No. 113 Journal of East Asian Libraries

              FROM THE PRESIDENT
Marshall McLuhan was right when he wrote,     The new electronic interdependence recreates the
world in the image of a global village.   
When McLuhan made the now famous statement in i   ke Medium is the Message in 1967, I was a
student at the University of Hong Kong. I was not introduced to his writings until I went to the
Graduate Library School at Chicago three years later. McLuhan was more a prophet than a
chronicler of his times. There, w, as no Internet then, nor     personal    computer. A global village
was a concept, not a reality. Now, communication is instantaneous. We have CNN and other
24- hour international news channels. Moreover, we have the Internet.
As I write this column I am in the midst of preparing to go to Hong Kong to become the Head of
the Fung Ping Shan Library of my Alma Mater. I have sought the advice of the members of our
Executive Commitee and active former Chairs of CEAL whether I should resign fkom the
Presidency. Almost unanimously they thought that I could conduct my official businesssin Hong
Kong virtually as if1 were in Chicago. Obviously our Secretary will have to take on some added
responsibilities. I will attend our annual meeting in Washington, D. C.
Being physically in East Asia will allow me to advance CEAL   s interests in that region. I hope to
learn more about how libraries handle non- Roman data ( i. e., Chinese, Japanese and Korean) in
their integrated library systems. More importantly, I will promote closer relationship
between CEAL and library associations and libraries in East Asia.
I will end this column by changing one character of a poem by the early Tang poet Wang PO
( 650- 675):
    Hai- wai ts   un chih- chi,
T   ien- yai jo pi- lin.    
( Our friendship will sustain beyond the sea,
We remain neighbors at the end of the shy.)
* It was     hai- nei    in the original poem, meaning China. The sea was and is the Pacific Ocean.
Tai- loi Ma
President, CEAL