese would be especially valuable when used with the larger clippings collection on China compiled by the Union Research Institute. These may include:
Efforts to publicize the HKBU Library collection of Overseas Chinese clippings We have done some preliminary work in preparation of our desire to publicize, promote, and make more accessible the use of the HKBU Library collection of Overseas Chinese materials through our homepage. The first effort was conducting a methodical inventory of our complete holdings of materials in the larger Union Research Institute collection, including the Overseas Chinese materials. In the process, we have also discovered that a small portion of our microfilm holdings has developed the inegar Syndrome? a common term to describe the deterioration of acetate film . According to preservation specialists, while it is possible to slow the deterioration of acetate film, the only long-term solution is reduplicaton onto polyester-based film. Our discovery of this problem duely raised the uncomfortable question of how extensive is this inegar Syndrome?problem and what may be the best long-term solution. Should we reduplicate the entire microfilm collection onto polyester-based film? Does this mean all the libraries which currently hold some portions or the entire set of microform collection purchased from the Union Research Institute should be aware of this problem and deal with the problem individually? The second effort, initiated recently, was to request from several vendors in Hong Kong and China for cost proposal to digitize the Overseas Chinese subset. In tandem with this effort, we have also written to nineteen major Hong Kong and Taiwan newspaper and periodical publishers for permission to make available the full-text newspaper articles through the Internet/WWW. We only contacted these nineteen because the remaining fifty-five were not locatable or the publications had been discontinued. Out of the ten responses received to date, one has decided to withhold such permission and two have given us permission to make full-text articles available to the HKBU academic community only. To date we have received cost proposals from four vendors, two in Hong Kong and two in China. One of the Hong Kong vendors, with experience in digitizing technical reports and files of several Hong Kong government agencies, has provided us with a more detailed proposal than the others. The data conversion approach they proposed will involve the converting of newspaper articles from microfilm format to electronic format, and then extracting the indexing information and the contents from the electronic format into the database for searching and retrieval. Although two methods may be used: (1) OCR and creating index fields for the articles, and (2) scanning the full-text content of the articles, this vendor is not recommending the OCR method after examining the sample microfilm we provided. We are in the process of analyzing the cost proposals to make meaningful comparisons. In summary, the HKBU Library is keenly interested in making its clippings on Overseas Chinese more readily accessible to students, scholars, and researchers. We would especially welcome partnership or cooperative opportunities so that we may be a member of an information network of Overseas Chinese information resources. We welcome all comments and suggestions. Appendix A: Newspapers and Periodicals Used for the Overseas Chinese Clippings (侨务类剪报选用资料)，1950-71 报纸： | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
期刊：
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
其他：
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Current Scene News Feture Article: Developments in Communist China written by Kenneth Priestley,
M.A., Development of Education, University of Hong Kong on 19 January, 1960. 报纸：
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
期刊:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
书籍:
其他:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
报纸:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
期刊:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
其他:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
报纸:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
其他:
书籍: 人民行动党中央编辑委员会编(1960年4月).《语言与政治》,人民行动党中央编辑委员会出版。 报纸:
期刊:
报纸:
其他:
报纸:
报纸:
报纸:
期刊:
报纸:
报纸:
其他: 《事实胜过雄辩--关于华文教育问题》--马来亚司法部长郭梁宇皋关于华文教育的谈话 [1961] 报纸:
期刊:
报纸:
期刊:
Appendix B: Overview of Holdings of HKBU Library's Collection of Union Research Institute Clippings on China, 1950-1975 |
|