 Well good afternoon everyone. It's so nice to see so many friends of the library here, so many past friends, so good afternoon. I'm Dean, I'm Scott Seaman, Dean of Libraries here at Ohio University. I'd like to welcome you to this edition of Authors at Alden. Today we have Dr. Huawei Lee being interviewed by President Charles Ping. Two prominently prominent internationally known individuals and personal friends. They both have a long tenure here at Ohio University. The library owes a great deal to both of these two men. Under the encouragement and guidance of Dr. Ping, Huawei was instrumental in the development of the libraries as an esteemed internationally connected institution, as well as earning the library's membership into the prestigious Association of Research Libraries in 1996. And there are only a hundred members in North America of the ARL. This event is being held in honor of Huawei's biography, The Sage in the Cathedral of Books, which shares the story of his life from his childhood through a nearly 40-year career in the field of librarianship, especially international librarianship between the United States and China. His career was marked by many successes as recognized by the Melville Dewey Award, which was awarded by the American Library Association in 2015, and an honorary doctorate from Ohio University in 2012. This book is published by the Ohio University Press. It is written by Yang Yang, who is with us tonight, who has journeyed from Beijing, China. The English translation, which is available to you today, was translated by Yang Yang. She has traveled from Irvine, California, where she is research librarian for Asian Studies at the University of California. Both Yang Yang and Yang Yang will join us for the question and answer session that will follow immediately after the interview. Before, though, I turned the microphones over to Dr. Ping and Huawei. I have two things. First, little professor is right over there selling copies of this very book. I encourage you to do that. Also, there is a reception immediately following this talk on the third floor in the Faculty Commons, and there's light refreshments, and Huawei has agreed to sign books. So thank you very much for coming. Oh, and I've been reminded, please turn cell phones to mute. Thank you so much, and Dr. Ping, I will turn this over to you now. Well, Huawei somehow seems fitting that we should gather to this, have this conversation while they're working on the roof of the library. Seems like perpetual. Well, I'm delighted to have this chance, and I'm sure everyone knows her, but let me introduce your wife, Mary, who races. And when I saw the lineup of children and grandchildren for the pictures, I decided I'm going to leave that alone. That's in your hands, if you would introduce the children. So I do now. Yeah. Okay, I'm very pleased to introduce part of my family. We have six children, four of them are here, our oldest daughter, Sherry, our second one, Jim, our third one, Pamela, and her partner, and their best. Yeah. And then our number six, Bob, and his wife, Kara. And also back to two boys here. Just stand up. That's it. Thank you. Well, you have two monuments to a remarkable career. This library, the Library of Congress, Asian Division. And that's really a lifetime of achievement. Let's start by talking about the book itself. Okay. What was the occasion of it being published? Where, why, when, what went on? Okay, I was approached back in 1993 when one of our sister libraries in China, the Chinese Academy of Science, the regional libraries in Wuhan, the library director once asked me, are you writing your biography? I said, no. He said, why not? I said, another kind of special person. I always hate to write about myself. So a few months later, and he sent it to Ohio University, a library intern. It's a writer. After the arrival of this librarian, and she told me, my assignment to come here for as a library intern is to write your biography. So I said, well, that's fine. So he did a lot of interviews, took a lot of pictures and took a lot of my materials. But after six months, she decided not to go back to China. She decided to go to California and find a Chinese newspaper and become a reporter for the Chinese newspaper in San Francisco. So the project end. So when I about to retire from library of Congress, 2007, on one of my trips to Beijing, I saw Yang Yang and her husband, Paul, and she bought. Both of them, I know them very well, because Yang Yang was here for three years, got two master degrees. During the two years, she worked at least two years in my office as my student assistant. Her job was helping me to receive the library interns from many countries, to arrange their leaving accommodations, to take care of them. So Yang Yang did such a good job. So when I saw Yang Yang in 2007, Yang Yang said, how's your biography? I said, nothing happened. So Yang Yang said, could I do your biography? I said, Yang Yang, if you want to do it, fine, but it's going to be a tough job. Yang Yang said, I don't mind. I'd like to do that. So that was the beginning of this biography. Yang Yang spent about two years. In fact, we didn't set a deadline to complete the writing of this biography, because I was not in any hurry to get this biography published. But in 2010, several sister libraries in China, the National Zhongshan University in Guangzhou, the Shenzhen Library in Shenzhen, and also the Guangdong Provincial State Library, the directors, they got together. They like to have some kind of seminar in honor of me for my 80s birthday. So I said, that's very nice of them. Initially, I tried to decline, but they insisted to do it, so I went ahead. And then they wanted to publish as part of the symposium, collect work of my writings. So I gave them a lot of my materials. They eventually compiled, published a toolbar and set of Huawei Lease work. And then in addition to that, and Dr. Chen of the National Zhongshan University asked me, it would be nice to have a biography to go along with the publication of your work. So I told them Yang Yang was doing it. She said about finishing, I said, not yet. So she got a phone called Yang Yang. She said, Yang