Seng, Samuel T. Y., 1883-1977.
sometimes given as 1884-1977.father of modern library science education in China
Samuel Tsu Yung Seng (pronounced shen tsu-rong)
father of Harris B. H. Seng
Cheng Huanwen,
Trinity
(on Mary Elizabeth Wood, Alfred Kaiming Chiu, and Samuel T. Y. Seng)
Library Spirit beyond Space and Time / Cheng Huanwen
ABSTRACT As epoch-making pioneers of Chinese librarianship, Mary Elizabeth Wood, Shen Zurong (Shen Tsu-jung) and Qiu Kaiming (Ch'iu K'ai-ming) have a common teacher-student relationship and a common religious belief. As a generation of librarians, they developed lofty library spirit and devoted themselves to librarianship. Their spirit has values beyond space and time. 17 refs.
http://www.uschinasc.org/mag51/mag5103a.htm
On the relationship between Samuel T. Y. Seng
and Thomas Ching-sen Hu
http://www.library.hn.cn/tsg/20011112/Content/00048936.htm
FLOWERS FROM HORSEBACK
A Retrospective View of China-United States Library and Information Science Education Cooperation in the 20th Century
by
Robert D. Stueart*
Asian Institute of Technology Bangkok, Thailand--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Presented at the China-United States Conference on Global Information Access: Challenges and Opportunities August 21-23, 1996, National Library of China, Beijing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------*This author first became involved with such activities in 1980 when he wes invited to speak to a group of leading Chinese librarians attending the American Library Association meeting in New York that year. The next year, at the invitation of the Chinese government and under the sponsorship ef the United Board fort Christian Higher Education in Asia, was the first in a senes of official visits over the next fifteen years for this author to speak, observe, consult, lecture in library and information science education programs.
INTRODUCTION
Five hundred years ago the creation of printing in China served as the impetus for information transfer from one person to another, one organization to another, one nation to another, and one continent to another. Since then a complicated information dissemination process, made most viable through information professionals educated to be information intermediaries, has changed the way that people seek and use information. During the twentieth century, the primary education of those information professionals have been in programs of library and information science. The primary role of educators in those programs remains one of acculturation; identifying where, when, and how change is needed, and then act as change agents in the development of an intellectual orientation both technical and behavioral. Further, a healthy interaction among educators and practitioners, as well as between educators in a global setting, has helped ensure that programs remain viable and on the cutting edge of professional development.
That focus and those parameters can be observed in some of the interactions which have taken place between China and the United States during the last seventy five years. Library and information science education, From its infancy in China during the first part of this century and the United States a bit earlier, has seen a great deal of interaction among Chinese and American colleagues. The major activities can be identified in two time segments; during the second quarter and the fourth quarter of the Twentieth Century.
Many important efforts have come to fruition from educational exchange and cooperative activities including: exchange programs, joint development of specific research projects, curricular development, consulting, and observing each other's educational systems, Formal projects, contracts, observations, intemships, travel grants of mutual interest have been introduced by both sides to take advantage of this opportunity. While some of those cooperative projects have resulted in direct benefit to individual institutions, most have served the greater role of general cooperation and understanding.
COOPERATION IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THIS CENTURY
Initial Efforts at Cooperative Programs
Following the development of formal edur.ation for librarianship in the United States during the final quarter of the last century, education for librarianship began to become a legitimate endeavor in China in the 1910s through mutual agreements between China and the United States.
In 1913 Harry Clemons, a reference librarian at Princeton University, was the first American to be invited to work as a librarian in China and he began to teach practical hands-on techniques to staff and other students at Nanking University where he had been appointed director of the library. Two of his students, H. Yu-feng and L. Siao-yuan, later obtained library science degrees from the United States, They returned to China and, in 1928, made tentative attempts at forming a Division of Library Science at that university.However, it was an ill-fated venture, because only a few years later it was discontinued, reopened in 1940 and then finally ceased operations in 1943.i
American Impact on Initial Developments
However, the real initial impact of China-U.S. library education cooperative efforts is represented by another American, Miss Mary Elizabeth Wood, She had first entered China in 1899 to be with her brother, a missionary for the Episcopal Church. Beginning in the 1910s she, along with a few of her Chinese colleagues, began to work tirelessly on what has been termed the Modern Library Movement in China. She worked for that cause, some would say it became an obsession, all through her adult life, from the point when she entered China until her death in 1931.
