National Science Foundation (NSF) East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes

We would like to bring to your attention a funding program available through the National Science Foundation (NSF), the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI). The EAPSI program offers U.S. graduate students in science and engineering a unique opportunity to study abroad with foreign researchers (in Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, or Taiwan) for 8 weeks during the summer. In 2008, the EAPSI awards will include a stipend of $5,000, an allowance for international travel, and support to attend a pre-departure orientation in Washington DC. Foreign co-sponsoring organizations will provide additional support to cover EAPSI students' living expenses abroad. For more information, see www.nsf.gov/eapsi.

Survey: Non-English information seekers' information needs

Not a native speaker of English? Wanna help a fellow grad student (at Rutgers) by answering a quick survey? I'm sure this person would help you. ...

Dear Colleague:

The purpose of this message is to request information from you on a topic of concern to many in our field: access to information written in non-English languages. I am a doctoral student in library and information science at Rutgers University working on my dissertation. My doctoral committee includes Professors Dan O'Connor (Chair), Carol Kuhlthau, Tefko Saracevic, and, from OCLC (Online Computer Library Center), Dr. Lynn Silipigni Connaway. My dissertation includes two different methods, an experiment and a survey. This request deals with the questionnaire for the survey component of my study.

The purpose of my study is to explore non-English information seekers' ’information needs and study their information seeking behavior, especially users who use information in non-Roman alphabet languages, such as Chinese, Japanese or Korean. It also includes exploring if new features are needed to improve cross-language access to bibliographic records in
Databases and Online Public Access Catalogs for non-English information seekers. Additionally, it will attempt to determine the appropriateness of the bibliographic record.

In the questionnaire, you will be asked some questions about your
experiences using information retrieval systems. You will be also asked to
evaluate bibliographic records which are taken from online databases and
online library catalogs. There are no correct answers to this
questionnaire. The answers will merely reflect your assessments of the
bibliographic records. Completing the questionnaire should take
approximately 15 to 25 minutes.

The results of this survey will be reported anonymously. The information
will be kept confidential by limiting individual's access to the research
data and keeping it in a secure location. The researcher, her advisor, and
the Institutional Review Board at Rutgers University are the only parties
that will be allowed to see the data, except as may be required by law. If
a report of this study is published, or the results are presented at a
professional conference, only group results will be stated, unless you
have agreed otherwise.

Here is the link. You can contribute this link to anyone who might be
interested in this area.


http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ahGKqYvKRhsFbNLVdr9Cgw_3d_3d


If you would like any information regarding this study, please feel free
to contact YooJin Ha or Professor Dan O'Connor by e-mail or phone.

Sincerely,

YooJin Ha
Ph.D. Candidate
School of Communication Information and Library Studies
Rutgers University
4, Huntington Street, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, U.S.A.
yha@scils.rutgers.edu

Phone/email for Professor Dan O'Connor: 732-932-7500 x8219
oconnor@scils.rutgers.edu

Other: USPS Eliminates Surface Mail for Overseas Shipping (Sign Petition!)

As Becky wrote in a message to the list, "This is important for anyone who will be shipping books internationally from the US. The shipping rates have skyrocketed due to the elimination of surface mail (and M-bags in particular). Members of the H-ASIA listserv have started a petition to challenge the Postal Service's decision. If interested, please feel free to sign this online petition."

-------

"US POSTAL SERVICE ELIMINATES SURFACE SHIPPING OUTSIDE THE US: Many of you have generously collected and shipped critically important books (M Bags), school, medical, and craft supplies to ----. There is no other method of shipping items [outside the USA] other than by post--or personal delivery by a traveler. In the recent postal rate hike--the USPS has eliminated all surface and therefore 'reasonable' cost shipping outside the US. I was astounded when I presented an "M" Bag of science books at the Post Office to be told that my 30 pound box would not cost $30 but would cost $167 instead!

A group of individuals and organizations conducting various types of aid efforts around the world have been hit hard by this change and have banded together to try to find a way to accomplish our mission statements. ... [We hope to alert other interested parties regarding the problems resulting from ]the loss of the "M" Bag and small packet surface shipments outside the US."

