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Ching-chih Chen (born 1937) is an educator, administrator, consultant, and speaker in the field of digital information management and technology. After her 10-year administrative experience, and 49-year teaching, research, consulting and speaking activities, she became professor emeritus of
Simmons College Institutions of learning called Simmons College or Simmons University include: * Simmons University, a women's liberal arts college in Boston, Massachusetts * Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black college in Louisville, Kentucky * Har ...
in June 2010, and president of Global Connection and Collaboration, Inc., a non-profit tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization.


Education

Ching-chih Chen was born in
Gulangyu Island The Gulangyu, Gulang Island or Kulangsu is a pedestrian-only island off the coast of Xiamen, Fujian Province in southeastern China. A UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, the island is about in area, and is reached by an 8-minute ferry ride fro ...
, Fukien Province, on the southeastern coast of China, to a family that prioritized education. Her father was an economics professor who died when Chen was a young child. She moved with her mother to Taiwan in 1949 shortly before the Communist takeover of the mainland where she completed her elementary and secondary schooling. As a
Rotary Scholar Rotary International offers a number of scholarships worldwide for periods of 3 months, 6 months, 1 year and 2 years. Ambassadorial Mission The purpose of the Ambassadorial Scholarships, Ambassadorial Scholarship was to further international unde ...
, she attended the National Taiwan University, where she received a B.A. degree in foreign literature and language in 1959. As a Barbour Scholar, Chen went on to receive an A.M.L.S. Degree from the
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
in 1961. After graduation she worked as a librarian on campus and took undergraduate classes in mathematics. She received a Ph.D. in Information Science from
Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...
in 1974 with the late Prof.
Philip M. Morse Philip McCord Morse (August 6, 19035 September 1985), was an American physicist, administrator and pioneer of operations research (OR) in World War II. He is considered to be the father of operations research in the U.S. Biography Morse graduat ...
of MIT as her Ph.D. Supervisor on
operations research Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve deci ...
with data from the
Countway Library of Medicine The Boston Medical Library (est. 1875) of Boston, Massachusetts, was originally organized to alleviate the problem that had emerged due to the scattered distribution of medical texts throughout the city. It has evolved into the "largest academic ...
of
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
.


Administrative and academic career

Prior to July 1971, Chen held administrative positions at various organizations, including the
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
, head of Science Library at McMaster University (1963–64), head of Engineering, Mathematics and Science Library at University of Waterloo (1965–1968), and associate head librarian at MIT Science Library (1968–1971). Chen moved to Canada in the summer of 1962. After working briefly at the Windsor Public Library she accepted a position at the
McMaster University Library McMaster University Library is the academic library system for the faculties of McMaster Faculty of Humanities, Humanities, McMaster Faculty of Social Sciences, Social Sciences, McMaster Faculty of Engineering, Engineering, McMaster Faculty of Sci ...
as a reference librarian and, within six months, was promoted to the head of the engineering and science library. In September 1964 Chen started work as a senior reference librarian at the University of Waterloo. In July 1965, after holding an appointment as the supervising librarian, Chen was named head of the engineering, science and math library. She joined
Simmons College Institutions of learning called Simmons College or Simmons University include: * Simmons University, a women's liberal arts college in Boston, Massachusetts * Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black college in Louisville, Kentucky * Har ...
Graduate School of Library and Information Science as an assistant professor in 1971 and retired in June 2010, after a 39-year teaching and research career. She was full professor from 1979 to 2010, and also associate dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science from 1979 to 1998. Her focus throughout her academic career was in the areas of
information management Information management (IM) concerns a cycle of organizational activity: the acquisition of information from one or more sources, the custodianship and the distribution of that information to those who need it, and its ultimate disposal throug ...
, new
information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...
applications, and international librarianship. Since 1985 her focus has been digital humanities, optical technology,
digital media Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...
,
multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...
technologies, and web-based development related to global digital libraries, archives, and museums. Between 1980 and 2010, she offered more than 60 continuing education institutes at Simmons College and about 50 globally in more than two dozen countries, including Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cuba, Finland, Germany, India, Israel, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, and UK Chen's interdisciplinary career attracted collaborators from many subject areas, including computer science, photography, chemistry, art, and humanities.


