Think Globally, Act Globally Grant Project Final Report

Abstract

The “Think Globally, Act Globally” grant project had two goals: 1) encouraging mutual understanding between librarians in the U.S. and China and promoting awareness of diversity to overcome cultural barriers for U.S. librarians in serving user communities; 2) enhancing communication between U.S. and Chinese librarians with a view to developing and disseminating resources that can be of use to the library community in the U.S. Both goals were met. The project carefully designed educational programs. Five different groups of Chinese librarians participated in the US programs learning about American libraries and services. Eight groups of US librarians travelled to China giving seminars on topics of library management and practice. The project also explored communication models with two Chinese libraries through developing a web portal for Chinese resources. The pilot portal found good open source software to share the Chinese cultural and historical materials.