However, she was not only a pioneer and a patron of libraries, but also of librarianship in China, Previous to founding the first program in library education, Miss Wood had decided that, in order for the project to be successful, she needed to prepare herself academically. Therefore, Miss Wood returned to the United States for one year to attend my own institution's library education program at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts. Ten years earlier she had briefly attended Pratt Institute's library education program for one term.
Besides her own professional education, she made prior arrangements for two Chinese students to be educated in library science in the United States. First Mr. T.Y. Seng attended the New York Public Library's Sohool in 1914. Mr. Seng has been credited with adapting the Dewey Decimal Classification System for use in China, but instead of translating it directly and applying it literally, he changed some of the classes to reflect a Chinese Library's holdings. Later, in 19l7, Mr. C.S. Hu also attended the New York Public Library School during the same year Miss Wood was at Simmons. In that same year Dr. T.C. Tai went from Tsing Hua College in Beijing to library school in Albany, New York.ii Those schools eventually merged to form Columbia University's School of Library Service.
Miss Wood returned in 1919 ready and anxious to establish the first library school in China.iii In 1920, with permission of the Church, she established the first library education program, at the Boone College, in Wuchang, in central China. She and her Chinese colleagues who had returned from the United States naturally patterned the program after the American library education model which they knew. The major difference between the two countries' programs was in the emphasis placed on a particular requirement of Chinese literature, especially as it related to the difference between ideograph and alphabetical languages. Part of the curriculum of that original program was taught in English and part in Chinese,iv with parallel courses being offered in oataloging, filing, book selection, reference, and bibliography.v
During the early years, the faculty in the Department of Library Services at Boone Collegevi consisted of U.S. and Canadian teachers, as well as Chinese scholars. In the early l930's, for example, two graduates of the University of Illinois program, Eleanor Booth and Grace Darling Phillips, as well as Ruth Hill from the University of Washington library program were recruited to add strength to the faculty of the Boone School.vii A much publicized photograph shows the first class of students at the Boone School. They called themselves the "Happy Six." They were 1) T.T. Chen, 2) W.F. Huang. 3) T.T. Hsu, 4) C.B. Kwei, 5) H. Cha, and 6) K'ai-ming Ch'iu, who eventually developed the Harvard-Yenching Classification which is used by large East Asian collections outside China.viii Kwei later received his masters from Columbia and his Ph.D. from Chicago and became the librarian of the National University of Nanking and then the National Szechuan University. Cha also attended an American library program, at the University of Illinois and later reined to the Boone School.
The school received a much-needed early grant, through the auspices of the American government's action, to further develop the faculty and the program. That grant came primarily through the efforts of Miss Wood. In a report to the American Library Association in 1924, Miss Wood stated, "After the Chinese Revolution in 1911, when the Manchus were overthrown and a republio set up, China made rapid strides towards a western system of education. This has been helped forward greatly by the United States remitting a portion of the Boxer Indemnity. With this Fund, China has been sending students annually to the United States to study in our colleges and universities. As a result, our system of education and our American textbooks have been introduced."ix
Actually that report does not tell the full story. Miss Wood had heard about the discussions on the Indemnity but had been informed that if any portion of the Indemnity was to be assigned to librarianship in China, that it would be necessary for her to return to the United States and lobby for the passage of the Bill. This she did by going to Washington, D,C, for six months and lobbying all 82 senators and 420 congressmen about the Bill, It passed by a majority of two to one in the House and by "unanimous consent" in the Senate. Senator Harding, who later became President, was the primary sponsor of the Bill, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Bill which remitted $6,137,552.90 to China. That was a lot of money in those days. The whole balance of the Boxer Indemnity was committed to educational and cultural purposes. To oversee the fund, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs appointed a Board of ten prominent Chinese leaders and five Americans.x
Scholarship aid to the Boone program came tl~ough the China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture. The trustees of the Foundation, at their meeting in 1925, in addition to appropriating one million dollars to establish a metropolitan library, also appropriated $10,000 a year for a period of three years,xi to the Boone School. All together, twenty five scholarships were awarded to students attending the program over those three years. In addition, numerous scholarships and professorships were awarded to the school through the financial support of Christian missionary organizations, several U.S.-based foundations, and other private donors,xii primarily in the Boston area.