First Emperor of China

Since the mid-1980s, Chen's research has focused on developing
multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...
applications for educational purposes. Her work includes the production of the award-winning interactive multimedia videodisc (1985)The Cindy Competitions - Cinema in Industry, Previous CINDY Winners.
Retrieved 7 November 2011.
and multimedia CD (1991) by the
Voyager Company The Voyager Company was a pioneer in CD-ROM production in the 1980s and early 1990s. In partnership with Janus Films, the company published The Criterion Collection, a pioneering home video collection of classic and important contemporary films on ...
, entitled ''The First Emperor of China'' (
Qin Shi Huang Qin Shi Huang (, ; 259–210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of a unified China. Rather than maintain the title of "king" ( ''wáng'') borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Emperor ( ...
Di ()), supported by the U.S.
National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
(NEH) as part of her project entitled PROJECT EMPEROR-I. The videodisc and CD provide interactive access to images, videos and descriptive information about the 7,000 lifesize figures of terra cotta warriors and horses found in the archeological excavations near
Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by #Name, other names, is the list of capitals in China, capital of Shaanxi, Shaanxi Province. A Sub-provincial division#Sub-provincial municipalities, sub-provincial city o ...
, China, in March 1974.Chen, Ching-chih, "The First Emperor of China's ancient world uncovered: From Xian to your electronic screen," ''Academic Computing'' 3 (7): 10-14, 54-57 (March 1989). ''The First Emperor of China'' CD was voted one of the 50 Best CD-ROMS by ''MacUser'' in 1979. Chen's Project was written up by authors in various computer and videography publications including ''Multimedia Solutions'', ''Computerworld Special Report'', and in Library and Humanities Literature such as the Library of Congress ''Gazette'', ''Visual Resources'', and ''Library Journal''. It was the lead cover article in ''Academic Computing'' in March, 1989. In 1992, ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' highlighted her work in their Information Technology Section. ''The First Emperor of China'' was one of three university projects selected for inclusion in Sun MicroSystems’ brochure for worldwide distribution to higher education and research institutions. It was also chosen for debut presentation at the TECH 2000 Preview Reception at the new TechWorld Plaza, Washington D.C. in 1990, in the company of Robert Abel's multimedia version of Picasso's
Guernica Guernica (, ), official name (reflecting the Basque language) Gernika (), is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the mu ...
,
National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, and ...
's "GTV," "Ice Run," and "Mandala Systems;" and it was included in a Museum Exhibit at The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio. The Visual Almanac (a videodisc with a set of 20 floppy disks with HyperCard programs) produced by the Multimedia Group of
Apple Computer, Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...
includes contributions from PROJECT EMPEROR-I. PROJECT EMPEROR-I has also contributed to the CD-ROM and Videodisc Samplers for Higher Education, produced by Apple Computer, Inc. in the beginning of 1990.


Information Technology Advisory Committee

With an Executive Order, Chen was appointed by President Clinton in February 1997 to serve as a member of the U.S. President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC). As a PITAC member serving under both Presidents Clinton and Bush between 1997 and December 2002, she co-chaired the PITAC Subcommittee on International Issues, and was a member of the PITAC Subcommittees on Next Generation Internet (NGI) and IT*2 Initiative Review; and Panels on Digital Divide, Digital Library, Learning of the Future, Individual Security, and others. She also chaired the PITAC's activity on Digital Divide for Smaller Institutions.


Digital Library Development

Chen's work in multimedia led her to work toward developing global digital knowledge bases and digital global information sharing. As early as 1993, she introduced her global digital library concept as the central theme of her keynote speech in Taipei, Taiwan at the International Conference on National Libraries – Towards the 21st Century. Chen's PITAC involvement led her to work toward universal access of digital information, and she collaborated from 2001 to 2008 with the co-chair of PITAC, Prof.
Raj Reddy Dabbala Rajagopal "Raj" Reddy (born 13 June 1937) is an Indian-American computer scientist and a winner of the Turing Award. He is one of the early pioneers of artificial intelligence and has served on the faculty of Stanford and Carnegie Mello ...
of Carnegie Mellon University, as the Co-Principal Investigator of the China-US
Million Book Project The Million Book Project (or the Universal Library) was a book digitization project led by Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science and University Libraries from 2007–2008. Working with government and research partners in India (Dig ...
which he initiated. Chen made her proposal to the
National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
(NSF) / International Digital Library Projects (IDLP) in 2001, and has led two major NSF Projects since then: (1) Global Memory Net and (2) International Collaboration to Advance User-oriented Technologies for Managing and Distributing Images in Digital Libraries. Global Memory Net, launched for public access in July 2007, is a global image digital library and gateway to the world's cultural, historical, and heritage multimedia resources, with collaborators from different parts of the world. The system for this project was modified and enhanced for the development of World Heritage Memory Net in partnership with
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage Centre (WHC), which provides instant multimedia and multilingual access to all
World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
s inscribed by UNESCO WHC.