For more information contact Shannon Brown and Lance Cole at
zikomo@easystreet.com
http://www.petitiononline.com/zikomo/petition.html

$$$: Scholarships for International Study Newsletter

The Graduate College fellowship office has just completed Volume 3, Issue 2 of the Scholarships for International Study Newsletter. The publication includes notes and tips from some of our scholarships alum as well as listings of this year’s winners and deadlines for the upcoming year. Our July issue may be accessed online at http://www.ips.uiuc.edu/scholarship/07%20July%20Issue.doc
or from our home page at http://www.ips.uiuc.edu/scholarship/

fyi: Google search inside this book--Now available in Japanese

Perhaps you've already discovered that books.google.com is a great way to search the content of books for key words (especially books that are poorly indexed or not indexed at all). If this is new to you, take a look at the right sidebar in the picture. As you may know, Google has worked with some major university and public libraries to scan millions of books. Most of them only allow for a limited preview, but that's generallylly enough to find what you're looking for, assuming you've got the book in hand.

Now, at long last, this is available in Japanese! Voila: books.google.co.jp. According to this Asahi Shinbun article, only a few tens of thousands of books are available so far, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

$$$: Florence Tan Moeson Fellowship program (US Library of Congress)

The Asian Division of the Library of Congress is pleased to announce the annual Florence Tan Moeson Fellowship (URL: http://www.loc.gov/rr/asian/FTM.html). This fellowship is made possible by the generous donation by Mrs. Florence Tan Moeson, a former cataloger in the Chinese Team of the Regional and Cooperative Cataloging Division for 45 years.

The purpose of the fellowship is to provide individuals with the opportunity to pursue research on East, Southeast, and/or South Asia (including the overseas Asian communities), using the unparalleled collections of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The grants are for a minimum of five business days of research and are to be used to cover expenses incurred while engaging in scholastic research at the Library of Congress, in the area of Asian studies (e.g., travel to and from Washington, overnight accommodations, photocopying). Up to 15 fellowships, with amounts varying from $300 to $2,500, will be awarded. Graduate students, independent scholars, community college teachers, researchers without regular teaching appointments, and librarians are especially encouraged to apply.

Further application details is described in the attached Florence Tan Moeson Fellowship brochure. Applications are accepted online only at http://lcasianfriends.org/application/index.php?sid=4 and must be submitted between June 1st and September 30th every year. The awards will be announced later in December.

Anchi Hoh, Ph.D.
Co-Chair
Florence Tan Moeson Fellowship Committee
The Asian Division
Library of Congress, LJ 150
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540-4810
Tel: (202) 707-5673
Fax: (202) 707-1724
Email: adia@loc.gov

FYI: Asian History Carnival has some useful online resources

Since I don't think many of you are reading the great blogs on Chinese, Japanese, and Korean history at Frog in a Well, I just wanted to point out that the 13th installment their on-going series "Asian History Carnival" was just published here, this time hosted on the blog Munnin.

In addition to reviewing things recently published online (well worth a skim), this month's author has added a list of resources. I'm pasting highlights below, but please check out the original post for more.

==================
Japanese War Crimes - The National Archives has recently published a book with a collection of introductory essays and produced a great finding aid to help researchers looking for records related to Japanese war crimes. You can download the PDFs directly online. ...

NARA on Google Video - Though this link is well known, if you are interested in Asian history, and especially World War II, there are a number of movies found in the national archive that have made their way to Google Video.

Memory and Reconciliation in the Asia Pacific - Weekly Media Update - The George Washington University project on Memory and Reconciliation in the Asia-Pacific has a weblog which lists recent English-langauge media articles related to historical issues in East Asia. ...

Chinese Text Initiative - The University of Virginia hosts a large collection of Chinese literature texts. [NB from James: They have many Japanese texts too, including a lot of classical literature!]