Yang, we're going to do this symposium at the end of the year. You better finish up. So Yang Yang, poor girl, with two children, with a full-time job, she worked very, very hard for six months and finished online, on time. So by the end of 2011, when the symposium was held, we have my published, collected work in Yang Yang's biography. So that was the way they came about. And then a new edition published in Taiwan. The reason, the Chinese edition, and because of censorship, so they took out some sensitive parts from the biography. So my friends in Taiwan learned about it. Say, we're going to publish in Taiwan, we're going to publish the whole thing. So the Taiwan edition came out 2014. And then Yin Zhang, very nice. He also was a library intern here in 1983, 89. And Yin works very, very hard. He's in university, kind of felt earned by, offered to do the translation. That's a quite a job to translate from Chinese to English, especially Yang Yang looks so well, beautiful Chinese. So you try to translate them as beautiful as they are in English. It's not easy job. And he did it. And then I also want to thank so many people here, the things Scott Seaman and Cat, and also Mason and her staff, they all helped to edit the final edition. So we are very fortunate to have the publication here today. There's a long story. No, it's a great story. And this obviously then the third time the book has been published. And both in the depth of your research and in the beauty of your translation, we're grateful. The book, the biography starts in a little unusual way. Instead of going back to the start of a life, it actually begins with the most recent event. And the most recent event that's recounted in here is a grand retirement party at the Asian Division of the Library of Congress. And the librarian of Congress came and spoke in glowing terms of Dr. Lee. And then Dr. Markham, who is oversaw two-thirds of the 4,000 people who work in the Library of Congress spoke. And let me read just a few sentences from what he said so that you can grasp the magnitude of what we accomplished there. Dr. Markham said, you know very well, or you know better than anyone else, how badly you were needed when the library recruited you to head the Asian Division. Collections were unavailable to the public. Now what goes the library that that's true? Bibliographical records were not in the online catalog. Staff, relations, and morale were in disrepair. That's an understatement. Then skipping, there's almost no comparison of today's Asian Division to the one you inherited. The recognition has removed, the reorganization has removed the language-based independent units. The staff works harmoniously and productively. The collections are well organized and can be served to the public. You have raised the public profile of the Asian Division with your seminars and the formation of a friends group. Sounds familiar? We have partnership with countless libraries in all parts of Asia. Well, this was a grand occasion. You were very pleased. The first three chapters deal with your childhood and the central reality of it is war. First the Japanese and then the Civil War in China. What are your strongest memories from those years? There were very difficult years. I think the things I remember most, especially now watch TV, see the bombing in Syria. People escaping the houses or destroyed. That was very much the memory I had during my childhood. In the morning, when we were here, the Syrian, we had to run out of the house to the countryside. Then we saw the airplane flew over. They keep bombing. Luckily, you don't get hit, but a lot of people got killed. By the time we came back, your house may be not there anymore. Those are the memories I had during my childhood. Then throughout my schooling, elementary school, and part of secondary school. We had to change school every few months because we had to keep moving, running away from war. We studied a month or two. We moved to another place and learned in school, temporary, and then we moved to another place. This kind of disruption in my schooling, I remember. You were actually retreating from the advances of the Japanese. That's why, yes. It must have been a very tough childhood. Not enough to eat. I always feel like I was hungry all the time. You had a very close relationship with your older brother. Yes. He went in the Air Force and he chose the name Min, which means not afraid to die, as I understand it. He lived an exciting life. He was sent to the U.S. for part of his training, and he came back. Among his exploits is that he somehow borrowed a plane and flew to China and transported your whole family to Taiwan as the movement from mainland to Taiwan began. He was a lieutenant colonel 31, if I remember the book right, and was a hot shop pilot. Sadly, was lost flying a spy flight for our forces over southern China. Only 30 some years later, were you able to actually identify the site where your brother was buried. And you were instrumental with others in bringing back to Taiwan the ashes of your brother to be buried with full military honors. Would you like to say anything about? Well, yeah, there was a very unfortunate event. The time he was killed was 1959, May 28, 29. That was the time Mary and I, we just got married a few months, couple months, and we were looking forward to our graduation to receive our first master degree in education. We got this bad news. At first, the Taiwan government tried to not making a family to say about this. So they just told the family the airplane was missing. They may be arrested or hiding someplace. But eventually I was able to find from the newspaper publishing Hong Kong. They showed the airplane was crashed, mentioned the place, the name of the mountain. So after 32 years, I left China in 1949. The first time we went back to China, 1982. So I have the newspaper in my pocket. I went back to Guangzhou, Guangdong province, tried to look for where if I can find the burial place. I find the mountain, the huge mountain, almost impossible to find out where the body was built, was buried. And I tried to ask the local officials. None of them want to say anything because they are