President Speech

Shixing Wen

Dear CALA Members, Friends, and Distinguished Guests:

We are gathering here today to participate in the CALA Midwest Chapter's 2004 Annual Program.

First of all, let's express our heartfelt gratitude to Paula Kaufman, University Librarian of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, for providing us with free meeting facilities and for coming in person to welcome us. The same gratitude is extended to Barbara Ford, former ALA President. She is, currently, Director of the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs at UIUC. Everyone who visited the Center yesterday are impressed by their vision, mission and achievements. CALA would like to form a partnership with the Center to advance the international librarianship.

Secondly, let me congratulate Fu Li for being recently elected as the Vice-President/President-Elect of the CALA Midwest Chapter for 2004-2005. We all know that Fu Li has many good ideas on how to advance the goals of CALA. And we are looking forward to see that her creative ideas be fruitful during her tenure.

Thirdly, I'd like to commend the Program Planning Committee and the Local Arrangement Committee for designing such a rich program and for providing full logistic support. Under the leadership of Xudong Jin, our current Vice-President/President-Elect and Program Planning Committee Chair, and with the contributions from all committee members (Chen Si, Chen Su, Li Guoqing, Liao Jing, Liu Wen-ling, Xu Jami, Yuan Haiwang, and Zhang Xiangyuan.), we'll have a content-rich program today.

In the morning, we'll have two sessions. The keynote speaker for the first session is Dr. Tze-chung Li. Dr. Li is the founding president of CALA and dean emeritus at the Dominican University. Thirty-one years ago, Dr Li, together with other pioneers, established CALA in the Midwest. This year, Dr. Li has sponsored 7 library school students to join CALA. Let's give him a round of applause to show our respect and appreciation.

The keynote speaker of the second session is Karen Wei. Karen is Head of the Asia Library at UIUC. She is the chair of our chapter's Local Arrangement Committee this year. With a short notice, she and her committee members have worked in full gears to supply all the logistics needed for our program. Let's give a round of applause to Karen, ShuYong Jiang, Wei Ma, Winnie Chan, and Ming Yan Li to show our appreciation. This morning, Karen will talk about "The Changing Role of the Chinese Studies Librarians".

In the afternoon, there will be 4 round-tables of discussion. Liren Zheng will lead a discussion on "New Development in Electronic and Print Resources on East Asia". Haiwang Yuan will lead a discussion on "Promote Cultural Diversity Through Chinese Librarian's Involvement in Community Outreach Programs, A Case Study of the Western Kentucky University Libraries and Its Community Partners". Haipeng Li and Yong Yang will lead a discussion on "Global Collaboration: the Case of Oberlin College and Yunnan University Libraries". And Guoqing Li will lead a discussion on "Promote Chinese Study through Chinese Librarian's Research and Publication".

Before the program starts, let me give you a brief report of the accomplishments of our chapter in 2003-2004.

The Membership Committee, under the leadership of Wei Ma and with the efforts of its members, Jian Xiong and Michael Meng, have recruited 8 new members. Currently, our Chapter has 21 life members and 52 members who have paid their 2004 dues.

The Mentorship Program, under the leadership of Haipeng Li and Xiaohong Xiao, have sent several announcements of our chapter's Mentorship Program on all 13 library schools' listservs in the Midwest, identified and solicited mentors, and paired them with mentees. Currently, there are 9 pairs of mentors/mentees in the Program.

The Archives Committee has completed the first phase of the archive project. Our Chapter's documents since 1999 will be available soon on our Chapter's website. Recently, the Committee Chair Fu Li and our chapter's Webmaster Lisa Zhao have submitted a joint application for the Sally Tseng's Professional Development Grant. If successful, they plan to complete the 2nd phase of the project in a year's time to add search capabilities.

The Midwest Chapter Board has discussed 2 important issues via email this year. It has decided to open our Mentorship Program to all library school students of Chinese heritage in the Midwest. This is a pilot project and will be reviewed at the end of June.

Currently, the Midwest Chapter Board is discussing on how to maintain and update the Mid-West Chinese Resources Guide. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please share with me.