2009年10月12日
[訊息]哈佛燕京圖書館中文善本書將數位化（英文）
【說明】
哈佛燕京圖書館藏有中文善本古籍50000多冊，在善本書志編成後，現在進一步要數位化，實在是一個好消息。希望日後能夠免費提供漢學界使用，我覺得才是最重要的。
這則新聞亦可看出臺灣新聞從業人員翻譯的基本素養之差。「the National Library of China」（中國國家圖書館），「黏合報」翻成「北京國家圖書館」（哪有「北京」字樣？），「大陸時報」、「中廣」翻成「中國國立圖書館」，可見一斑。然這則新聞不見於本土「自由時報」（即其Taipei Times）亦由此見該報在關於國際性文教新聞用力之淺。從以上來看，吾人由島內漢文報導直接查找外電，方能有一較清楚概觀。
因此，本格以英文原稿為主，附上漢文新聞譯槁，以供參考。
By Patricia Wen Globe Staff / October 10, 2009
Officials from Harvard and the National Library of China would not release exact costs, other than to say it was a “multimillion-dollar” project and that the Chinese government is paying most expenses. Harvard staff will be responsible for capturing images of the fragile books, scrolls, and artifacts, one of the largest collections outside Asia, using high-tech cameras in its state-of-the-art lab at Widener Library.
Once completed, these images dating as far back as the Song ynasty in 960 AD, will be publicly available for free on the Web to scholars in China and elsewhere.
“We need to change the mindset that rare materials must be kept behind closed doors,” said James Cheng, the head librarian at Harvard-Yenching, a separate building just outside Harvard Yard. “A library is not a museum.”
Furui Zhan, who oversees his country’s national library in Beijing, said this is China’s first major digitization project of rare-book collections outside China. Depending on how it goes, he said, his library may join with other institutions on similar projects. He said the goal of this venture is to enable scholars everywhere to have access to the richness of China’s history through access to its documents.
“We have to respect history,” said Zhan, whose library celebrated its 100th anniversary this fall with the theme of “Pass on Civilization, Serve the Society”
Scholars present at the ceremony said the digitization of ancient texts is a windfall to the study of Chinese history because many of them have ended up in institutions throughout the world, largely due to China’s political upheavals over the past century. Professor Wilt Idema, chairman of Harvard’s East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department, said many books at the Harvard-Yenching library were brought out of China in the 1930s and 1940s.
“China has gone through a very rough time,” he said. “Part of the Chinese heritage has ended up outside.”
The project enables Harvard to provide universal access to researchers while preserving the delicate, aged items. Repeated physical handling of the ancient works could damage them; security is also an issue. Harvard-Yenching had 41 books and two scrolls snatched from its secure rare-book collection in 2000, one of several thefts at Harvard libraries reported over the years.
Capturing images of these ancient works is a painstaking process. Items will be laid out carefully on flat surfaces in climate-controlled rooms and snapshots will be taken by sophisticated cameras, a Harvard spokeswoman said. Items needing repair will be sent to a special conservation area before being digitized. This project involving Chinese rare books is distinct from Google’s pilot program with Harvard to digitize some of its library collection.
The collection at Harvard-Yenching library was built largely by Alfred Kai-ming Chiu, its founder, who began assembling the impressive collection of rare Chinese books in the late 1920s and set the worldwide standard for cataloging works from across Asia. Its works include an extensive collection of Chinese rubbings, translations of Bibles in different dialects, and manuscripts from the Naxi minority tribe in southwest China, which used one of the world’s last pictographic languages.
The idea for the digitization project began at a Chinese banquet last November during an international librarians’ convention in Macau. Cheng, the Harvard-Yenching librarian who grew up in southern China, had long lamented the fact that scholars had to travel thousands of miles to review the rare book collection. He also had longstanding concerns about safeguarding these items.
After the dinner and over wine, Cheng turned to another conference participant, Zhan, a former president of Hebei University in Hebei Province, who began running China’s national library about four years ago.
