The Library of Congress
Asian Division Friends Society
An Invitation to Join
We are very pleased to announce that the Friends Society of the Asian Division, the Library of Congress, has been established. We sincerely extend our invitation to you and hope that you would consider joining the Society as a founding member by signing up before April 27, 2004.
The first meeting of the Board of Directors of the Friends Society was held on January 20, 2004. The Board approved the By-laws of the Friends Society and elected Mr. Frank Joseph Shulman the President and Dr. Jeremy Wu the Vice-President. It was also decided that the first annual membership meeting would be held in the Library of Congress on April 27, 2004 from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The Asian publications and resources of the Asian Division are among the best in the world. Its holdings in the languages of every Asian country, totaling more than 2.5 million volumes, represent the premier collection of knowledge and creativity of the Asian peoples and cultures.
The purpose of the Friends Society is to foster a close relationship between all those who value the Asian Division's collections and services and the Asian Division itself. The advice of all members of the Friends Society will be of great importance in our effort to sustain the continuing growth of our comprehensive and world-renowned Asian collections of the Library of Congress. Your support of the Friends Society will help us to enhance the Asian collections and to initiate wonderful new opportunities and programs such as establishing a new digitization lab, promoting outreach activities, creating a number of Asian librarian internships, and developing cooperative programs with Asian libraries.
We are in the process of creating the website <www.lcasianfriends.org> for the Friends Society. This site will serve as the main communication hub for our global network of members, allowing us to timely notify you of events, permitting members to voice any concern or just to simply ask a question.
As of this writing, I am very pleased to share some of the good news with you. One of our honorary board directors, Dr. Daniel K. C. Shao in Hong Kong, has pledged $10,000 to become a Benefactor and Life Member of the Friends Society. Another honorary board director, Mme. Anna Chennault, also pledged a generous gift.
Enclosed is a brochure outlining the various membership categories. Your participation in the Friends Society is very important to the Asian Division. We look forward to seeing you at the first annual membership meeting on April 27, 2004.
Sincerely,
Hwa-Wei Lee
Chief, Asian Division