afraid the government won't allow them. So I waited another 10 years. I keep going back, trying, the relationship later on was improved between Taiwan and China. So I finally got the permission from the Chinese government, say, please help this guy to locate his brothers, remain in such and such place. So the local government official finally willing to help me. So we find the place. We were able to recover the remains and cremated and took the ash back to Taiwan. So unfortunately, when I went back to China, first time, 1982, my mother and father baked me halfway. One of the things you had to do, try to find your father's burial place. But when I find 1992, both of my parents already passed away. But at least I did what they asked me to do. The family was really more at peace. Hi, we're gonna, if we're gonna get through, we're gonna run. skipping ahead to years on Taiwan. Yes, you finished your undergraduate degree at the National Taiwan Normal University. And you were appointed a joint junior staff person. America beckoned. There's really another whole story. You met Mary, you courted her. And according to the narrative of the book, you were completely unaware of American dating customs. And somehow you managed to start dating her next year, proposed to her. And very shortly after that, we're married. There are a lot of things that you got out of coming to America, but surely that's the most precious. And he was now a graduate school in graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh. Curiously, I'm a year older than you are. I was a graduate student at the same time. And I was the resident head of the Graduate Center at Duke. That was the center that housed all the men who lived on single men who lived on campus. There weren't any women in the professional schools, I'm sorry to say. That was a different era. And among the duties assigned to me was that I was to identify all the international students in the 400 group in the building and try to find ways to help them get settled and climate to American culture. And I know well the difficulties you face. Because I counsel with students and worked with them in that era. But I'm curious, as you look back on your movement from Taiwan to Pitt, what were your real challenges as a graduate student? Well, there were a few major challenges. I think the first one is the language barrier. I knew very little English at then as a graduate student, even though I passed English qualification exams before I left Taiwan. The second one is the adjustment to a different culture. The third one is the financial worry. You don't have enough money. You don't worry about what's next week, next month. But one thing I had to say, I was able to overcome many of the difficulties. Going to my dear wife, Mary, I had to tell them how we met at my first class, graduate class in the United States at Pittsburgh, the cathedral learning on the 27th floor, I remember. Because I've been a new student, not speaking much English. So I tried to hide way back in the classroom, hoping the professor won't see me or ask me any questions. And Mary came in a couple of minutes late. So she just sat next to me. So by the end of class, the professor came over to me. She said, Huawei, I understand you are a new international student. And do you have a problem to understand my lecture? I said I do, but I try to take notes. I'll go back to studying my notes. She said, could I look at your notes? I said, yes. So I show you my notes all in Chinese. With a few English there. So the professor turned over to Mary. She said, Mary, this gentleman may need your help. You take a good note. Would you mind letting him your notes? Mary was very generous. She gave me her notes. So I took a whole copy then I memorized them. So that's the way we became get to know each other. And she was most helpful. And to overcome many the barriers I had initially. But many of us understand some of these things. But I don't think many understand what language means. In the five years I was the housemaster of the Graduate Center. There were five students who committed suicide. Most of them were because they had been absolutely the top student in their class. And they got here. And suddenly, this German student was trying to keep up in terms of quantities of reading and papers to be written in a second language. And this was traumatic on measure. But you may not have been aware of the culture. But as I said earlier, you certainly did well in a hurry in courtship. Before we leave the Pitt Library, as I read the story of your life, this was an important moment in your life. The Pitt Librarian called you in. And she informed you that you have been chosen for a new program, library trainees. And I guess asked you, would you be interested? And you accepted the appointment. And this was really a move. You were in the graduate school and education. But now suddenly, you were a graduate student in library. You had to pursue a master of library studies, as a graduate degree, is a condition of this. I read this as a turning moment in your life. Yeah, very true. Because my second year, because I want to be financially independent. So I went to I use the library a lot. So I knew many librarians. So I asked them, could I apply for a job as a student assistant? I was accept. So I work in a stack and shelving books. That time, the library was still closed stack. The faculty student cannot go into a stack. So we are there as a student assistant, we had to run into the stack to find a book. So that was the beginning, however, because maybe I did a good job. So the librarians offered me to become a librarian trainee for two years. And they pay me full time, working full time, go to library school part time. And they promised me if I get my library degree, and then I become a full time library. I thought was a good opportunity. I actually got to like the library work. After first year, shelving books, learning around the stacks. I thought that's a good profession to begin with. So when I was offered the opportunity, I accepted, which I never regret. Well, there's another parallel. I worked in library as a graduate student as well. About the same time. But