
Minutes - Seventeenth annual conference of EASL
Participants || Chairman's
address || Minutes || Notices of
members || Conferences and meetings
|| Treasurer's report || Automation
|| EACS membership ||Booksellers'
visit || BEASL || WWW homepage
|| || CJKLIB || SSELP and EDOCS
|| Election of officers || Next EASL
conference
The seventeenth EASL conference was held in the Oost-Aziatische Bibliotheek
of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven from 10 to 13 September 1997. The
meetings were chaired by Katharina Thölen (main session) and Marc
van der Meer (automation).
A welcoming reception was given by Professor Nicolaas Standaert, the
University’s head of sinology, and Jan van Impe conducted a tour of the
main library. An excursion to Brussels also took place, and Nathalie Vandeperre
took the group to see the Chinese Pavilion built in 1904 in the gardens
of King Leopold II, together with its superb collection of Chinese porcelain.
Present were:
Marc van der Meer (Sinologisch Instituut, Leiden)
Bénédicte Vaerman (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)
Chan Mei-Yee (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)
Hanno Lecher (Universiteit Wien)
Anne Labitzky-Wagner (Landesspracheninstitut NRW, Bochum)
Klaus Gottheiner (Universität Trier)
Bent Pedersen (Det Kongelige Bibliotek, København)
Matthias Kaun (Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel)
Nathalie Vandeperre (Institut Belge des Hautes Études Chinoises,
Bruxelles)
Alek Stypa (Institut Monumenta Serica, Sankt Augustin)
Koen Wellens (Universitetsbiblioteket i Oslo)
David Helliwell (Bodleian Library, Oxford)
Katharina Thölen (Universität Zürich)
Friederike Bertelt (SSELP, Universität Heidelberg)
Johann Michael Streffer (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin)
Graham Hutt (British Library, London)
CHENG Ying (Centre Chine, Paris)
Bénédicte Héraud (Centre Chine, Paris)
Lars Fredriksson (Östasiatiska Biblioteket, Stockholm)
Annette Specht (Universität Heidelberg)
Martin Hanke (China Buchservice, Seevetal)
YU Dong (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana)
Diane Strobl (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München)
Sue Small (School of Oriental and African Studies, London)
Brigitte Auby (Bibliothèque Interuniveritaire des Langues Orientales,
Paris)
Vincent Durand-Dastès (École Française d'Extrême
Orient, Paris)
Hubert Delahaye (CollPge de France, Paris)
Apologies for absence were received from: Michael Leibold (Universität
Würzburg) Tony Hyder (Institute for Chinese Studies, Oxford) Laura
Rivkin (Great Britain-China Centre, London) ACTA
1 Chairman’s address
A short opening address was given by the Chairman.
2 Minutes
The minutes of the Sixteenth EASL conference were accepted as a true and
accurate record of the proceedings.
3 Notices of members
3.1 A new floor has been added to the Sinologisch Intituut in Leiden,
and all collections have been re-located. (Marc ven der Meer).
3.2 The British Library’s Chinese collections will be moved to the new
building in St Pancras between April and August 1998. (Graham Hutt).
3.3 A whole floor of the new building for the library of Oslo University
is to be allocated to the Chinese collections. It expected to be complete
by autumn 1998. (Koen Wellens).
3.4 Heidelberg will acquire the shisanjing zhushu ¤Q¤T¸gª`²¨
database from the Academia Sinica, but it will not be networked externally.
Access to the Twenty-Five Histories will not only be maintained, but also
enhanced by the provision of a WWW interface. (Annette Specht).
3.5 Andrew West has been appointed to input the contents of SOAS’s Morrison
Collection into the RLIN Chinese Rare Books database. (Sue Small).
3.6 The Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire des Langues Orientales will
move to a site near the new Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. (Brigitte
Auby).
4 Conferences and meetings
4.1 A conference on James Legge was held in Aberdeen in April to mark the
centennial of his death.
