Inside the World’s Major East Asian Collections examines the rise of the “LAM,” an acronym that stands for libraries, archives and museums. In doing so, this book profiles leading experts—librarians, archivists and museum curators—who specialise in East Asian collections from across the world. In examining the dynamically shifting role of the cultural institution in the context of managing information and collections, this book provides important themes offered by these cultural experts in understanding the necessary professional skills, knowledge and personalities that are required for working in such environments of varying size, scope and composition in LAMs. As galleries, LAMs manage preservation and access of history and culture, and their missions and goals as cultural institutions continue to converge.

As collecting institutions, LAMs share the common mandate to preserve and make accessible primary resources valuable for researchers and professionals, as well as the public. LAMs are mostly publicly funded, publicly accountable institutions collecting cultural heritage materials. Another aim of this book is to enhance the visibility and recognise the efforts of the LAM professionals as cultural institution leaders, since much of their great contributions in the respective fields to preserving our cultural and documentary heritages have gone unnoticed outside their parent institutions.