June 18, 2003 Library of Congress Asian Division To Host Open House Program on July 12

The Asian Division of the Library of Congress will host an open house program from 2 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, July 12, in the Asian Reading Room, Room 105 of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. The event is free and open to the public. For reservations, contact Judy Lu at (202) 707-2385.

"The upcoming open house is one of many programs that the Asian Division has planned to reach out to ethnic communities in the Washington area," said Hwa-Wei Lee, chief of the Library's Asian Division. "Through events such as these, we hope to foster an appreciation for and use of the Library's Asian resources-the largest and most comprehensive outside of Asia."

The July 12 program will feature a display of selected items from the Library's Asian collection. Following a welcome by Lee, ethnomusicologist Nora Yeh of the Library's American Folklife Center will deliver a lecture on the instrumental music of China. Staff specialists will deliver briefings about the collection and demonstrate the Library's online resources, including the Portals of the World Web site featuring the Library's international collections.

The Library of Congress is a central repository for all types of Asian publications that are not broadly available at other locations in the United States. Initiated in 1869 with a gift of 10 works in 934 volumes offered to the United States by the Emperor of China, the Library's Asian collection has grown to more than 2 million items.