• Index of this issue

No. 58, March 2007

NCL Director Juang Fang-rung and European Economic and Trade Office's (EETO) Director Brian McDonald signed an agreement on September 26, 2006, to establish a European Union (EU) Information Center (EU i) at the NCL, reflecting the ever closer relationship between Taiwan and the EU.

This is the second such center to be established in Taiwan for the dissemination of information on Europe. The first was the European Documentation Centre, Taiwan, which opened at Tamkang University in 1979 to provide material for research use. Since that time, local interest in the study of European culture and affairs has grown dramatically in Taiwan, while the EU has placed growing importance on developing relations with Asia. Addressing both of these interests, the NCL met with EU representatives and proposed that an "EU i" be established at the library. The project won the approval of the European Commission aims to expand the storage and dissemination of EU documents and build new channel for communication between the EU and Taiwan. The center will also provide an invaluable resource for Taiwan's research community.

The NCL currently maintains a comprehensive collection of government publications from the U.S. Library of Congress and Japan's National Diet Library, as well as numerous publications of United Nations' agencies, the World Trade Organization, Asian Development Bank and other international organizations. Moreover, through exchange relations, the library has developed an extensive collection of government and non-government publications from around the world. With the designation of the NCL as a library of deposit for EU documents, the library will now be even better poised to serve the needs of readers and researchers in Taiwan. Among the EU documents to be deposited at the NCL are legislative documents, reports, government declarations, statistical material, records of debate, and promotional publications numbering between 30,000 and 40,000-plus volumes each month. After signing the cooperation agreement, the European Commission will first ship backdated publications to the NCL, with newer publications to follow. The library will set a date for inaugurating the "EU i once the publications have arrived at the NCL and are cataloged.  (Katie K.C. Su, National Central Library, Taiwan, R.O.C.)

EETO Director Brian McDonald (right) signed an agreement with the NCL Director General Juang Fang-rung
(Photo by Pinery S. Wu)