SUMMARY - Chinese Libraries on the Web

[Ernest Perez]

I recently posted a message to the Web4Lib list asking for information
about Chinese Web sites, Chinese character set solutions, and search
engines devoted to or strong in Chinese Web/Internet resources. I'm
"studying up" in preparation for a six-week staff exchange to Fujian
Provincial Library, People's Republic of China.

Thanks very much for the usual quick, and valuable response from library
colleagues.  Here below is a summary of the messages received. These
gave me a real head start on the topic, and may be of interest to
others.

One last question, please.... Do any of the search engines have an
effective query parameter that will maybe let you restrict hits to the
*.cn domain?

Thanks again,
-ernest

Ernest Perez//Oregon State Library//perez at opac.state.or.us//503-378-4243
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where is the knowledge that is lost in information?  Where is the wisdom 
that is lost in knowledge?       -- T.S. Eliot




An EXCELLENT and simple introduction to the Chinese character set topic
called "Read Chinese in Net Applications" is at 
   <http://WWW.Cathay.Net/help/read-chn.shtml>.  
It's maintained by Shunguo Liu, <liushus at Leroy.CC.URegina.CA>.

 
Gleason Sackman <gleason at rrnet.com> wrote:
> Checkout: 
> 
> Chinese Web Directory 
> http://www.lynx.bc.ca/~satotech/cwebdir/ 
> 
> Netscape 2.0 enhanced comprehensive Web directory with Java, 
> frames, multilingual & multimedia (audio/video) features.
> Covers everything from Arts and Literature, Business, 
> Computers/Internet, Entertainment, Festivals, Jobs and MUCH more.
> 
> -----
> http://www.geopages.com/SiliconValley/1250/
> 
> This page contains a lot of Chinese related web sites. If you want 
> information about China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, this is the right place 
> for you. 
> 
> -----
> Information resource list about Chinese
> http://www.ncl.ac.uk/~n4521661/chinese.html 
> 
> Useful information Resource in internet about Chinese, mostly 
> focusing on those containing news, general information, business
> information, and notably, software which helps users on
> many platforms (Win, Mac, etc..) read chinese. 
> 
> -----
> 15 Mar 1996 
> Chinese Librarianship: an International Electronic Journal (CLIEJ) 
> http://www.lib.siu.edu, USA 
> The e-journal focuses on the practical aspects of Chinese librarianship. It
> publishes articles written by Chinese librarians, information scientists and
> library school faculty and students, as well as by librarians and
> information professionals of other nationalities on issues related to
> serving patrons with Chinese materials. It also reports any major
> developments of Chinese librarianship throughout the world. First issue to
> appear June '96. 
> URL http://www.lib.siu.edu/swen/iclc/clej.htm 
> Information supplied by: Shixing Wen (shwen at siu.edu ) 
> 


A readable and informative background paper, although dated, is "The
Internet and Scholarly Communication in China." It's issued by China
Exchange News, Committee on Scholarly Communication with China,
Washington, D.C., Winter 1994. It's available at
<http://www.bridge.org/csccpaper.html>.



Michael Ming, Hung wrote:
> Use the Chinese Univesity Web in Hongkong and they have many other links
> that help.
> http://www.cuhk.hk/

 
Ken Feser <feser at cma-oh.org> wrote:
> My knowledge of this stuff is limited but I'll tell you what I know.  There
> are some add-on programs which give varying degrees of Chinese character
> set compatibility.  Twinbridge and Unionway seem to be the two leading
> software companies.  
> 
> Twinbridge (www.twinbridge.com) have a $29 product to vie web pages and
> email in CJK, and a $99 product to do above and also input in Chinese.
> 
> Unionway (www.unionway.com) have an $89 product to view and use CJK
> (Chinese, Japanese and Korean) in all Windows applications.  For $299 you
> get the advanced version with TrueType fonts.
> 
> Internet Explorer has plug-in programs which support CJK character sets.  I
> can't remember where on the Microsoft website you can find these (sorry),
> but the name of the relevant download files are IELPKCN.EXE (simple
> Chinese) and IE3LPKTW.EXE (traditional Chinese).
> 
> There is a website devoted to Chinese software: www.gy.com/www/ch.htm .
> 
> The Holy Grail for CJK character compatibility is Unicode, a replacement
> for ASCII which uses 16 bits instead of 8 (I think) and which can encode
> Roman, CJK, and dozens of other character sets.  It seems to be a little
> ways over the horizon, though.  You need a Windows NT or a eventually a
> Windows 98 (?) machine to handle it, and software has to be written to take
> advantage of it.  I think this is the long term solution, but not today's
> solution.
> 
> Good luck.  I would like to hear about what you learn on this subject, as
> it is very relevant to us (we have lots of Asian material in our library
> collection.
> 
> Ken Feser
> Systems Librarian
> The Cleveland Museum of Art
> feser at cma-oh.org
> 


Jian Liu <jiliu at script.lib.indiana.edu> wrote
> You might want to start your search with:
> http://www.cnd.org/WWW-HZ/WWWChinese.html
> (This site can't be reached from within China)
> 
> There is also a usenet group, alt.chinese.text, where you can post
> your questions. It's very active.
>