4.2 A workshop on the allegro “avanti” server was held in Heidelberg in
April.
4.3 A workshop on the forgery of Dunhuang manuscripts in the early twentieth
century was held at the British Library from 30 June-2 July.
4.4 The German colleagues met at Tübingen in July and discussed among
other things the adoption of a common bibiographical format. The result
of their deliberations will be posted on the EASL homepage.
5 Treasurer’s report
A statement of accounts prepared by Tony Hyder was presented, and unanimously
accepted. He was thanked for his work.
6 Automation
6.1 The automation session was held on the day preceding the main conference,
and was chaired by Marc van der Meer, who had also assembled a large variety
of relevant software for members to examine. Two networked Windows 95 PC’s
had been provided by Bénédicte Vaerman.
6.2 The participants in the automation session gave an outline of developments
in their respective libraries.
6.3 Towards the end of the session, syllable aggregation and subject headings
emerged as matters for serious discussion at the next conference.
7 EACS membership
No apparent advantages were perceived in EASL’s corporate membership
of EACS, and the arrangement itself appeared to be inadequately defined.
It was therefore agreed nemine contradicente that formal links between
EASL and EACS should be suspended, and that those with an interest in EACS
should join as individual members and report to EASL on any matters of
common interest.
8 Booksellers’ visits
8.1 Stephen Feldmann gave a short outline of the services of Asian
Rare Books.
8.2 Zhang Aizhen (CIBTC) demonstrated the following CD-ROMs: renmin ribao
¤H¥Á¤é³ø and zhongguo baokan
xinxi zonghui ¤¤°ê³ø¥Z«H®§Á`×.
8.3 Both booksellers set up stalls for the duration for the conference.
9 BEASL
9.1 BEASL 10 had not appeared as insufficient contributions had been received
by the editor. The new deadline for publication was set at 30 October.
9.2 Arrangements for both the mailing and levying of subscriptions for
BEASL will continue as before. [Since the conference, Marc van der Meer
has been appointed to a new position in the central library of Leiden University.
He is willing to continue with EASL work, including the publication of
BEASL 10, until 1 December.]
10 WWW homepage
10.1 Under the direction of Matthias Kaun, the EASL homepage had continued
to develop. He was again thanked for the considerable work that this involves,
and congratulated on a most professional result.
10.2 Henceforth, the work will be shared with Hanno Lecher, and the page
will be developed by both, the details to be worked out between them.
11 CJKLIB
Marc van der Meer had been informed that Heidelberg no longer wished
to host CJKLIB, the EASL mailbox. Marc undertook to discuss its future
with Matthias Kaun and seek an alternative host.
12 SSELP and EDOCS
12.1 A short report on the progress of SSELP was given by Friederike Bertelt,
touching on matters relating to format, data conversion, and data collection.
She demonstrated the new WWW interface to the database.
12.2 J-M Streffer reported that he no longer had the resources to maintain
EDOCS, and proposed the formal suspension of the project. His proposal
was accepted, and thanks were expressed for the considerable period of
sustained effort that he had put into it.
12.3 It was agreed that members should now participate fully in SSELP,
in the expectation that it had now fully taken over both the data and services
of EDOCS.
13 Election of officers
Kathy Thoelen, David Helliwell and Tony Hyder were re-elected to their
respective offices of Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer.
14 Next EASL conference
David Helliwell invited members to Oxford for the 18th conference, and
this invitation was accepted. The dates of the conference were set at Wednesday
9 to Saturday 12 September 1998. [For reasons outlined in the accompanying
letter, it has proved impossible to meet in Oxford next year; Munich is
now suggested as an alternative.]
The Seventeenth EASL Conference closed with an expression of thanks
to Bénédicte Vaermann and Chan Mei-Yee for their excellent
arrangements.
David Helliwell
Secretary
Oxford: 17 October 1997
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