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ChinaResourceNews No. 33 (December 10, 2005)
http://listserv.uni-heidelberg.de/archives/chinaresource-l.html
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Heidelberg Linglong Scans online at Columbia University

The Heidelberg Institute of Chinese Studies has digitized its copies of
Linglong, a women's magazine from 1930s Shanghai. The scans were added
to the "Ling long Women's Magazine" website of Columbia University
Libraries which was recently re-launched and is available to the public
at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/linglong/.

The scanning of the Heidelberg copies was generously funded by the
Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Foundation and has been carried out
by the Digitization Team of Heidelberg University Library.

For more information please read the press release of Columbia
University Information Services & University Libraries (see below).


Matthias Arnold




*********************

Columbia Libraries Launch Expanded & Enhanced Web Site for Ling long,
Rare 1930s Chinese Women’s Magazine

(NEW YORK, November 22, 2005) Columbia University Libraries has
redesigned and relaunched its Web site for Ling long, a Chinese women’s
magazine of the 1930s that provides a unique glimpse into the cultural
life of Republican-era Shanghai. The site is publicly available at:
http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?ANX0496

The new Web site features a digital version of the magazine’s run based
on the C. V. Starr East Asian Library’s extensive Ling long print
collection, one of the most complete outside China, along with
significant new content recently contributed by the University of
Heidelberg. The site now also includes newly-prepared essays on relevant
historical and cultural issues to provide additional context for this
remarkable publication.

“Ling long is a treasure for all students of modern Chinese history,”
said Madeleine Zelin, Professor of Chinese History and former Director
of Columbia’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute. “One of a few major
journals directed at female readers, Ling Long provides a unique
view of the ‘modern woman’ in the early twentieth century, shifting from
Western exemplars to women of service to the nation, from the athletic
woman to the ideal mother.”

Ling long (which means “elegant and fine”) was published in Shanghai
from 1931 to 1937 during a time of dramatic social and political change.
With articles on films, furniture, fashion, marriage, and “the girl of
today,” it provides a rare document of the lives and aspirations of
Chinese women during the Republican era (1912–1949). As scholarly
interest in this period has grown over the past two decades, the use of
Columbia’s print copies of this rare and fragile publication has
continued to increase. In 1997, to help address growing user demand,
Columbia microfilmed its Ling long holdings and, with the help of a
grant from the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia,
digitized and published the collection on the Web.

In 2005, the University of Heidelberg generously offered to help fill
gaps in Columbia’s run of the magazine and digitized eighteen issues
from its own collection for incorporation into Columbia’s site.
Relaunching the site with new content also provided the opportunity to
make it more useful to students of Chinese history and culture with the
addition of short essays about the magazine and other relevant topics,
as well as English translations of selected portions of the text.

The reengineering and republication of the Ling long Web site was
carried out as a digital sustainability initiative of Columbia
Libraries’ Digital Program. In addition to enhancing the content, look
and feel of the site, all the original source files and metadata for the
site have been documented, reviewed and migrated into the new METS
format, the de facto standard for digital library programs nationwide.
This effort will enable better management of the digital collection over
time and also allow the original scanned image files to be easily
submitted for long-term digital archiving. It will, in addition, allow
collection content to be more readily shared with other digital
initiatives such the Research Libraries Group Cultural Materials
Initiative and the Digital Library Federations Aquifer Project.

The Ling long Web site redesign is a collaborative project shared among
a number of Columbia groups and institutions. In addition to the Starr
East Asian Library and the Columbia Libraries’ Digital Program,
Columbia’s Digital Knowledge Ventures (DKV) provided site design,
programming and consulting services. The Libraries’ Preservation
Division managed the microfilming and scanning. The color scanning was
carried out by the Preservation Division Reprography Lab.

Columbia University Libraries is one of the top ten academic library
systems in the nation, with 8.6 million volumes, over 65,650 serials, as
well as extensive collections of electronic resources, manuscripts, rare
books, microforms, and other nonprint formats. The collections and
services are organized into 25 libraries, supporting specific academic
or professional disciplines. Columbia Libraries employs more than 400
professional and support staff to assist faculty, students, and
researchers in their academic endeavors.

The Columbia Libraries Digital Program Division works to improve the
coordination and effectiveness of Columbia’s library-related digital
initiatives. Currently staffed by eight full-time employees, its scope
includes the development and support of the Libraries official public
and staff websites; development of enhanced interfaces and tools for the
Columbia community’s use of databases, e-journals and other e-resources;
coordination of internal and external collection digitization and
Web-publishing programs; and implementation and management of Columbia’s
institutional repository programs, including Columbia Image Bank and
Columbia Digital Commons.
The Columbia Libraries Preservation Division is one of the five oldest
library preservation programs in the United States. The division has
primary responsibility for maintaining the Libraries’ collections
through proper care, housing, and disaster prevention. The division
provides treatment of items to ensure their continued availability for
use, and copying to new formats when use is no longer possible due to
damage or severe deterioration. Materials in all formats and genres are
cared for by the division, including digital resources created by the
Libraries. The Division’s Web site is available at:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/services/preservation/

The C.V. Starr East Asian Library is one of the major collections for
the study of East Asia in the United States, with over 785,000 volumes
of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan, and Western language materials,
as well as some holdings in Mongol and Manchu, and over 6,000 periodical
titles. The collection, established in 1902, is particularly strong in
Chinese history, literature, and social sciences; Japanese literature,
history, and religion, particularly Buddhism; and Korean history. The
Library’s Web site is located at:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/eastasian/

Digital Knowledge Ventures is a multimedia design and development group
created by Columbia University to provide services to clients on campus
as well as to organizations outside the University. Their services
include conference publishing, interactive kiosks, Web site development,
online publications, e-learning curricula, as well as the development of
collections, directories, and collaborative tools. DKV’s external
clients include a host of educational and not-for-profit enterprises,
and many of the University’s departments, divisions, centers, and
institutes are among their internal clients. DKV’s Web site is located 
at: http://www.dkv.columbia.edu/index.html







____________________

With kind regards,

Matthias Arnold ([log in to unmask])

ChinaResource.org
http://chinaresource.org/

_______________________________________________________

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