In addition to the lack of money and housing, the librarian also has these embarrassments and difficulties

This article is excerpted from "Yo Yo My Thoughts", by Ge Jianxiong

In 1985, during my visit to the Yenching Society in Harvard, the library was processing duplicate books at the end of the year. A large number of books are left there to choose from, usually for one dollar per book, some for one dollar, or even a large bundle for one dollar. It was the first time I had encountered such an opportunity, and by the time I went in the afternoon, there were not many books left, and I no longer collected money, but took it away. I picked a few copies, and there was actually a "Xingning Language Chronicle" signed by Luo Xianglin. I heard that there were more author signature books in the morning, and some people had bought the signature books of Guo Moruo and others before.

Later, I talked with Wu Wenjin, director of the Harvard Yenching Library, and suggested that when dealing with the copies, the author's gifts should be retained and the other copies should be cleared out. Failure to do so will affect authors' donations to libraries and will be considered disrespectful to authors. Director Wu agreed with me and promised to give the staff a special reminder the next time he dealt with it, but he also told me frankly that it was actually difficult to avoid. Because american university libraries generally only buy one book per book, in order to extend the circulation life of books, those who have hardcover books buy hardcover books, and those without hardcover books are also processed into hardcover. Most of the books donated by Chinese authors are paperbacks, and if the library already has a hardcover copy of the same book, it will not be processed into hardcover. Due to the tight time and heavy workload of cleaning up replicas, non-professional temporary workers are often hired or borne by migrant students. When they encounter a copy of the book, they will definitely leave the hardcover copy and dispose of the paperback. Most of them don't understand Chinese, and those who can read Chinese don't take the time to double-check the contents of the cover. If you happen to see someone's inscription or signature, who can judge the value of the book on the spot?

Later I talked to an American professor who didn't agree with me. He believes that since the author sent the book to the library, it is to show and use it. Since the library has copies, instead of leaving it there unobstructed and not in circulation, it is better to sell or give it away, so that the book can continue to function. He asked me, "Is it possible that the purpose of the author's donation is to keep the book in the library forever as his souvenir?" "So when I read in the newspaper that the foreign language magazines that Barkin donated to the National Library had been lost to the market, I wondered if the staff of the national map had also disposed of these magazines as copies."

When I visited Professor Pan Yugang in Boston in the spring of 1986, I saw that one of his large rooms was packed with bookshelves. He told me that the books had been donated to Chinese universities and had to raise freight to be shipped to China. "If you need it, try to get it yourself. So-and-so at your school took a lot. Although it was difficult to obtain original books in foreign languages in China at that time, considering the high freight cost and the lack of professional books I needed, I refused his kindness. In fact, I already had a large bag of books that I couldn't take with me, so I did the shipping before I returned home.

In 2007, I became the director of Fudan University Library, and in the past few years, I have had contacts with many librarians at home and abroad, and I found that the biggest consistency of librarians is that no curator thinks that the money is enough, and no curator thinks that the house is enough. When I met with the executive deputy director of the Harvard University Library (the director is over ninety years old, courtesy, no matter what), he said that our library is too small to put new books on the shelves, "I have a building like your Wildner Library." Who knew she immediately said, "You probably haven't been to the Wilder Library in a long time!" You go and look, and even the hallways are piled with books. "Most U.S. university libraries have set up remote libraries to transfer books that are idle or have a low lending rate to alleviate the pressure on the libraries. Therefore, in addition to adhering to the principle of "zero copy", it is not easy to accept donations. After understanding these situations, the exchange relationship established between our library and foreign museums is to take what they need, rather than unilaterally donating books. I myself no longer take the initiative to donate books to foreign libraries, and at most give away one or two volumes of new books that the other party is estimated to have no time to order, or books that the other party does not have a collection after retrieving. The other party will gather my donated books in the collection and ask me to sign them as a souvenir.

As the director of the library has been long, I understand better that in addition to the lack of money and lack of room, the librarian of China has more difficulties and embarrassments when dealing with donated books and periodicals.

The first is the standard of reception. Domestic official publications are naturally not a problem, but informal or foreign publications are troublesome. From time to time, authors send their own informal publications or send them in person, provided that they are issued with a certificate of donation. Originally, the university library should be eclectic, the more the merrier, the more people sent books, and a donation certificate or thank-you letter should also be completely deserved. But some donors will use this as evidence to prove the value and status of their publications, which have been collected by the Fudan University Library, and even ask me to take a photo with him as proof. If such publications are simply of poor quality, or useless, or a waste of library space, my life as a librarian is not good if they do not conform to mainstream values or are politically incorrect.