“Would you like to take part in a partnership?” Cheng recalls asking.
After Cheng explained his idea of digitizing Harvard’s collection - which focuses on writings from the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties Zhan showed immediate interest. He promised to get back to Cheng.
A few months later, Cheng took three trips to Beijing to negotiate details of a potential contract. Staff members of the National Library of China took two trips to Harvard over the past year to examine the quality of its digital imaging equipment and to go over the items in the rare book collection.
Yesterday, at a long wooden table inside the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Room in Widener Library, the deal was signed. Nancy Cline, the Roy E. Larsen Librarian of Harvard College, and Zhan each put their pens to the written contracts.
“This signing is just the beginning of the six-year project” Zhan said.
Patricia Wen can be reached at wen@globe.com.
Correction: Because of a photographer's error, Peggy Molander, Harvard's library director of development, was misidentified in a caption with a Page One story yesterday about Harvard digitizing its collection of 51,000 rare Chinese books.
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參考資料
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然閒談促成...哈佛要把善本書數位化
【聯合晚報╱國際新聞組/綜合報導】 2009.10.11 02:34 pm
《波士頓環球報》報導，同樣熱愛古籍的哈佛燕京圖書館主任與中國國家圖書館館長去年在澳門偶然閒談，導致雙方9 日簽訂雄心萬丈的六年協定，把哈佛大學典藏的5萬1000本中國善本書數位化。
雙方人員表示，這項計畫耗資數百萬美元，大部分由中國政府承擔，可是拒絕透露確實成本。
哈佛擁有非常豐富的中國書刊文物典藏，工作人員明年1月起將負責在擁有最新科技設備的Widener圖書館實驗室，用高科技照相機拍攝這些脆弱書籍、卷軸和文物。
一旦完成數位化作業，這些溯自西元960年的宋代文物影像將公開上網，讓中國和其他地方的學者免費參閱。
哈佛燕京圖書館館長鄭炯文說：「我們必須改變把珍貴文物鎖起來的觀念，圖書館不是博物館。」
北京國家圖書館館長詹福瑞說，這是中國首次參與國外的重大善本書收藏數位化作業，視成果而定，國家圖書館可能與其他機構共同進行類似計畫。
詹福瑞表示，此舉目的在讓各地學者能夠經由接觸文件史料，瞭解中國豐富的歷史。他說：「我們必須尊重歷史。」
北京國家圖書館今秋以「傳承文明，服務社會」的主題，慶祝建館100周年。
參加Widener圖書館舉行之簽約儀式的學者說，把古籍數位化對研究中國歷史助益甚大，因為過去一世紀中國政治動蕩不定，使許多中國文物失散在世界各地。
數位化作業使哈佛能讓研究人員自由參閱這些古籍，同時避免這些脆弱的古老文物受損或失竊。哈佛燕京圖書館的中國藏書多由該館創辦人裘開明從1920年代開始收集，並為編錄亞洲書籍立下世界標準，其藏書包括大批中國拓片、以不同方言翻譯的聖經、和中國西南部少數民族納西族象形文字的書籍。 【2009/10/11 聯合晚報】
哈佛大學將把五萬多本中文善本書數位化
2009-10-11 中國時報 【中廣新聞／謝佐人】
美國哈佛大學是中國以外，珍藏中文善本書最多的地方，如今哈佛大學同意將這些珍貴的書籍數位化。
哈佛大學圖書館代表周五已經與中國國立圖書館簽約，同意將校內五萬一千多冊的中文善本書數位化，其中不少書籍都有上千年的歷史。
這些善本書都珍藏在哈佛大學「燕京圖書館」內，工作人員將先審查，以確認哪些書受損、或太脆弱，甚至是線裝書的縫線隱藏了部分書籍內容，以便特別處理。
[1] 原文引自波士頓攣求論壇報網頁，網址：http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2009/10/10/rare_books_from_china_to_be_digitized/
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