Later, in 1928 after the unification of China, Boone University became a part of Huachung University (Central Clina University) which continued to be supported by the Protestant Episcopal Mission, but the library school pulled out of that venture and was reorganized as an independent institution. The independent Boone Library School was soon officially recognized by the Ministry of Education. The School remained independent until it was absorbed by Wuhan University in 1952, as the department of library science.
Miss Wood spent her last years, though in failing health, raising an endowment for the school under the control of a board in the United States. The established endowment was later known as the Mary Elizabeth Wood Foundation. When she died in 1931, Fan Yuan-Lien, former Minister of Education and later director of the China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture described Miss Wood in his letter to the New York Times, as "the best friend of the library movement in China."
Some of the earliest graduates of the Boone School went to the United States for their advanced studies at Columbia, Wisconsin, and the University of Washington in Seattle. Besides those connected to the Boone School, many other students and scholars also were sent to the United States to study, learn, and conduct research during those early days. Among them, and just for example, were: Mr. Y.F. Huang of Tsing Hua University; Mr. T.L. Yuan of the Metropolitan Library, Peking; and Mr. S.Y. Li of North Eastern University Mukden who all attended the Albany school; as well as Dr. K.C. Liu of Nanking University who was educated at the University of Wisconsin.xiii
The American Library Association's Earliest Efforts
The American Library Association also was a supporter of library education programs in China, particularly during the war years. In 1943 its International Relations Office identified a number of American librarians to be sent to China after the war to help strengthen library education programs. At the same time, that Office intended to take two hundred Chinese students to the United States to study library science.xiv Immediately after the Second World War was over, the Rockefeller Foundation became a major supporter of the Boone School, which remained the only library education program in China at that time. In 1947 Charles H, Brown, Chairman of the Committee on the Orient and Southwest Pacific, of the American Library Association, and Verner Clapp, then chief assistant librarian of the Library of Congress, were invited to consult on library education in China. Their recommendations were only partially implemented - with the addition of the Peking school in 1949. They had also recommended establishment of additional schools in Chengdu and Guangzhou.xv The intent was to make library education available in the northern (Beijing), central (Wuhan), southeastern (Guangzhou) and southwestern (Chengdu) parts of China. It did not come to fruition until later.
Study in the U.S. as an Early Model for Advancement
There are a couple of reasons that there was so much concentration on study abroad, particularly in the United States, at that time. First, it had been only a relatively short period of time since the government allowed study abroad for private individuals,xvi and many were anxious to do so. Added to that was the fact that it was very difficult, in those days, to be promoted to a chief librarian position without having studies abroad in library science, whch was generally augmented by an advanced subject degree from an American university.
Educational grants from foundations, including the Carnegie Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution, made it possible for outstanding students to study abroad, significantly contributing to the improvement of professional education and training.
THE INTERVENING YEARS
From the 1950's until the beginning of the 1980s, little interaction among American and Chinese professional colleagues took place.
THE LAST QUARTER OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
China Society for Library Science's Efforts
However, in the late-1970s a floodgate of activities began to develop in many educational endeavors, including librarianship. With the founding of the China Society of Library Science in 1979, plans were made to prepare a series of textbooks on library science, and to translate some texts from America.xviii In 1981 the Society joined IFLA and renewed efforts at cooperative exchange of personnel and materials began. So that by the 1980's a renewed educational and scholarly exchange program by China had made the United States a major partner in the scientific, educational and technological development.xviii Today, educational exchanges in library and information science between the two nations far exceed anything that was foreseen with that new beginning in the 1970s. The educational exchange arena constitutes one of America's largest and most rapidly growing academic relationships. World Bank funds, government, and non-government commitments have encouraged increased exchange of library education personnel, both faculty and students, between the two countries.
Almost half of the American Library Association accredited library and information science programs have some type of contact with programs in China. They are through a variety of financial arrangements. A substantial number Chinese students enrolled in American library and information science programs are receiving full or partial support from: 1) North American schools they are attending; 2) their own Chinese universities or institutes, the majority of which receive support from World Bank funds; or 3) other private or public sources in the United States. For instance, some are receiving partial support from foundations or associations; including a few from the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia.
ALISE Statisticsxix indicates that the numbers of students from China, who have enrolled in formal library education programs either at the undergraduate, graduate or doctoral level, has steadily increased from seventeen in 1980 to a high of 266 in 1992, and that over seventeen hundred students from China have attended formal library education programs in the United States during that fifteen year period. About fifteen percent, of those students currently enrolled, are in doctoral programs and one might hope that they will be the next generation of library school faculties.
