On October 8, 2023, the South China Sea Special Collection Branch Library and Special Collection Construction Seminar, co-sponsored by the Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies and Nanjing University Libraries, was successfully held in the Nanjing University Library of Gulou Campus. More than 40 guests attended the seminar, including Yang Zhong, Executive Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the University and Director of the Management Committee of the Center, Lu Yanqing, Vice President of Nanjing University, leaders of the University’s Social Science Department, Science and Technology Department and relevant functional departments, heads of the Libraries and the School of Information Management, as well as experts and scholars inside and outside the University.
At 9:30 a.m., the unveiling ceremony was held in the Library of Gulou Campus. Deputy Secretary Yang Zhong, Vice President Lu Yanqing, Librarian Huang Xianjin, and Executive Director Zhu Feng of the Center jointly unveiled the plaque for the South China Sea Special Collection Branch Library. Executive Director Zhu presided over the ceremony and welcomed the leaders and guests who attended the ceremony and introduced the basic situation of the Branch Library. He said that the completion of the library could be attributed to the attention and support of the leaders of Nanjing University. Moreover, it is also the result of the long-term efforts and persistence of the team of teachers and students led by Professor Shen Guchao of the School of Information Management. Vice President Lu Yanqing said that the Special Collection Branch Library of Nanjing University “is not only a cultural education, but also a patriotic education, and even more an ideological education”. He believed that the Branch Library could play a greater role for the study of the South China Sea in China in the future.
A seminar was held around the construction of special collections in the conference room in the afternoon. Zhu Qinghua, Vice Dean of the School of Information Management, presided over the seminar. Professor Shen Guchao, Deputy Director of the Center, and Professor Yang Haiping of School of Information Management made a report on the construction of special collections and a report on the Evidence Chain Project respectively. Experts from libraries, academia of Libraries and South China Sea studies highly valued the significance of the South China Sea Special Collection Branch Library and put forward suggestions for its future development.
Professor Yu Minyou, Dean of Wuhan University China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies, pointed out that in the future, the South China Sea Special Collection Branch Library should enhance the discourse influence at home and abroad, and better serve the national strategy; Professor Lu Xiaobin, Director of School of Information Resource Management, Renmin University of China, put forward that the Branch Library should actively contribute to the government’s decision-making and China’s development in accomplishing the accumulation of the South China Sea resources, such as data, images and sounds; Professor Huang Ruhua, Deputy Director of Wuhan University Library, suggested that the library should actively communicate and integrate with libraries of universities around the world in the future, so as to further utilize the value of it; Professor Chu Jiewang, Director of Anhui University Library, commented on the construction process of the library with “ten years’ grinding of the sword”, believing that under the care and support of the leadership of Nanjing University, the Branch Library will be better and more effective in the future. Professor Li Yuhai, Dean of the School of Information Management of Central China Normal University, said that the completion of the library makes domestic experts and scholars feel proud and confident, and hoped that the resources and experience of that can be shared with other universities in China in the future. Professor Feng Liang of Naval Command College believed that the current situation in the South China Sea is getting more and more complicated, and how to make good use of the materials in the library to help the national security and development is a major issue at present. (Text/Ruan Wenjia, Translate/Bao Yiwen)
