Amb. Wang (left) with Director-general Tseng (middle) and Dr. Piazzoni.
On October 29, 2014, National Central Library (NCL)’s Director-general Shu-shien Tseng and Deputy Director of the Vatican Library Dr. Ambrogio Maria Piazzoni signed a Memorandum of Understanding as a first step to a broader future collaboration between these two outstanding institutions for higher learning and research. The intent of this cooperation is to build a resource platform for promoting Chinese studies.
The agreement was witnessed by Ambassador Larry Wang, who recalled the Chinese cataloguing system sponsored by the ROC Government in favour of the Pontifical Urbaniana University (PUU) so that its Library could become one of the leading academic institutions in holding classified Chinese books and materials. He also invited Dr. Piazzoni to Taiwan to visit National Central Library’s innovative reader services.
Dr. Piazzoni, on his part, welcomed this initiative as a way to make the rich Chinese collection of ancient books housed in the Vatican Library available to those readers and scholars who are interested. Director-general Tseng, on her part, thanked the Vatican institution for their willingness in establishing, in the future, a database for Chinese study materials involving the digitization of ancient Chinese manuscripts to further promote international scholarly exchanges. She also conveyed her appreciation to Ambassador Larry Wang for his active commitment in the education field and his relentless efforts in spreading Taiwan Chinese studies.
NCL began actively working with leading academic and Chinese studies institutions all over the world to establish a Taiwan Resource Center for Chinese Studies (TRCCS) with the aim of expanding resources in Taiwan Chinese Studies as well as broadening the exchanges between Taiwan and scholars and researchers abroad.
