The oldest surviving civilization on earth, China may have built up the world’s earliest archives. In a sense, China’s tradition to maintain archives has been one of the defining characteristics of the Chinese civilization. But the way archives are managed today in China may also be the most backward in the world. Huge archives of immense historical value can be left unattended or little cared for. Whether cared for or not, the archives are more often than not jumbled, making it difficult if not impossible for researchers to search.

This situation first pained me in my childhood, when I roamed around in the library where my mother has been working all her life. Eager to learn, I spent long hours sifting through the books and materials, where were only catalogued on little cards. While I enjoyed reading there, I often could not help feeling frustrated sometimes, because I could not find the books and materials I wanted to read. The arduous process of searching for the books I wanted instilled in me a strong desire to help find a way to simplify and automate the organization of the country’s copious information materials, including the huge archives.

Hence my decision to study information science at the university. In fact, to prepare myself for, I had trained myself in word processing technologies and computer programming, particularly using the Basic language. Although I major in archive management in my undergraduate studies, the courses I have taken cover a full range of courses of computer science offered by the university’s computer science department. The courses, combined with my own self-study efforts, have made me a skillful computer programmer, as evidenced by my passage of the national computer test in 1997.

I am firmly convinced that archive management will have to be digitized to keep up with the demand of the times for information services. Although China began to keep archives more than 3,000 years ago, it has yet to catch up with the developed countries in terms of the quality of the archives it presents to the public. If China is to enter the 21 century technologically at par with other countries. Its archiving of information will have to take new formats and achieve higher speed. It will also have to find cost-effective and easily accessible ways to archive new forms of documents and materials, such as electronic records. I am determined to blaze new trails in the very old profession.

To the extent possible, I have focused my studies and research on electronic archiving. In collaboration with my advisor, I have written earlier this year an article o the management of electronic records, published in ARCHIVES PERIODICAL, the flagship journal for China’s archives experts. My graduation paper, titled “…”, is also a study on archiving electronic records. The paper has been quoted in a textbook on office automation. I am currently translating a book concerning electronic records by David Bearman, an American scholar, and plan to publish at the end of 1998. A child of an old civilization in a new era, I have witnessed dramatic technological changes in the modern society, and I consider it my duty to help transform my country’s archiving system. I therefore wish to undertake further and more advanced studies in this area.

To prepare myself for advanced studies, I have not confined myself to learning from my teachers and the textbooks. Whenever possible, I have tried to obtain hands-on experience in the real world. For most of my summer in the last few year, I worked as an assistant librarian in the Shengyang library, the most important public domain of information for one of country’s most industrialized provinces. Such working experience has significantly deepened my understanding of the needs of the country’s information industry and honed my skills in solving real problems.

As I look into the 21st century, I expect to bring new technologies to China’s very ancient expertise of archiving its history, social, technological and otherwise. Whether I can actually do this depends to a large extent on whether I can undertake advanced education in a quality graduate program like yours. By accepting me, you will not only train another student but also train an expert who can introduce new concepts and new technologies to an old country for the benefit of its equally ancient tradition of archive keeping. The days may not be long when China can define itself with not only old archives but also new ways of archiving.