Will East Asian Libraries Survive?
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Pubic Services Committee - CEAL - Association of Asian Studies
Chicago, IL
25 March 2009
Peter R. Young
Chief, Asian Division
pyou@loc.gov
Presented by
Anchi Hoh, PhD
Special Assistant to the Chief
The Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
adia@loc.gov
March 25, 2009
CEAL CPS Presentation by Peter Young
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Virtual and Physical Asian Library Services
in the Changing Environment
“Insanity is doing
more of what you
are already doing
and expecting a
different result.”
-- Newt Gingrich quoting
Albert Einstein
March 25, 2009
CEAL CPS Presentation by Peter Young
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Will East Asian Libraries Survive?
Outline
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1.) Higher education trends
2.) East Asian library trends
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A.) Collections: Print - Digital
B.) Customers: Everywhere
C.) Technology: Web 3.0
D.) Economics: Competition
3.) Partner opportunities
4.) Optimism v. global outlook
March 25, 2009
CEAL CPS Presentation by Peter Young
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1.) Higher Education Trends
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Declining economic conditions
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Assessment & evaluation
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Collaborative research
Inter/multi- disciplinary
Distance learning
Digital native students
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March 25, 2009
Quantitative measurement
Globalization
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Global financial crisis
More competition
Shrinking budgets, cuts, furloughs
Pervasive wireless generation
Continuous partial attention
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1-A) Higher Education Trends
Implications for East Asian Libraries
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How will global economic
conditions affect:
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Public/Private universities
Research libraries
East Asian libraries
How can East Asian libraries
survive downsized budgets?
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What can East Asian librarians do?
How can CEAL do?
March 25, 2009
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2.) Traditional East Asian Libraries
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Collections
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Printed vernacular language
Classics, Philosophy, History,
Literature
Vernacular catalogs & indexes
Foreign exchange & purchase
Customers
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Local students & scholars
Visiting researchers
Other East Asian libraries
March 25, 2009
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2-A) Collection Trends – CEAL Volumes
Added 1957-2007
March 25, 2009
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2-A) CEAL Annual Collections Statistics
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Print collections
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Total Volumes (+31%)
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Print expenditures (+40%)
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2002 = 15,551,753
2008 = 20,332,580
2002 = $8,453,555
2008 = $11,808,541
Electronic resources
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Titles (+249%)
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2002 = 9,081 Titles
2008 = 31,707 Titles
Electronic expenditures (+372%)
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March 25, 2009
2002 = $247,029
2008 = $1,165,552
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2-A) Collection Trends: Local –> Remote Access
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Analog Collections
Tangible
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Collections
Purchased by acquisition 
March 25, 2009
Video & Audio
Integrated
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Institutional ownership
Born digital
Digital reformatted
Complex digital objects
Multimedia formats
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Mostly EA imprints
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Vernacular languages
Monographs
Serials
Print editions
Separate
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Digital Collections
Intangible
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Language collections
Print/digital access
Subscription license
access
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2-B) Customer Trends: Here–There-Everywhere
Traditional
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Humanities & Classics
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History
Philosophy & Religion
Literature
Performing arts
Cultural studies
Social Sciences
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Emerging
Political science
Anthropology
Archeology
Area studies
East-West studies
March 25, 2009
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Science & Technology
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Policy & politics
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Transnational studies
Developmental
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Regional studies
Trade
Global finance
Global security issues
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Biology
Engineering
Business/Industrial
Economic/Financial
Interdisciplinary
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2-B) Customer Trends: Here–There-Everywhere
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Millennial expectations
 Everything is online
 Give me what I need, NOW
 Speed is really important
Visual - Social
 Sharing is assumed
 Self-directed research
 Cross disciplinary
Individual creation
“Rip, Mix, Burn”
March 25, 2009
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2-C) Technology Trends: Web 2.0 - 3.0
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Web content proliferation
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Customer-driven
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Changing service mix
Increased competition
Pressure to revise policies
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Increasing demand for access
Open source – Public access
Advancing global networks
Semantic Web (W3C - RDF)
Social networking
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Flickr, YouTube, Wikis
March 25, 2009
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2-D) Economic trend: More Competition
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Declining support
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Competition for resources
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Focus on measuring value
Return–on-Investment essential
EA libraries link to Asian support &
collaboration
American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act 2009
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$39.8 billion for public K-12, and
higher education
Distribution by state formulae to
local agencies
Distribution to higher education
determined by state
March 25, 2009
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2-D Economics - US Public Universities - CEAL
Fiscal Support 2003-2007
March 25, 2009
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3.) Partner Opportunities
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Pacific Rim Digital Library Alliance
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Google Book Search Mass
Digitization Project
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East Asian Collections from Michigan,
Harvard, Stanford, and UC San Diego
Internet Archive
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Goal: To improve access to scholarly
research materials through
cooperative ventures
Sloan Foundation support for digital
scanning center project
Library of Congress
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NCL – Asian Division digitization of
Chinese Rare Books
March 25, 2009
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4.) Optimism v. Global Outlook
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The 21st Century is the Asian Century
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English will be challenged as the dominant Web
language
Collaborative solutions to global challenges
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Mitigating global climate change
Pandemic disease cures
Restoring financial institutions
Improving economic productivity
Balancing global trade relationships
Addressing global poverty/hunger
Ensuring access to knowledge resources
March 25, 2009
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4.) Optimism v. Global Outlook
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The Library of Congress Mission
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The Library's mission is to make its resources
available and useful to the Congress and the
American people, and to sustain and preserve a
universal collection of knowledge and creativity for
future generations
138 million items in all formats
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32 million books
13.2 million prints and photos
5.3 million maps
61 million manuscripts
13,500 items received daily
Library Services is responsible for the national library
functions of the Library of Congress
March 25, 2009
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4.) Optimism v. Global Outlook
The Library of Congress Digital Initiatives
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American Memory
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National Digital Information Infrastructure & Preservation
Program (NDIPP )
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A collaborative initiative to develop a network of partnerships
for collecting, preserving, and making accessible critical digital
content
World Digital Library
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Digitized American historical collections comprising 9 million
items that document U.S. history and culture in 100 thematic
collections
A collaborative project to digitize and provide access to
primary cultural resources from around the world
E-Deposit of Electronic Journals
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March 25, 2009
A collaborative project to develop a production system for
ingesting electronic journals through copyright deposit and to
acquire electronic journal content for the Library’s collections
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4.) Optimism v. Global Outlook - WDL
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The World Digital Library (WDL) promotes
inter-cultural understanding and
awareness
WDL provides multilingual access to
significant primary materials from cultures
around the world:
Manuscripts - Maps
Rare books
Musical scores - Films
Recordings
Photographs - Prints
Architectural drawings
March 25, 2009
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4.) Optimism v. Global Outlook
Top 15 countries, by Internet
population:
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China: 179.7 million
United States: 163.3 million
Japan: 60.0 million
India: 32.1 million
South Korea: 27.3 million
Worldwide Internet Audience
 Asia Pacific: 416 million
(41.3%)
 Europe: 283 million (28.0%)
 North America: 185 million
(18.4%)
 Latin America: 75 million
(7.4%)
 Middle East & Africa: 49
million (4.8%)
March 25, 2009
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4.) Optimism v. Global Outlook Conclusion
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Advice for survival:
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Partner
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Promote
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Campus alliances
Among CEAL institutions
With colleagues in Asia
Value-added services
Improved ROI
Asia’s strategic role
Proactive
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March 25, 2009
Enable technology
Embrace change
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