北美地区大学东亚图书馆的历史、现状和前瞻

History,Present Status and Prospects of East Asian Libraries in North American Universities

北美地区在较大规模收藏东亚图书方面至今已有一百多年的历史。其间美国和加拿大大学的各东亚图书馆(或图书馆的东亚藏书)从无到有,从小到大,为保存与发展东亚的各类学术资源,并为有关东亚地区的学术研究与教学发挥了至关重要的作用。同时,在各大学工作的东亚图书馆员们也为此作出了重大贡献。进入21世纪以来,北美大学各东亚馆在图书馆事业的发展以及学术资源共享中继续扮演着不可替代的角色。本文首先对北美东亚图书馆历史发展的四个阶段(初始收藏、奠定基础、兴旺成长以及继续发展)进行了简要的回顾;然后对北美大学东亚图书馆的馆藏发展特点、地位与意义给予了概括性论述;最后对今后的发展方向做了初步的探讨和展望,并就全球信息化时代如何更加有效地发展东亚图书的馆藏学术资源,改进知识管理和读者服务,以及促进国际文化交流等方面提出了一些构想和建议。

In North America, the development of large-scale East Asian language collections can be traced back to its beginning over 140 years ago. During this period, the US and Canadian universities that now have East Asian libraries or East Asian collections developed and preserved various types of scholarly materials, which has played an essential role in the academic research and teaching on this important region. At the same time, East Asian Studies librarians have also made tremendous contributions in this regard. Since the beginning of the 21 st century, East Asian libraries have continued playing an irreplaceable role in the library profession and scholarly resource sharing. This article briefly reviews the four stages of the historical development of East Asian libraries in North America, which includes the initial collection, establishing a foundation, booming growth and continuous improvement. It then illustrates the current status and significance of East Asian libraries and collections in this region. Finally, it presents a preliminary discussion and outlook for the future direction of these endeavors, including some thoughts on how to develop scholarly resources more effectively, how to improve knowledge management and reader services for East Asian libraries, as well as promoting international cultural exchange in the new global information era.