you're too modest. The librarian at Pitt said you were specifically chosen because you had tried to help people. You've ever been in the library with closed stacks. You're trying to do research. It's a real pain. Because you can't really gather the books that you need. And you went out of your way to help the patrons. If they came to use the library to see related material and your thoughtfulness and pressure. Yeah, because I was a graduate student myself. I knew how much time takes to find the things you need. So when I get a request from students or faculty members looking for a particular item, I go in the stack, I see there are several other things close to the topic of interest to this student. So I just bring instead one book, I bring three books, turn out the books I select for the student were better than the ones he was asking for. So they load the suggestion in the slip in the suggestion box. And so and so the way he does should be encouraged. Every library staff should do that. So the director got that the notes. So maybe I was a good one to become a librarian. So offer me the opportunity. That thoughtfulness marked your whole career. And its presence here at this turning point to library science is very descriptive. Before I leave this, so I'd like to introduce a subject. I was struck by the number of women in prominent positions in the libraries, like the Pitt librarian. Now this was not true of universities. Generally, you know, there weren't very many women as deans. There weren't any women. The more descriptive there were not many women presidents, the world has turned some of it has changed at least. And the majority of the presidents of the Ivy League schools a few years ago were women. But library science seemed to have a strong representation of women early. Why? I think they are better librarians, perhaps the men. I don't know, because they are more interesting helping the patrons. And I was very lucky. I have my three first three jobs. Pitt Library, Dugan University, Edinburgh State, and all the library director were women. And they were just wonderful boss. But the safety change now you can see maybe 60% the key positions in the library held by women. And then other 40% by men. That was quite a change from the years I started my library career. Another question that Claire and I, my wife and I shared our graduate year. Back to her mother was convinced I was never going to be gainfully employed. And you and Mary shared the graduate experience. The two of you got a first master's degree together. And then she supported you in whatever way she could. As children began to come along, and you were married and in graduate school, and sharing it. What do you think about this sharing as a married student? Mary is an unusual woman. She's not just supporting me, helping me. But also she raised a wonderful family. I really had to say give all the crash to her. Maybe you like say something. Nothing changes. Was impressed by the fact that you made a series of stops along the way in the next few years, roughly three years in each. Because you didn't, I don't think it's a reason, but you heard in a commencement address, someone say that you ought not to stay longer than three years in your career early. And you took it to heart. But you went first to the cane. And then you went from there to one of the regional state colleges that were in the process of becoming State University Edinburgh. And you were faced with building a new library. I mean, physically, a building, you had to jump into something that proved to be very productive in your career. I was very grateful. There are many opportunities to advance my library information knowledge and experience Edinburgh Duquesne University. And later on in Bangkok, Thailand, gave me a lot of opportunity to learn to grow professionally. But I put it a little stronger than that. It seems to me that each stop along the way. As I read, you acquired a skill that proved to be very fruitful in your years here and your years at the Library of Congress. My years here, I had to give my special appreciation to you because Dr. Ping was the one hired me and gave me the entire support and the trust. At the time, there were really a lot of work needed to be done. We saw the kind of support from the top positions was not as easy. Although I had to say, I was so lucky to work with a wonderful group, my colleagues in the library. They all want to try to make an Ohio University library the best library resources in the country. So they all try to work very, very hard. So I'm just a lucky person. Well, and we were too. I want to talk more about that in a minute. Let's talk about your experience in Thailand. The three year cycles stopped with a stay in Thailand. Now, as I read the book, I was a little surprised. According to the book, a commencement speaker at Edinburgh State Department representative came full of enthusiasm about a new project a multi nationally supported library, technical library in Bangkok. Now it was all planning and thinking at that point. But apparently over lunch, he was so full of it that he sold it to you and he turned to the president and the president granted you a year's leave of absence to begin to start to help in this project. Did it really happen that quickly? He did because the speaker was invited by him was a good friend of him. It's a senior official from the State Department. And he described international education, the importance of international education and this project in Bangkok. So upon learning my experience, my position was a librarian. So he turned to the professor. I didn't ask. He turned to the professor. Could I borrow you, Mr Lee, for this job in Bangkok for one year, get this thing started. The president couldn't say no. So unfortunate when I went to Bangkok, the project is really much more than one year can accomplish. So I had to quit the job at Edinburgh and stay in Thailand for seven years, with the proof my wife, because all our family enjoy our state in Thailand. I'm sure that would make a whole story. Mary moved all the children and everything all the way to Bangkok. Yeah, we got an offer. And in June, I was interviewed by