Tze-chung Li

The earliest Chinese American pioneer in library science education is Dr. Tze-chung Li, scholar, teacher, lawyer, writer and former Dean of Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University. For the last fifty years, Dr. Li has held many important positions in Taiwan including the judge, the Examination Commissioner and the Director of the National Central Library, and has taught and lectured at numerous U.S. and international universities. During the years, he has made significant accomplishments in the field of library and information education and became an undisputed leader in librarianship and among Chinese American librarians. Dr. Li was the first and the only Chinese American scholar who became the Dean of a library school in this country. He is also a prolific writer who has published 18 books and more than 100 articles in the fields of library and information science, law, land economics and political science. Among the books, A Guide to Chinese Reference Sources (co-author: In-lan Wang, 1972), An Introduction to Online Searching (Greenwood Press, 1985), and Social Science Reference Sources (Greenwood Press, 1980, 1990, and 2000) are popular textbooks. In addition to his own publications, Dr. Li was the founding editor of the Journal of Library and Information Science, and a member of the advisory board for the Journal of Information, Communication and Library Science. Dr. Li also helped created the professional journals and series, including International Journal of Reviews in library and Information Science (now World Libraries) and Guide to Asian Librarianship Series (Greenwood Press). Among his numerous accomplishments, the founding of the Chinese American Librarians Association was his notable achievement. His tireless effort in promoting library education and Chinese American librarianship has won him great honors, including the Dominican University Elise O. and Philip D. Sang Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the CALA Distinguished Service Award.

In addition to his domestic professional activities, Dr. Li is very active in international teaching and research. He has been invited to be the visiting professor of National Taiwan University, Peking University, East China Normal University, Zhejiang University and Suzhou University. He is also the honorary professor of Jiangxi University. No matter at home or abroad his tireless teaching effort and well-prepared lectures always received the high evaluations from his students. He is widely recognized as "ardent, trustworthy and erudite Dr. Tze-chung Li" Recently, Dr. Li announced his retirement in January 2000. In recognition of his long-standing commitment to the University and his distinguished career, Dominican University announced that Dr. Li would be named Dean and Professor Emeritus. (From Mengxiong Liu, "The History and Status of Chinese Americans in Librarianship", Library Trends, v. 49, n. 1 , 2000).

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