Experts from Taiwan and China are gathering in Taipei for a conference on the conservation of rare books.
The two-day conference kicked off at Taiwan’s National Central Library Monday. Taiwan’s National Palace Museum Director Feng Ming-chu and the head of the National Library of China, Han Yongjin, are giving keynote addresses at the conference. This is the first time in decades that the top libraries in Taiwan and China have cooperated.
Head of Taiwan’s National Central Library, Tseng Shu-hsien, said the library houses more than 12,000 rare books from the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Of these, 40 rare books have been declared national treasures. The National Central Library is working with the Library of Congress in the US, the University of Toronto Libraries in Canada, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France to digitize ancient texts and rare books. So far, more than 3,000 have been digitized.
The conference showcasing Taiwan’s achievements in rare book conservation has attracted libraries from more than ten countries.