American Library Association

Throughout the years, Chen has been active in professional associations such as The
American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...
(ALA),
Library Information Technology Association The Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) was a division of the American Library Association (ALA), focusing on the intersections of libraries and information technology. Founded in 1966 and headquartered in Chicago, LITA was diss ...
(LITA), American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), and the
Association for Library and Information Science Education Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...
(ALISE). In 1995, Chen became the first Asian American formally nominated by the American Library Association as a presidential candidate, and was named by ''Avenue Asia'' as one of the “500 Most Influential Asian Americans in the US.”


Personal life

Chen met Dr. Sow-Hsin Chen in 1959 while both were studying at the University of Michigan. They married in 1961 and moved to Canada the following summer where Chen worked briefly at the Windsor Public Library while her husband completed his doctorate at McMaster University before taking a position at the McMaster University Library. Together they raised two daughters and one son.


Consulting and speaking

Chen has been a consultant to organizations in more than two dozen countries, including: * Foundations and Trusts (
J. Paul Getty Trust The J. Paul Getty Trust is the world's wealthiest art institution, with an estimated endowment of US$7.7 billion in 2020. Based in Los Angeles, California, it operates the J. Paul Getty Museum, which has two locations—the Getty Center in the ...
,
Soros Foundation Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is a grantmaking network founded and chaired by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with a sta ...
) * International Organizations (UNESCO, U.S. Information Agency/ U.S. Information Services,
World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
,
World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
) * National Organizations (
Chinese Academy of Science The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republic ...
Library, China Digital Library Project, Hong Kong Digital Library Program, National Science Council of Taiwan, United States National Library of Medicine,
NASA Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late U ...
, Lavra National Museum of Ukraine,
Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi is a premier government-funded arts organization in India. It is an autonomous institute under the Union Ministry of Culture (India), Ministry of Culture. History The Indira Ga ...
, India) * Universities (University of Toronto, Oberlin College, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, and in China: Beijing Normal University, Tsinghua University in Beijing, Tianjian Medical College, University of Hainan) * Non-profit Organizations (National Geographic Society, OCLC Global Digital Initiative) Over the years she has been a keynote and/or invited speaker to many international, regional and national conferences in over 40 countries.


Conferences

Chen initiated a series of 12 International Conferences on New Information Technology (NIT) from 1987 to 2001 in different parts of the world (Bangkok, Thailand 1987; Singapore 1989; Guadalajara, Mexico 1990; Budapest, Hungary 1991; Hong Kong 1992; Puerto Rico 1993; Alexandria, VA, US, 1994; Riga, Latvia 1995; Pretoria, South Africa 1996; Hanoi, Vietnam 1998; Taipei, Taiwan 1999; Beijing, China 2001. Papers and discussions from these meetings were all formally published as proceedings or books. The outcome of NIT '99 (Taipei) and NIT'2001 (Beijing) are the two-volume books related to the development of Global Digital Libraries – ''IT and Global Digital Library Development'' (1999) and ''Global Digital Library Development in the New Millennium: Fertile Ground for Distributed Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration'' (2001). Chen was co-Chair of the 4th ACM/IEEE
Joint Conference on Digital Libraries The Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL) is an annual international forum focusing on digital libraries and associated technical, practical, and social issues. It is jointly sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery and the IEEE ...
(JCDL) held in Tucson, Arizona in June 2004. She was on the advisory committee of DELOS Network of Excellence on Digital Libraries from 2002 to 2004, and served as US co-chair of the NSF/DELOS Work Group in Digital Imagery for Significant Cultural, Historical and Heritage Materials from 2001 to 2004.