In 2004, Mr. Ma Daren, an international senior librarian who has presided over a number of American and European oriental libraries, launched the "Book Donation China Program" in the United States after his second retirement, collecting duplicate books from American libraries and privately donated books to be shipped to China and sent to Chinese university libraries. When I last received Mr. Ma, he was nearly ninety years old, but he was still in good spirits and warm and touching. He has led a group of 70- and 80-year-old people and volunteers to transport hundreds of thousands of books from dozens of containers to China. But both of us have encountered insurmountable difficulties, and Mr. Ma's noble goals and good intentions have become somewhat elusive. In the United States, most professors are willing to donate their books after retirement, and their families and children are willing to donate their books after their death, but they do not have the time and energy to sort out and classify, let alone compile a list. Libraries are happy to donate replica books, but generally do not have the funds to pack and transport them, or to catalog them specifically. Mr. Ma and his colleagues did their best, including personally packing and sorting, mobilizing children to donate, and only from the professor's home or library to collect and pack and transport these books from the professor's home or library, unable to do any clean-up and classification. After arriving in China, you have to declare to the customs, and a few of the books are prohibited from being imported. It costs money to return it, and no one receives it, so it can only be destroyed. Some of the books that can be imported have no use value, such as some old books in applied disciplines, broken and damaged books, etc. With the increase in the purchase of original books in foreign languages by university libraries, more foreign books are translated and published in China, and some books that could have been used have become copies, and even if they are not charged, libraries have to consider the cost of storage space and collection. Therefore, in addition to the books donated by the directional donation are shipped back by the receiving unit after customs declaration, other books can only be stored in Qingdao, so that the libraries interested in accepting can choose by themselves, and the selected books pay a cost fee of eight yuan per book (customs declaration, warehousing, etc.). Coupled with the travel expenses of personnel and the freight of books, the final cost of each book will be higher, and these books have become tasteless and discarded chicken ribs.

A few years ago, a long-retired employee of the museum asked for a few ancestral books to buy, and he offered a very low price, just to scrape together a sum of money to pre-buy a cemetery for himself. I asked the Ministry of Ancient Books to check the market price, which was much higher than the price he asked, and suggested that he not sell it to us, but he did not want to. He said that the books should be donated to the library, but he was really hungry for the money to buy a cemetery, so he wanted to sell some money, but he would never sell them to the market. I don't think we can take advantage of the urgency of buying his books at such a low price, and we should solve his practical difficulties while fulfilling his desire to donate. With the support of the school, we accepted his donation and at the same time gave him a bonus. Although the amount of the bonus exceeded his expectations, it was still much lower than the market price.

Not all donations are so beautiful, some are ridiculous. Once I saw a batch of books in the library, donated by the family of a deceased professor. I flipped through it, and there were no decent books, some of which were outdated study materials. It turned out that the family had picked out most of the professor's suicide note and donated it to other departments, which were leftovers. I criticized the employees involved for why they received such a batch of books without approval, and when the waste paper disposal also increased our workload. This may not be in line with the professor's last wishes, but because he did not deal with it before his death, outsiders were helpless and did not know the inside story, which actually damaged his reputation.

In the libraries of universities at home and abroad, I have seen some libraries or special collections left by famous professors and scholars, which contain their complete collections of books, including their manuscripts, letters, diaries, notes, photographs, stationery and souvenirs. I understand that there are about three situations: some are donated by myself or my family free of charge, some are purchased by the library or a certain fund, and some are collected through various channels. I am very envious, although there are many famous professors, first-class scholars, and bibliophiles in the history of Fudan University, we have not yet been able to set up such a library or special collection in our library. But I am also worried, if such an opportunity arises in the future, will the university and the library have a suitable place, sufficient funds and specialized personnel to build and maintain it? On the other hand, if there is a situation of "oversupply", or if someone does not have the strength to set up a library or build a special collection for themselves, is there a sound evaluation system to identify or have sufficient reasons to refuse?

I would also like to say to my fandom, who is rich in books: it is best to make a clear decision before you die to implement the fate of your own collection. Those who are willing to donate are as unconditional as Professor Shi Jianya, rather than using these books as their souvenirs. If you want to sell, you can make a straightforward offer, and if you can't afford it, you can sell it to someone else. As long as it is not a cultural relics that are prohibited from being exported, if donated to foreign countries can play a greater role, they can be donated to foreign countries, and if they cannot be sold in their own countries, they may as well be sold to foreign countries, or strive to sell for a good price. In short, if you want your collection to continue to play the role of books, let them be unconditionally handed over to the library like other books. If you want to treat your own collection of books as a commodity, you can put them on the market and get benefits in a fair way. As for whether these books are enough cultural relics and whether they can be used as souvenirs by future generations, it is still up to future generations to decide.

"Slow Thoughts"

Author: Ge Jianxiong

Publisher: Guangxi Normal University Press

Publication date: February 2022

About the author

Ge Jianxiong, born in 1945 in Huzhou, Zhejiang, is a professor at Fudan University, a member of the Department of History of the Social Science Committee of the Ministry of Education, and a librarian of the Central Research Museum of Literature and History. He is especially proficient in the fields of historical geography and population history, and is the author of "Population Geography of the Western Han Dynasty", "History of the Development of Chinese", "Unification and Division: Enlightenment of Chinese History", "Changes in China's Successive Dynasties", "Yellow River and Chinese Civilization", etc., and the editor-in-chief is "History of Chinese Immigration" and "History of Chinese".

What this book is about

This book contains articles written by Ge Jianxiong in recent years, covering a wide range of topics. The book is divided into four chapters. In the two chapters of "Discussing the Past and discussing the present" and "Historical Geography", the author analyzes the origins and relationships between Chinese geography, history, culture, and characters and modern China in a simple and simple way, and also has rational thinking about social hotspots. In the chapter "Scholars' Books", the author looks back on the past, expresses his respect and gratitude for the teachers and friends, and shares what he saw and heard during his tenure as librarian. In the chapter "Book Preface Memories", the author selects some of the articles that embody new ideas in the old works, and then traces the memories of the old times, talks about the experiences in daily life, and tells the taste of life with a relaxed and witty brushstroke.

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