Colorado State University on behalf of the State Department. And then we were in Bangkok in August. Two months. Well, tell us about the Asian Institute of Technology. A little bit about its mission, what your role was and what you think it added to your library and leadership. During the seven years we were in Bangkok, that was during the Vietnam War. The United States and other countries participate in this AIT project. We'll try to build something for the post war periods to reconstruct the region. They need a lot of engineers, technical people. But at the time, Asian countries have two problems. Once a brain drain, they have so many bright young people graduate from college, they came to the Western countries to study. They never returned. So they lost all the talent people they call the brain drain. Another problem is the brain waste. For those who return to their country, they find out what they learned in the West was not practical. They cannot apply it in their home country. So they can discuss. So AIT was set up for the purpose to train Asian engineers working on the Asian projects while they're in school. When they graduate, they can take on a job with their government for one of Asian infrastructure construction projects. So that was the AIT's purpose. And did it impact the Jesus then? Yeah, the Asian technology is still there. It's still doing very well. It's a graduate school. The campus didn't exist. The program didn't exist. Everybody was talking, but an awful lot of work had to be done. It's a very important experience because you're working with it. There are about 13 countries participating in this project. We have 13 from the United States, 13 from Great Britain. We have about 1110 from Japan. And everyone worked together harmoniously and to build this school. We didn't have a campus. We borrowed a building from Chula Local University for three years until we built our new campus. But once our new campus was built, there was a first class university building in Asia. So many visitors every day come to see. That was quite an interesting experience. The this was a period when Mary was, he had five children when you went. Six was born at a military hospital there in Bangkok. And they had, you said 24 seven, access to a swimming pool and you know, the median temperature is about 90 degrees in Bangkok. And she had just come from Edinburgh, which is a snowmobile in Pennsylvania to hear this tropical wonder city of utter chaos in terms of traffic. And you built the new Asian Institute of Management out from the top. Yes, we are the Thai government gave a piece of land. It's about 20 miles from Bangkok, which was nice. And then we just built a whole campus. The side was a very just ideal place for the new institution. I the funding began to erode after seven years. Yeah, after the Vietnam War, the project, the United States support for the project end. So we we left the AIT. But at the present time, I understand American government continue to provide scholarships to the Asian Institute of Knowledge. The usual pattern on these projects we've been involved in number of them here is that the project is assigned to a university and it provides leadership for the choosing of staff and so forth. After seven years and your Thailand assignment, and the funding began to end. And who accepted an offer from Colorado State University. And you went there as associate director of libraries. And now the Lee family move from Tropical Bangkok to Western Colorado, which if you know your geography is the snow center of Colorado. And of course, all the children had to learn winter sports now and that meant endless changes of clothes for Mary and whole new experiences for the family. But there's an interesting quote from the book. I think it was a comment made by someone as you were leaving the Asian Institute management, because of the way you have been able to draw Chinese universities and universities throughout Southeast Asia into a cooperative use of this. The comment was made he had turned into a uniquely international librarian. Hi, when I read your visa way back then, and I remember interviewing you, it was this as part of your background. It was very important to us. You did bring modern library management techniques that you gain as you experimented with the use of the computer and other things. But you're credited with introducing libraries to modern management techniques. What's involved in that? Well, at the time, the library has had to go through very rapid change in management style. I think I remember starting from management by objective. And then we went to participate in management, make a library and be more transparent. And then we went through this total quality management, make sure our service with the user is our primary service of the target. And then we went through the knowledge management, upgrading the library's level from data management, information management, to a higher level of knowledge management Western wisdom. You describe it in a few sentences. It's also true that what it represented was that the library, libraries were changing more in these few years of your career. They had changed in the previous 600 years. Many would, you're here now. Many would insist that you're crowning achievement. And I was leading the cheers was to achieve membership in the Association of Research Library. For some reason, they declared a three year hiatus. So it didn't actually happen during my years as president, but immediately after it, much to my regret. But in any case, we made it. What were the strategic changes that you introduced to make us qualified? The qualification to be considered by for membership at Association of Research Libraries, they involve two major areas. Once the side of your collection, the qualitative kind of things, including how many staff, how much in your budget, and how how many books you edit, your collection, how many serial title, those are the quantitative things. That's easy, even though we still have a gap to catch during the years I was here. But another one is a qualitative requirements. Are you a good research library? What are the research collections qualify you