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Sha Li Zhong, the Associate Dean for Collections & Technical Services at UNCG came with two librarians from China that are currently participating in their Visiting Scholars program on Thursday, Oct. 1. While Sha Li was meeting with Wanda, I was asked to show the Chinese librarians around. It was quite exciting for me, since I never met a librarian from China before.

They have only been in the States for a week, so they were extremely happy to be able to converse with me in Chinese. I started the tour from the ground floor – Starbucks. They were impressed with the coffee shop and started taking pictures. The manager came out right away and explained that it is against company policy to take pictures of their menu and their food. That was news to us. She explained that people steal their menu and recipes all the time, so they have to be careful.

Next to the all night study rooms, we toured the Rare Books department, Reference department, Circulation, Media Lab, stacks, more study rooms, and the atrium. The Rare Books Reading Room really blew them away; they were taken by the grandeur of the room. They liked the way we make use of the atrium. They told me that they have an atrium in their library too, but just a few chairs. The small group study rooms were a hit with them. Through the whole time, they were taking pictures and making comments about how they could transform their library with what they learned in ZSR.

I also showed them the library homepage. They were impressed by the pictures of new books and films. They also liked the Texting/Emailing/Citing/Putting Hold and Recall options for titles in the online catalog.

The walk to the Quad was nice. They thought our campus is beautiful and they wanted to take some souvenir home. However, after some long consideration, they gave up, because they are all made in China!

One of the best part of working with librarians from other institutions is we can exchange information and learn about each other’s practices – how they do overdues and ILL, etc. It was very interesting to find out that the professional librarians there get THREE months off! Two in the summer and one in the winter, when the school is not in session. “Who runs the library?” I asked. They informed me since there are so many of them – sixty, they each work five days in the summer to cover the operation. Now, that’s a good life! As if this was not enough to shock me, they told me that each librarian gets “heat compensation money” in the summer if they come in to work – about $25 each month. Not much, they said. I asked if the building is not air conditioned. They said that it is and the money is to cover their “stress” having to endure the heat while commuting to and from work. Having experienced the awful combination of heat and high humidity of subtropical climate, I can sympathize with that.

All and all, I thoroughly enjoyed the interaction with them. I believed they saw it as very beneficial and interesting, as did I.