Publications

Chen is the author/editor of more than 35 books and over 200 journal articles in areas of new information technologies, such as global digital libraries, multimedia technology, digital imaging, interactive videodisc technology, global information infrastructure, information management, and information resources. Aside from more recent web-based publications, her selected book publications among 25 some monographs include: :Chen, Ching-chih. ''Application of Operations Research Models to Libraries: A Case Study of the Use of Monographs in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1976. (Modified version of Chen's Ph.D. thesis.) :Chen, Ching-chih. ''Scientific and Technical Information Sources.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1977. :Chen, Ching-chih. ''Health Sciences Information Sources.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1981. :Chen, Ching-chih. ''Scientific & Technical Information Sources.'' 2nd edition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, January 1987. :Chen, Ching-chih, ed. ''Planning Global Information Infrastructure.'' Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1995. :Chen, Ching chih, ed. ''IT and Global Digital Library Development.'' Newton, MA: MicroUse Information, August 1999. :Chen, Ching chih, ed. ''Electronic Resources and Consortia.'' Taipei, Taiwan: Science and Technology Information Center, August 1999. :Chen, Ching chih, ed. ''Global Digital Library Development in the New Millennium: Fertile Ground for Distributed Cross Disciplinary Collaboration.'' Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, May 2001.


Awards and honors

Ching-chih Chen is a recipient of over forty awards since 1970. Among those are: :2008 – American Library Association
Beta Phi Mu Beta Phi Mu (also or βφμ) is the international honor society for library & information science and information technology. Founded by a group of librarians and library educators, the society's express purpose is to recognize and encourage "su ...
Award :2006 – LITA/OCLC Kilgour Award :2001 - American Association for Higher Education's Ernest A. Lynton Award for Faculty Professional Service :1997 - ALISE-Pratt/Severn National Faculty Award (first) :1996 – American Library Association Humphry/OCLC/Forest Press Award on International Achievement :1994 – Library Information Technology Association (LITA)/Library High Tech Award :1992 - Silver Medal of CINDY Award of the Association of Visual Communicators, for Voyager's version of The First Emperor of China videodisc :1990 - LITA/Gaylord Award for Achievement in Library and Information Technology :1985 - Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Chen is the recipient of Distinguished Alumni Awards from her three Alma Maters (National Taiwan University, University of Michigan, Case Western Reserve), and has served as an Honorary Professor of several universities, including
Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbreviation, abbr. THU) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Minis ...
and
Hainan University Hainan University (Hainan U or HNU; ), commonly referred to as Haida, is a national-provincial public comprehensive university in Haikou, Hainan, China. It is a comprehensive key university formed by a merger with the former South China Univers ...
, China.


Works cited

* Chen, Ching-chih. ''Applications of Operations Research Models to Libraries.'' School of Library Science, Case Western Reserve University, September, 1974. * Liu, Menqxiong. ''The History and Status of Chinese Americans in Librarianship.'' Summer, 2000. * ''The Impact of Technology on Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Library Collections,'' edited by R. N. Sharma. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2006. * ''Women of Color in Librarianship: An Oral History,'' ed. by Kathleen de la Pena McCook. Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 1999. * Lee, Hwa-Wei, "Ching-chih Chen: A Shining Star and Model of Chinese American Library and Information Science Professionals,” ''Bridging Cultures: Chinese American Librarians and their Organizations: A glance at the thirty years of CALA 1973–2003,'' Zhijia Shen, Liana, Hong Zhou, and Karen T. Wei, eds. Guilin, China: Guangxi Normal University Press, 2004. p. 9-25.


References


External links


Global Connection and Collaboration, Inc.
a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established by Ching-chih Chen in 2010.
World Heritage Memory Net
Chen's National Science Foundation / International Digital Library Project (IDLP) in partnership with the UNESCO's World Heritage Center and Simmons College, which officially launched in 2011.
Global Memory Net
Chen's National Science Foundation / International Digital Library Project (IDLP), which officially began in 2003. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Ching-Chih 1937 births Living people American librarians Simmons University faculty Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science National Taiwan University alumni University of Michigan School of Information alumni Case Western Reserve University alumni People from Xiamen Taiwanese people from Fujian Taiwanese emigrants to the United States Naturalized citizens of the United States Chinese Civil War refugees American librarians of Chinese descent