Library Pasts and Presents: Asian Textual Artifacts in the U.S.

Date: 10 April 2026
Time: 12:00–3:30 pm Pacific Time
Location: UCLA's Information Studies Library and Young Research Library; Zoom
Presented by: The Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography at Rare Book School at the University of Virginia; The Bibliographical Society of America; Department of Information Studies, UCLA

This event brings together librarians, archivists, and curators across the country to discuss their ongoing work with East Asian and Southeast Asian collections and the various challenges they face. Topics include digitization and access of rare materials, ephemera acquisition and preservation, community engagement through archives, collaboration between U.S. and Asian institutions, and Asian bibliographical traditions.

The symposium consist of two parts:

• Part One: Hybrid roundtable
  • 12:00–2:00 pm Pacific Time, UCLA Information Studies Library, SEIS Building 102 or via Zoom (meeting ID: 986 0239 5280; passcode: 991157)
  • Featured Speakers:
    • Su Chen, Director, UCLA East Asian Library 
    • Meng Tong, Robert H. N. Ho Buddhism Public Scholar, UCLA East Asian Library 
    • Judith Henchy, Southeast Asian Studies Librarian, University of Washington  
    • Emily Zinger, Southeast Asia Digital Librarian, Cornell University  
    • Yuzhou Bai, Special Collections Librarian and Archivist, Harvard-Yenching Library  
    • Devin Fitzgerald, Curator of Rare Books and History of Printing, UCLA Library Special Collections 

• Part Two: An in-person hands-on engagement session, with rare books from UCLA Library Special Collections.
  • 2:15-3:30 pm Pacific Time, UCLA’s Young Research Library Main Conference Room

 

To attend the symposium, we kindly ask you to fill out the RSVP form here.

 

Symposium Organizers:  

• Mindi Zhang, PhD Candidate in History, UCLA 
• Cindy Nguyen, Assistant Professor in Information Studies, UCLA