The XXth Century - The University of Hawaii has a digitized collection of the 1941-1945 issues of this fascinating Shanghai magazine. ...

eScholarship Texts - There are many popular history texts related to Asian history that are fully viewable online, including a number of well known books that can be found on the oral examination book lists of PhD students. Well worth a look. ...
==================

Other: Summer Inst. on Conducting Archival Research (19 Feb; 11-15 June; Wash DC)

Call for Applications
Summer Institute on Conducting Archival Research (SICAR)
at the George Washington University
June 11-15, 2007


Ph.D. students working on dissertations involving archival research (particularly in newly accessible archives) on topics related to modern history and international relations are invited to apply to the 5th annual Summer Institute on Conducting Archival Research (SICAR) at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. SICAR trains graduate students from multiple disciplines to maximize their research in archives and includes the following sessions:

--preparing to go to an archive and structuring time once there
--understanding how archival documents come to be written and deposited in
archives
--tackling the challenges of interpreting archival documents, including
issues of culture and foreign language

Applicants must submit the application form (found at www.ieres.org), a
two-page proposal indicating how they would benefit from SICAR, a CV, and
one letter of recommendation from a faculty member in their department.
The deadline for applications is February 19, 2007 and decisions will be
announced by March 1, 2007. Please send applications via e-mail to
sicar@gwu.edu (letters of recommendation can be sent via regular mail to:
The Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies; ATTN: SICAR;
1957 E St. N.W., Suite 412, Washington, DC 20052)

GWU will cover the costs of housing and meals, and accepted students can
apply for help with travel costs. For more information: (202)994-6342 or
sicar@gwu.edu. SICAR is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

$$$: Asian/Pacific Studies Institute and Perkins Library (Duke U)

Travel Grants
Asian/Pacific Studies Institute and Perkins Library
Duke University

The Asian/Pacific Studies Institute at the Duke University is offering
travel grants to scholars outside the Winston-Salem/Greensboro/Durham/
Chapel Hill/Raleigh area who wish to use the University's East Asian collection
for research during the 2006-2007 academic year. There will be six grants of
$500 each to cover travel, hotel and photocopy expenses. Applicants who
document how their research will benefit from access to the Duke Collection
and whose research will take advantage of its strengths will be given priority
consideration; secondary consideration will be given to applicants in the Southeast or
at institutions where there are no or few library resources in the East
Asian languages. The awards must be used before August 1, 2007.

The East Asian Collection at the Perkins Library consists of about
83,000 volumes in Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The collection is
especially strong in Japanese Studies, especially art history,
economics, the environment, history, literature, labor, political
science, popular culture, social movements and women's studies. Its
collections on China are more narrowly focused; it has strengths in
Chinese popular culture, film and TV studies, and statistical yearbooks.
For further information about the collection, please visit the web site
at http://www.lib.duke.edu/ias/eac/ or contact Kristina Troost, Head,
East Asian Collection and the Department of International & Area
studies, at kktroost@duke.edu or (919) 660-5844. For Chinese materials,
please contact Xi Chen, Interim Chinese Studies librarian, at
x.chen@duke.edu.

Applications for the grant, including a brief description of the
research topic and the type/subject of materials you are seeking, a
curriculum vitae, and an estimated budget, as well as any questions,
should be directed to the address below. Please be sure to identify the
sources in the Duke Collection you are planning to use.


Kristina Troost
Head, International and Area Studies
Librarian for Japan and Korea
Perkins Library
Box 90195
Duke University
Durham NC 27708-0195
919-660-5844
Fax: 919-668-3134
http://www.lib.duke.edu/ias/eac/eac.html

The NSF East Asia Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI) Program

The NSF East Asia Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI) Program provides U.S. graduate students in science and engineering 1) first-hand research experience in Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand or Taiwan; 2) an introduction to the science and science policy infrastructure of the respective location; and 3) orientation to the society, culture and language. The primary goals of EAPSI are to introduce students to East Asia and Pacific science and engineering in the context of a research laboratory, and to initiate personal relationships that will better enable them to collaborate with foreign counterparts in the future. The institutes last approximately eight weeks from June to August. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) co-sponsor the Summer Institute in Japan.

EAPSI changes for 2007
* New Zealand is added as an East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI) location.
* The Award amount has been amended to reflect the increase in the stipend amount to $4,000.
* Proposal preparation instructions have been clarified.
* Potential host institutions are expanded to include Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming and Xian.

Please refer to www.nsf.gov/eapsi