to be outstanding research libraries? Association of Research Library, they try to limit their membership to 120 altogether. So they already had 120. So unless someone dropped out, become disqualified, and then we get a chance to be considered to to be a member of. So Tokas, I project that time was 15 years. Actually, we reached the criteria just about 15 years, but because they have a freezing of 70 membership for three years. So we three more years before we were invited to become a member. Now, my memory may be wrong. But it seems to me we push for membership earlier. And we're told by them, that is, the officials at the association, very annoyingly, that while we were cataloging and growing at a rate that more than qualified us, and while the number of books being checked out, and the use of the library generally was clearly better than the expectation. You were doing it all with too few people to qualify. And they just didn't believe you, I guess. They limit to 120. But you cannot just meet the criteria of the 120s library. You had to be getting to the 70s of the 120 library before you can be accepted. So we really tried very hard. And we exceed what their expectations. And when we were invited, they were so happy to invite us. So that was one was your leadership, your support, even though there was happened after your retirement, but during your years, there was what those most critical years for to reach the goal. Well, it was, we added two characteristics. One, we were categorized in the Carnegie categorization classification. As a research library, I mean, research university. And then we made this step, and we're classified in that very prestigious group of associations of research library. I rejoiced in that. One of my many proud moments as president was a recurring event. During trips to China, and visiting Chinese universities, every conference I went to, there would be a group of librarians waiting on me, who wanted to formally thank me for what you were doing through the library internship program. And it was a marvelous program, and I'm sure was of great and lasting importance in China. Why don't you tell the group a little bit about what that program was? After the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese educational system, including the library, were totally destroyed. So after the Cultural Revolution, China had a hard time to catch up. There were 20 years, 30 years behind the development level of American libraries. So at the time, I was very lucky to have an opportunity to serve a consultant advisor sponsored by many international organizations to go to China, to do lectures here, there, and also start our internship program to welcome a librarian from China and other Asian countries. And that particular, I think the two things were most needed by the Chinese libraries. And they actually doing quite well. Originally, I saw, we'll take it in 20 years, 30 years to catch up. In 10 years time, they reached the level which we consider at the international acceptable level of development. They were deeply grateful. And as I said, the same was repeated over and over again. In fact, I have usually evolved in exchange of gifts. And I have a lovely carved Buddha. There was a gift from one group of librarians on my bookshelf at home. I wrote this and I want to read it because it's important to me. Each of your three year stops, and your seven years stay in Thailand contributed to the development, your development and understanding of librarianship. We're most grateful for the 21 years that you gave up. The one constant to all this is connectedness. Your crowning achievement in my mind was this connectedness. You drew the libraries of the state of Ohio together and connected them. So you could search all the library. You opened connections and ties that spread across the country and around the globe. And it was this search for relations, this connectedness of people and institutions that I think is your crowning achievement. Well, resource sharing was one of the major focus for most of the libraries, including starting from Ohio to nationwide, to internationally. The resource sharing like OCLC on a nation world basis. Ohio link is a sort of for college university libraries in Ohio. Those are the connections you mentioned. Very, very important for library to enhance their service to their patrons. Now some of this is familiar to me and to many in the audience. But what is OCLC? OCLC started, well, I had to go back a little bit more. The Library of Congress in the 1960s. They started the computerized care logging that creating a format for library to follow using this format to care log your materials by computer. They called mark format machine readable care logging information. So OCLC, the Library of Congress started and then OCLC tried to take advantage of these records. So started forming originals for Ohio state university libraries and then expanded to others. Try to using the Library of Congress machine readable care logging information and add our own care logging information. So everybody in using these resources without going to do duplicate work before OCLC, if you buy a book, everybody buy a book. Every library had care log. That's a waste of a lot of main power. With OCLC, if whoever the library, the first one care log the book, everybody can use the record. So that's the kind of connectivity that's time saving. Graduate students here could find out what was available at other places. The Ohio link is statewide. It's enabled 80 some college university libraries in Ohio. The faculties and students can use any of the collections of any of the libraries within 48 hours turn on one time. So that's really a major improvement during the year that Ohio link was formed. Correct? Things change so much. I don't know. Well, you hope it's continuing to grow and expand. But you don't appreciate what this means until you look back to your years as a graduate student. I remember doing my research. I had to visit a half a dozen university libraries looking for material on the 19th century philosopher that I was working on. Because I couldn't find them without actually physically going to the