China PCS Seminar Report

This winter, three UT School of Information faculty and one alum had the extraordinary experience and opportunity to interact with librarians, library students and preservation/conservation professionals at the Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou China. Dr. Don Davis, Karen Pavelka and Chela Metzger and Red Wassenich took part in the Sino-American Preservation and Conservation Seminar, held during December 12-25th. The seminar was organized by librarians at the university, and in particular by Lin Ming, a former Fulbright Scholar who studied Preservation and Conservation Studies here at the School of Information. Dr. Davis has visited the head librarian of the Sun Yat-Sen University before, and his work developing international communication between librarians paved the way for such a seminar.

Karen and Chela each taught the 40 participants for one week. They were from all areas of China, including 3 from the national library in Beijing. Don and Red interacted with the University's library school students and faculty during several informal classes. The seminar involved lectures, hands-on demonstrations of library and archive preservation issues and techniques, and discussions on preservation policy. There were also fieldtrips to a papermaking village and a library bindery. This was an engaging opportunity to exchange ideas with library professionals from all over China, and witness the impressive effort being invested in building universities and libraries in China today.