CHINESE STUDENTS ENROLLED IN U.S. LIBRARY EDUCATION PROGRAMS 1980-1995
YEAR MASTERS DOCTORAL OTHER TOTAL
1995 160 30 15 205
1994 172 28 13 213
1993 188 26 10 224
1992 211 26 10 266
1991 175 23 13 211
1990 120 32 7 159
1989 80 31 7 118
1988 78 19 3 100
1987 61 12 3 76
1986 49 7 3 59
1985 31 4 1 36
1984 11 1 0 12
1983 11 1 1 13
1982 23 1 1 25
1981 13 2 2 17
1980 15 1 1 17
TOTAL 1,398 244 90 1,751Besides regularly enrolled students, visiting scholars from China have been in residence in library schools in North America since 1982.xx At about the same time, a sizable number of American library scbool faculty members have spent varying amounts of time consulting and lecturing in library schools in China.xxi
As Josephine R. Fang, a former colleague of mine at Simmons and one of the first librarians to visit China soon after the government adjustment in 1976, said in her address at the IFLA-China Society of Library Science conference in Beijing in 1985, "International cooperation today is imperative in our global profession and opportunities such as this Seminar are an excellent forum for the exchange of ideas and discussion of issues, broadening our horizon and helping us in mutual respect and understanding, thus ultimately resulting in better library services for our countries.xxii
When one considers the type of exchanges which have occurred over the last fifteen years, they fall into several categories:
1. Exchange of faculty between the American school and the PRC schools, with particular emphasis on American professor's importing an expertise which is not currently available among the Chinese program's faculty. Several U.S. faculty have been awarded Fulbright grants to teach and lecture in China, others have been supported as Visiting Scholars by both national and international foundations.
2. Request for copies of library and information science journals as well as books from their American counterparts, in view of the difficulty in obtaining foreign currency exchange. Gift and exchange programs have been developed between schools in both countries. In addition, well-known English language textbooks in library and information science have been translated into Chinese, and are used as textbooks and course references in library schools - including my own management text.xxiii
3. Assistance in upgrading Chinese faculty in programs in the U.S. that offer the Ph.D. degree, or as visiting scholars to observe teaching techniques, attend short-tenn sessions on topics of interest to them, and conduct research. U.S. schools have hosted colleagues and partially supported their study leaves, or have sought foundation support to facilitate the exchange.
5. Financial support from foundation grants, such as those through the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, and from other sources to help refurbish facilities and to purchase materials, technology and equipment.xxiv A good example of that is the three year project that was funded through Simmons to support the development of the Professional Library at the College of Library and Information Science at Wuhan University.
Association for Library and Information Science Education
The Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) in 1985 developed an Adopt-A-Twin Program, and Dr. Mohammed Aman, then chair of ALISE's International Library Education Committee, was instrumental in its development.
Incidentally, Simmons was one of the first to participate in that program, and established sister relationships with Wuhan University. Earlier a special grant from the United Board for Christian Higher Education In Asia had enabled Simmons to develop the library and information science education collection mentioned above. Further, the School admitted 5 students into the masters program. In addition, the Dean and Associate Dean of Wuhan spent three months at Simmons, and later the successor Dean, who carried the title President, also spent three months in Boston observing and sitting in on classes, as well as traveling to other educational programs in the U.S.
ALISE statistics show that there are formal programs between the following institutions:
Beijing Foreign Studies University University of Hawaii
Dalian Institute of Technology
East China Normal University
Rosary College
Shanxi University University of South Carolina
Wuhan University Simmons College
Furthermore, several North American schools are sending library and information science materials, through exchange, gift, or funded projects, to Chinese library schools.xxv Some schools have special materials exchange arrangements with library education programs in Beijing, Jiangsi, Lanzhou, Nankai, Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuhan, and Xian.xxvi
Conclusions
In the early years, as now, one of the most important areas of development and potential cooperation between information professionals in China and the United States has been in the education arena, Adequately educated librarians and other information specialists have a primary role to play in the future of both countries.
It has bean observed that one of the difficulties inherent in any type of cooperative exchange program is that, as personnel changes in leadership and faculty in various parts of the world, the nature of the international contact can also change. The enthusiasm for a program may wax or wane depending upon the commitment of individuals. It is quite evident that the success of such programs of library and information science education depends on the long-term interest, consistency, and commitment. I can speak from experience on this topic, since the deanship has changed in the two primary cooperating schools to which this paper has referred.
