New Visiting Librarian from China

Starting in September, the library will be hosting, for two months, a visiting Chinese librarian Ms. Yunjiang Tan from Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China. Sichuan is also the giant panda's hometown.

Ms. Tan will be an active participant in regular library duties. Her goal is to gain first hand knowledge and experience in an U.S. academic library in order to apply that knowledge and experience in her home library in the future.

Academic librarians around the world are realizing the importance of developing a broader awareness of other cultures. An increasing number of academic libraries in the United States, China, and elsewhere are engaging in international partnerships.

Ms. Tan is not the first librarian to visit Otterbein from the Southwest Jiantong University (SJU). In January 2005, the deputy director who is now the current library director of SJU, Dr. Fan Gao visited the Otterbein library. In May 2006, Otterbein College library director Lois Szudy and Jane Wu were invited to visit five universities in China including the Southwest Jiaotong University library. This visit by Ms. Tan will support the institution's internationalization efforts by serving as a bridge for future exchanges between other academic programs on campus.

The Southwest Jiaotong University was founded in 1896 and is located in Chengdu, Sichuan, a major city in the southwest part of the country. The university offers undergraduate, postgraduate, doctorate, continuing education and distant education programs to approximately 60,000 students. The university has 11 schools, 38 departments, 32 undergraduate specialties, master’s programs in 58 fields, doctorate programs in 24 fields and 6 postdoctoral centers. SWJTU is well known for its rigorous scholarship and has long been considered to be an excellent center of higher education pursued by many young students from China and aboard.