No. 112 Journal of East Asian Libraries

              FROM THE PRESIDENT
As this issue of JEAL is going to press, CEAL   s Task Force on Pinyin Conversion has just begun
its planning process. As the preeminent organization and representative of East A& n hbrarians
and libraries, CEAL will take an active role in this far- reaching matter. It is also our wish to
revitalize CEAL   s long cooperative relationship with the Library of Congress ( IX).
The last time LC consulted the East Asian library community about using the Pinyin system for
Chinese romanizzttion instead of Wade- Giles, there was much opposition from the field. Many
people did not see the need for change. LC withdrew the proposal, stating that the decision
would make firturechange difficult ifnot impossible. In hindsight, we may have missed the best
opportunity to change to Pinyin. During the last decade or so, gradually Pinyin has become the
predominant Chinese romaniza tion system in North America, as well as in the world. Most
laymen now know only the Pinyin version of the namesof Chinese personalities, while more and
more academics abandon Wade- Giles.
LC is now revisiting this issue, which was the hottest topic at this year   s CEAL annual meeting.
This time there was practically no one against Pinyin per se. However, there was much concern
and many reservations. Most people would agree to the Pinyin switch ifwe could have a global
change converting all current Wade- Giles MARC records to Pinyin at little cost. But we were
told by the two main utilities that this is not possible. People voiced their concerns about the cost
of changing to Pinyin, the inconvenience of split files, and priorities of expenditures. Is now the
best time to make the change?     The fbture is longer than the past,    but we are not sure of the
shape of future- perhaps it will be a system or program that can deal with Pinyin and Wade- G& s
seamlessly.
CEAL   s Task Force will investigate this issue thoroughly and present its findings to the East
Asian library community and LC. The most important thing is for the East Asian library
community and LC to maintain a cordial, consultative relationship. Whatever LC does will have a
major impact on the library community, and we can but hope that it will make its decisions wisely
and deliberately, and take into consideration the opinions of their colleagues.
From 1954 to 1958 ALA   s Committee on Far Eastern Materials, one of CEAL   s predecessors,
worked closely with LC to amend the ALA Cataloging Rules for Author and l? tk & ties and the
Rzdes for Descriptive Cataloging in the Library of Congress to make them more applicable to
East Asian publications. They also issued theM& mual of Romanizution, Capitiization,
Punctuation, and Word Division for Chinese, Jrrpanse and Korean. National standards were set
tier thorough deliberation between the two bodies, and to this day all benefit from those efforts.
We look forward to a new chapter of fiuitfbl cooperation with LC.
Tai- loi Ma
. President, CEAL
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