学术乃天下之公器--哈佛燕京图书馆馆长郑炯文访谈

Make Library Open to All:Interview with Dr.James K.M.Cheng,the Librarian of Harvard-Yenching Library

2019年7月22日,南京大学谢欢博士对哈佛燕京图书馆馆长郑炯文先生就北美东亚图书馆发展相关问题进行访谈。东亚图书馆肇始于欧洲,起源于传教士对文史哲印刷文献的专题收集,与汉学发展紧密相关;美国东亚图书馆在第二次世界大战后取得了快速的发展,如今美国已成为西方世界东亚研究的中心。华人图书馆员是北美东亚图书馆从业人员中非常重要的群体,三代华人图书馆员各具专长,为北美东亚图书馆发展做出了贡献。郑炯文先生自担任哈佛燕京图书馆馆长以来,主要致力于以下三方面工作:①整理裘开明、吴文津担任馆长期间收集的文献;②开放馆藏,将哈佛燕京图书馆的资源面向全世界学者开放;③推动中美图书馆员交流合作项目。

On July 22,2019,Dr.XIE Huan who came from Nanjing University(China) held a discussion with Mr.James K.M.Cheng,Director of the Harvard-Yenching Library,at the Yanjing Library of Harvard,USA.The topic of this discussion was the East Asian libraries in the North America.Director Cheng pointed out that the East Asian library originated from the European Missionaries’ systematic collection of Chinese classic literatures,which was closely related to the development of Sinology.Since World War Ⅱ.with the rise of the United States,the center of Sinology gradually moved from Europe to the United States,at the same time the number of East Asian libraries in the North America began to increase rapidly.The development of East Asian library followed closely the spread of East Asian studies in North America in the postwar years.Today,East Asian studies in the United States is probably the largest and most comprehensive one in the Western world.There are now more than 100 East Asian libraries in North America which collected more than 10 million volumes of Chinese books.These collections strongly supported the East Asian studies in the North America. If by the size,these East Asian libraries can be classified into three categories. The first category is the large East Asian libraries(with more than 500 000 books),the second one is medium-sized East Asian libraries(with collections between 100 000 and400 000),and the third one is small East Asian libraries(with a collection of less than 100 000). Director Cheng emphasized that although the size of these East Asian libraries is different,each one has its own characteristics and expertise. We can’t evaluate which one is more important just according to its size.Chinese librarians is a very important and special group among the librarians of East Asian libraries in North America,and so far,Chinese librarians in the East Asian libraries can be roughly divided into three generations: the first generation was the people who were good at Sinology and most of them went to the USA before 1949,however,English was this generation’s weakness. As a result,at the early stage of the development of East Asian library in the North America,they were isolated to the American’s academic libraries. The second generation was those who went to the USA between 1949 and the Reform and Opening-up in China's Mainland,and most of this generation were from Taiwan Region or Hong Kong Region. The second generation was good at English while the study of Sinology was weaker than the first generation. And the third generation is the people who went to the United States after the Reform and Opening-up in China's Mainland,this generation is not only fluent in English,but also has a high level of information technology,but the foundation of Sinology is also as weak as that of the second generation.Director Cheng loved books and reading while he was a child,and he wished he could become a librarian and the career as a librarian made him feel very proud. When he studied and worked in the University of Chicago,he was greatly influenced by his tutor Professor Tsuen-hsuin Tsien. Since becoming the director of Harvard-Yenching Library,Mr. Cheng has been devoting himself to: 1) organizing the literatures collected by the former directors Alfred Kaiming Chiu and Eugene W. Wu;2) making the collections of HarvardYenching Library open to all;3) promoting the library cooperation between China and America.