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26, 2005-St. Louis, Mo. On Saturday, November 12, St. Louis County
Library will open the doors to its new 2,000-square-foot Asian Center
housed at the Daniel Boone Library Branch, 300 Clarkson Rd., 636-227-9630,
with a dedication at 2:00 p.m. The much anticipated center will
hold books, periodicals, videos and reference materials specifically
for the Asian community. Most of the materials will be geared toward
Chinese patrons, since they constitute the largest Asian group in
West County. According to Ling Thumin, the Library's Asian Services
Coordinator, once the center becomes established, the collection
should expand to include materials geared toward other parts of
Asia.
Upon opening, the center will house 5,000 - 6,000 items. To start,
the largest part of the collection will be Chinese language books.
The collection will also include some English language books on
Asian subject matter and some bi-lingual books. In addition to
the books, some Chinese periodicals and reference materials will
be available, as well as a number of videos, including feature
films emanating from Asia, documentaries and Western films dubbed
into Chinese. About one fifth of the books at the center will
be for children, Ms. Thumin said. The adult books will include
fiction and non-fiction, must-read classics, biographies, self-help
books and translations of English language books into Chinese.
"The area has 500 families that have adopted Asian children,"
Ms. Thumin said. "The children's books and bi-lingual books
should be very helpful to them."
The center will have its own staff and circulation system as
well. Finally, three public computer terminals with Internet access
will be available.
Ms. Thumin said the center is part of an overall effort by the
Library to enhance Library services for the Asian community in
St. Louis County, which has also included the addition of a Chinese
periodicals database (accessible through the Library's website
at www.slcl.org) called Qikan and a number of bi-lingual computer
classes.
With 20 branches, St. Louis County Library serves more than 870,000
people within a 460-square-mile area with over 2 million cataloged
items. It is one of the largest circulating public libraries in
the country. The mission of St. Louis County Library is to support
and enhance the community by providing free and equal access to
ideas, information and opportunities for lifelong learning.
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