UW—Madison Chinese Collection Ranked Fifth in Quality Nationwide

A recent study conducted by Dr. Mingxing He, a Chinese publishing industry columnist, analyzed Chinese collections from over 20,000 libraries across 112 countries between 1949 and 2012. In his article entitled “A Solid Indication of the Influence of Chinese Publications Worldwide – Based on Data Analysis of Chinese Catalogs in OCLC WorldCat,” Dr. He identified the U.S. as number one in terms of collection quality. The ranking order is as follows: USA 183, Australia 21, Canada 15, Britain 8, Germany 6, France 6, Hong Kong 5, Singapore 3, Taiwan 3, Japan 2, Netherlands 2, Israel 2, Switzerland 1, and South Africa 1.

Dr. He then screened the top 62 university libraries’ Chinese collections in the United States.  The University of Wisconsin—Madison Chinese Collection is delighted to announce that they came in fifth place. What an honor!

Here’s how the top-ranked Chinese Collections stacked up:

The success of the collection can be attributed to the dedication and effort of the four China studies librarians who have worked to build the collection over the years. Congratulations to Chester Wang (1965 to 1997), Thomas Hahn (1998 to 2001), Victoria Chu (2002 to 2005), and Dianna Xu (2006 to present). Thank you for all your hard work!

Dr. He’s article can be accessed at http://www.bookdao.com/article/46574