Cooperation can only benefit the profession on both sides of the Pacific. In the international arena, there are concerns and issues common to library and information science programs everywhere. Internationalization has become a hot topic in many countries and one which must continue to be addressed in cumcular development. Technology is making it easier to exchange views and access information about programs. Distance learning techniques will further facilitate the global view of the profession and education for entering it, This requires a dedication to continuing the cross-cultural cooperation which began three quarters of a century ago - this is the 75th Anniversary of the founding of the Boone School. Let us all join together in expressing a hope that the next seventy five years in the cooperative education of information professionals will be beneficial for both countries.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
iS.C, Lin, "Historical Development of Library Education in China," Journal of Library History, v. 20, no. 4 (Fall 19SS): 371.
iiLibraries in China, Peiking; Library Association of China, 1929. P 23.
iii John H. Winkelman, "Mary Elizabeth Wood (1861-1931): American Missionary-Librarian to Modem China," Journal of Library and Information Science, v, 12, (1982) 68.
iv Sharon Chien Lin, "Education for Librananship in China Atter the Cultural revolution," Journal of Education for Librarianship, v. 24, no, 1 (1983):17.
v Lin, ibid, p. 371.
vi Y. Zhou, "What Chinese Library Educators May Learn From Their American Colleagues. A Comparative Study," in Translating an International Education to a National Environment, ed. By Julie I. Tallman and Joseph B, Ojiambo. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1990-, pp. 111-112.
viii Boettcher, ap.cit., p.277.
ixM.E. Wood, "Recent Library Development in China," ALA Bulletin, v. 15 (Aug. 1924):179.
x Ibid., p. 181.
xiP.W. Kuo, "The Evolution of the Chinese Library and its relation to Chinese Culture," ALA Bulletin, v, 20 (1926):193.
xii C.T. Au, "American Impact on Modern Chinese Library Development" (Master's Thesis, University of Chicago, 1964), p, 51-52.
xiiiLibraries in China, op. Cit., p. 24.
xivCarl H. Milam to Stephen P. Duggan, 1 1 January 1944 (American Library Association Archives, China Projects File, 193S-1949, Record Series 7/1/5 1).
xvY. Wang, "The Past, Present and Future of Library Education" (In Chinese: Sichuan Tushuguan Xuebao) Sichuan Library Journal, v. 4 (1980);3.
xvi Cheryl Boettchcr, "Samuel T. Y. Seng and the Boone Library School," Libraries & Culture. v. 24 Surnmer 1989):173.
xviiNews abou( Chinese and Foreign Libraries," (in Chinese), Bulletin of CSLS, v. l (1979):93.
xviiiHigher Education and National Affairs Newletter (American Council on Education], v. 35, no. 11 (June 16, 1986):3.
xixLibrary and Information Science: Educational Statistical Report, ed. By Timothy W, Sineath has been published by the Association for Library and Indormation Science Education (headquarters currently located in Raleigh, North Carolina) since 1980.
xxIn 1982 Simmons College GSLIS hasted the Dean and Asaociete Dean of the Wuhan University program for a three month program.
xxiIn 1981 this author spent 10 weeks lecturing in library education programs in Guangzhou. Chengdu, Xian, Wuhan and Beijing. Since then he has also lectured in Shanghai, Tianjin, and Jilin.
xxiiJ,R. Fang, "Opening Remarks," "Education and Research in Library and Information Science," Symposium sponsored by the DSLS and the Section on Library Schools of IFLA. Beijing, 1-5 September 1985.
xxiii Robett D. Stueart and John Taylor Eastlick, Library Management, 2nd ed. Littleton, CO; Libreries Unlimited, 1984 (in Chinese).
xxivT.C. Bearman, et. al., "Education of Librarians from Developing Countries," in The Role of the American Academic Library in International Programs, ed. By B.D. Bonta and J.G. Neal, Greenwich, CT: SAI Press, 1992, pp.136-37.
xxv In 1985 the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asie funded a project proposed by Simmons College GSLIS to select $20,000 worth of library and information science materials each year for a five year period, to build the professional collection at Wuhan University, Arrangements were made with Baker and Taylor for purchasing and shipping the materials.
xxviR.D. Stueart, "US-China Library Exchange Growing Rapidly," International Leads,v. 1, no. 1 (Spring 19S?): 3.
