No. 120 Journal of East Asian Libraries

              FROM THE PRESIDENT
Dear Friends of CEAL:
Due to the unfortunate ( or, for me, fotiunate) delay in publication of this issue of JEAL, I
am writing this message following the successful completion of the March 2000 annual
conference of the Council on East Asian Libraries in San Diego. I would like to offer my
thanks to the many, many people who together worked hard to ensure that every session
was both interesting and informative. Several of the projects reported on at our
conference are also discussed in this issue: the Hong Kong Name Authority Project, plans
for the conversion of Chinese bibliographic records to the Pinyin romanization system,
and the Japan Foundation training program for Japanese Studies librarians.
While recognizing that the success of our conference is a group effort, I would
nevertheless like to offer special recognition to those excellent speakers who traveled
from Asia ( most at their own expense!) expressly to participate in our meetings. Others I
would like to single out for special thanks include Rob Britt, who worked hard to ensure
that intemet connections and everything electronic was is working order and Vickie Fu
Doll who labored tirelessly to compile the CEAL statistics which you see in this issue.
At the CEAL Plenary Session, Eugene Wu, a pioneer in our profession and past- President
of CEAL, spoke on the subject CEAL at the Brink of the 21st Century. At a time when
we are looking forward to the exciting work ahead of us, Eugene also reminded us of the
Chinese saying: People before us planted trees, we can now enjoy the shade. In this
regard, a sad moment for me personally during our conference was bidding farewell to
Ichiko Morita who has most ably directed the Japan Documentation Center at the Library
of Congress since its inception. Though the Center will close at the end of this month,
the memory of Ichiko   s hard work and the collection she created will live on. We can
now enjoy the shade.
As a result of the recent CEAL elections, the Executive Committee welcomed several
new members at its second meeting last week. Doris Seely was elected Secretary; Wen-ling
Liu, Treasurer; and Sachie Noguchi, Fred Brady, and Hsi- chu Bolick, Members- at-
Large. Special thanks are due to the hard- working members who rotated off the Board:
Charles d   Orban, Secretary; Fred Brady, Treasurer; and Joy Kim, Marcia Ristaino, and
Phyllis Wang, Members- at- Large. ( Joy and Fred remain on the Board in different
capacities.)
As we prepare for the 2001 conference in Chicago, I look forward to the contributions
each of you will bring to our organization during the coming year. One of which, I hope,
will be submissions to our very own Journal of East Asian Libraries!
Bill McCloy, President
Council on East Asian Libraries ( CEAL )
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