James Neal, University Librarian, and Amy V. Heinrich, Director of the C.V. Starr East Asian Library, accepted the books on behalf of Columbia University Libraries. Xiaobo Lu, Director of Columbia's Weatherhead East Asian Institute, said that the community of users of Chinese books at Columbia was grateful for the addition to the library.

Dr. Heinrich accepted the collection of books, videotapes, and CD-ROMs with gratitude and explained to the Consul General, "Starr Library began with a donation of the great Qing Encyclopedia 'Tu shu ji cheng' from the Empress Dowager of China at the beginning of the 20th Century. It is very fitting that we are beginning the library's second century with a donation of books from the People's Republic of China." She continued, "We hope to continue and develop our connections with the people of China in this next century."

Dr. Wang and his colleague Ms. Liu spoke with Mr. Neal in January 2003 about digital library development in the United States, and his views on its future course, with a view to learning from Columbia's experience in the development of digital library resources in the People's Republic of China.

The C. V. Starr East Asian Library is one of the major collections for the study of East Asia in the United States, with well over 730,000 volumes of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan, and Western language materials, with some holdings in Mongol and Manchu, and over 5,500 periodical titles. The collection, established in 1902, is particularly strong in Chinese history, literature, and social sciences; Japanese literature, history, and religion, particularly Buddhism; and Korean history. The library's web site is located at: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/eastasian/.

Columbia University Libraries is one of the top ten academic library systems in the nation, with 7.5 million volumes, 49,000 serials, as well as extensive collections of electronic resources, manuscripts, rare books, microforms and other non-print formats. The collections and services are organized into 22 libraries, supporting specific academic or professional disciplines. The Library's web site at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/ is a gateway to the print and electronic collections and to services.