library. I remember this area, when I first came, full of a car care log. If people are looking for a book, you go to a car care log and find your material right down in the car and they give the circulation desk, they will give you the book. Now we were happy that we replaced car care. I remember one interesting when I tried to remove the car care log, replace it by computer. I remember two very distinguished professors standing in front of the car care log. Say, Huawei, you cannot move this without moving over my dead body. So I started a project, tried to have all staff reference there particularly, try to conduct workshops for faculty members, how to use a computerized care log. And after a few months, I find the two professors very happy using the keyboard typing in. They say, Huawei, I like it. They're making me feel so happy. Well, let me skip over a lot of things to the last question. The other monument is a refurbished collection at the Library of Congress. First of all, you retired from here. You had a brief period of relative peace. You're never still. And then you took the library position as head of the Division of Asian Collection. You're credited within five years with establishing a whole new culture in the division, a culture of cooperation. You're credited with reorganizing and restructuring the whole division. You're credited with building the collection at a rate that it had not been through. You're credited with, in fact, there were stacks of books in the shelves that had never been catalogued. You're credited with bringing all that into the active library catalog. You're credited with a great many things in the course of five short years. I have, I guess, two questions. Why in the world did you take this on at that point in your life? And secondly, what do you regard as your most important contribution? Yeah, at the Library of Congress, they actually asked me three times. I reject the first time. I just turned it down, because I didn't, I knew the problem was so serious. And also working, they used to a involvement college, university volume. I can foresee the difficulty working in the government, very bureaucratic kind of organization with three unions I had to deal with, plus all the other red tapes. But at the third time when it came around, I couldn't say no. And then they really, I feel I'm the person, if there's a challenge there, I think I was far from me to try. So I told Mary, Mary, I think there's something I really cannot say no now. So we moved to Washington DC for a few years. She said, you go first. So I went to Washington DC by myself for the first year, and then Mary came the second year. And it was very difficult time. But very fortunate again, I have good support from the librarian, Dr. James Billington. I have a support from Diana Markham, the associate librarian. But most important, all my staff, my colleagues, they all want the Asian division to be recognized, to be respected, but they need the kind of leadership. And I happened to be available at the time. So I had to work very, very hard. I got there seven o'clock in the morning. I don't leave until nine o'clock in the evening, including weekends. But they do pay off because I see things change very, very rapidly. Once you want to do something, everybody felt that's the right thing to do. Everybody chipped in. And then later on, I have so many help, good help, volunteers from the community. They say, we want to do a volunteer. We're coming to work for you. We have about 10, 15 volunteers every day. Those are the four contribute to the success of my job tenure at Ohio at the Library of Congress. And you also established fundraising activity. Then there were some familiar names on that. I'm sorry, as usual, I took up too much more, much more time. But I'm assuming that not many people have had a chance to read the book. And there will be lots of questions that will come from reading it. Puzzlements about how you were able to do things. But Scott, I'm willing to shut up if you want me to shut up. I just want to add a thing, talking about fundraising. I didn't know anything about fundraising. But eventually I wrote a book about it. I had to give credit to one person sitting behind Jack Alice, the vice president for development, and my good neighbor. Every time I have a problem, I go to Jack, I lock his door. I'm Jack, I have some problems. I don't know whether I can do it or not. Jack always very positive. Huawei, you do it, I'll beg you up. And all my success, I had to give credit to Jack. He was the one taught me, carried my hand, walks through the very difficult past. But we did very well. I really appreciate it. Great teacher. Good teacher. Well, I don't want to break this conversation up. But I do want to give the audience an opportunity to ask some questions. And for that, I'd like to also invite Yang Yang there are some chairs if you'd be willing to entertain a few questions too, please. Thank you. While they're getting that settled, I'll give one quick story. Charlie and Huawei both mentioned OCLC. You may not, that may not be a phrase that you're familiar with. But if you're a scholar in this room, you may have used something called WorldCat. And WorldCat is a collective database of all the world's books. Today, it's international, it's worldwide. It contains over two billion, two billion with a B, bibliographic records. What you might not know is that bibliographic record number one was from Ohio University, and it was from this building. It is an extraordinary legacy that this library has imparted upon scholarship. And it was Huawei, who really took the OCLC system, he inherited this from the previous director, Thompson Little, and made it work. And it worked here first. So with that, I would like to open up the audience, open up for questions, please. Jacksonville, Florida, sunny Florida, maps, films, all kinds. The library comes with many, many divisions. So they have a very good division of labor. For example, the Asian division takes care of the print materials and digital materials. And then the films, they have a film department, maps, a map department. But we coordinate all the services about Asia. Because in fact, our staff will go to other divisions where they have the Asian material. We help them answering questions, helping to organizing their materials. And also we help to publicize those materials. So we're asking Yang Yang say something. Well, actually, I have a question for you. Okay. I'm sorry, go ahead. I, Pittsburgh, in China, I'm fortunate that after I, my retirement here, and that program stopped. But now Scott, the thing Seaman, actually, doing a lot of different way. It's an international training program by a different kind of format. Is that I happen to know you're a documentary filmmaker by profession for Central Chinese television? Was this your first biography that you wrote? And how is it different? Or how is it the same from doing documentary film? You have a speaker? Well, maybe I can go over there. Wrote it in, write it in a documentary way. So it's also a documentary, I think. Yeah. So I've done a lot of intervals with my characters in other documentaries. It's just Dr. Lee's intervals, very, very long intervals. So every time he, he traveled to China, I will do intervals, like two or three days is fine, right? So it's a very, very long intervals. But I found it very, very happy. And it's a wonderful experience. Because while writing the book, I can, how do I describe it? I can see his, the richness of his life and the wisdom that in addition to to his library achievements. So I enjoyed very much. I think Dr. Lee is a legendary character of my documentary. Yeah, very recording, recording of all the intervals. So I'm doing this documentary by words, not by camera. Yeah, it's just the character about Dr. Lee's elder brother. Yeah, I think there are some sensitive things. So by the time I send the writing to my editor, and they think it's nice if we can take that because, well, that's a little bit political. But it's good. In Taiwan, they publish everything because that character is also one of my favorites. I spend a lot of time doing research, you know, read all the books, because that's the history. And that's, and also Dr. Lee's elder brother is very important. You're very close to your brother. Question? Yeah, a couple of years ago, I saw him on campus one day and I said, that's Stephanie have a come yet. I've got a good people. In his book on fundraising, the first principle is relation. Yes. Oh, Jack. Yes. Well, I would like to oh, Shimo Wang, a colleague of mine from the University of Cincinnati has a question. It is a good question. So my answer to your question is that the motivation comes from my personal contact with Dr. Lee. And I was here 17 years ago as an intern, a trainee here under the International Library, Library and Internship Program. I was from Zhongshan University, Shiyan University, China. And Dr. Lee, before I came here, I said, well, if I want to work at the University Library, I need to do learn something before I can work. I feel like I'm not competent enough to work. So Dr. Lee was so kind to give me a set up, allow me to set up a customized plan. So I went to Kent State first for three months and then come here for another three months. So I was so it was so rewarding experience. And then later I accounted with Dr. Lee several times at workshops, conferences or a library visit. So I feel like Dr. Lee is not only to me a mentor in my librarianship, but also a personal life, because I met, got to meet, was married. So and I feel like, okay, how could I say? So he's my mentor and the pusher during my difficult years. And I went back to China, worked two years and then came back to get my PhD in library information science from Rutgers, New Jersey, and then worked at you. So all these experience I always ask Dr. Lee for advice. So when Yang Yang School came out, I couldn't wait to read about because my previous contact with him is just from professional, but I would like to learn more about him what behind him, which can make him that perfect person to me. So I couldn't wait to read. I took maybe couple of days to go through all the read through all the biography that this kind of Chinese version. So I called Dr. Lee, I said, well, this is a well written, well documented. I learned so much. And I hope your wife, Marianne, or your all your kids and the grandkids could learn. But unfortunately, he said, oh, yeah, they could read Chinese. Okay, I have time I could try to or though this is again, my first book lands translation from that my native language to a second language. It's very hard. I'm not a literal person. So but I said, I will be learning to do that. And also, I didn't at that time, I didn't think about this will be become a published book. I thought it's just a family archive. So Dr. Lee again, very, very encouraging. And he said, okay, well do it. I said, okay, my English is not still second language. He said, oh, no problem, Mary and Bob. Thank you so much. And they were it turned out every many other people that you also help me to do proof reading. So through this translation project, I learned a lot not only not only about the spirit of librarianship and the leadership of Dr. Wiley, and also his rich life. To me, I think, and also yesterday, I was thinking about, because the combination of yin and yang in the also show and the translator is a perfect match like a reflecting Dr. Lee's rich life, which is a perfect match to the yin yang law of utility. So I think what a coincidence. Yes, Chinese to English. That's the challenge of part. Yeah, that's his native language. In the state world for 60 years. For my 21st 20 years, I didn't use much Chinese, because I want to learn English. And then after the 20 years, I started to try to make connection with the Chinese library with the internship programs. I began again, to learn some of my Chinese. So I think that my Chinese is possible, not as good as the people from China. Well, please join me in thanking Dr. Huawei Lee, of course, for doing the interview. Yang Yang and Yang Zhang. Once again, little professor is here with copies of the book to sell. If you would like, there's a reception on the third floor in the faculty commons. And Huawei has agreed to do some book signings. So thank you again for coming.