FEATURED AUTHOR

Vinh-The Lam

Librarian Emeritus
University of Saskatchewan, Canada

A teacher and librarian by training, Vinh-The Lam has held several teaching and library positions in South Vietnam before he emigrated to Canada in 1981. After having served in many government libraries, he joined the University of Saskatchewan Library in 1997, first as Head of Cataloging Department and then as Head of Technical Services Division. He retired from University of Saskatchewan with the rank of Librarian Emeritus in 2006.

Subjects: Area Studies, Asian Studies, History, Information Science, Military & Security Studies

Biography

Graduating from the Department of History and Geography, Faculty of Pedagogy, University of Saigon in 1963, Vinh-The Lam taught high schools for several years and then received a scholarship to go to the U.S. for librarianship training. In 1973, after his successful completion of the Master of Library Science program at Syracuse University, he came back to Vietnam and served as Head of the Library Science Department, Van Hanh University, until the fall of Saigon. In 1981, with his family, he emigrated to Canada. From 1981 on, he worked in the libraries and/or archives of several government agencies. Ten years before his retirement in 2006, he joined the University of Saskatchewan, serving as Head of the Cataloguing Department (1997-2000) and then Head of the Technical Services Division (2000-2003). He has authored a number of library science textbooks and a few dozens of research articles published in Vietnamese and foreign library science journals. He took retirement from the University of Saskatchewan in July 2006 with the rank of Librarian Emeritus.
Beside his activities in the library science field, Vinh-The Lam has not forgotten his first-selected field of his academic study: history and geography. He has, therefore, devoted a significant amount of his time to search and collect documents on the Vietnam War, especially for the period of the greatest political crisis of the Republic of Vietnam (1963-1967), which led to the U.S. Government’s decision to send combat troops to Vietnam in 1965. He researched secret documents of the CIA and the U.S. State Department which have been gradually declassified during the post-war years. He has written many research articles on that period of time, short but containing elements that determined the fate of South Vietnam in April 1975. His research work in this area has culminated in the publication of his scholarly work Republic of Vietnam, 1963-1967: Years of Political Chaos (Hamilton, Ontario: Hoai Viet, 2010; 295 pages). He is also the translator of The Price of Freedom: Exodus and Diaspora of Vietnamese People (Montréal: Sans Frontières, 2015; 344 pages). The 2nd edition of this book was recently published by Nguoi Viet Books (Westminster, California, USA), 2017, 468 pages. Recently, his English translation of the original Vietnamese-language book Những bằng chứng về chủ quyền của Việt Nam đối với hai quần đảo Hoàng Sa và Trường Sa, entitled Vietnam, Territoriality, and the South China Sea: Paracel and Spratly Islands has been published by Routledge in 2019. He is currently Project Director of the US-based non-profit non-government organization called The Library and Education Assistance Foundation for Vietnam (LEAF-VN), with a Website at: https://www.leaf-vn.org/english.html. He is also Vice-President for Internal Affairs of the Canada-based Bui Trong Chuong Scholarship Fund, which maintains a Website at: https://btc-fund.blogspot.com/2013/06/welcome.html, and provides scholarships to gifted but financially disadvantaged secondary school students in Vietnam.

Education

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Books

Featured Title

Articles

Vụ ám sát dân biểu Trần Văn Văn ngày 7-12-1966

Published: Feb 28, 2019 by Nam Kỳ Lục Tỉnh
Authors: Vinh-The Lam
Subjects: History, Area Studies, Asian Studies

This article recounts the assassination of Mr. Trần Văn Văn, a member of the Republic of Vietnam's Constituent Assembly on December 7, 1966 in Saigon.

Thủ Đức: xưa và nay

Published: Jan 30, 2019 by Tập-san Việt-Học Journal
Authors: Vinh-The Lam
Subjects: Geography , History, Area Studies

This article provides a detailed historical and cultural description of Thủ Đức, formerly a district of the Gia Định Province, now a district of Hồ Chí Minh City.

ÐaKao: một trung tâm văn hóa

Published: Jan 25, 2019 by Tập-san Việt-Học Journal
Authors: Vinh-The Lam
Subjects: History, Anthropology - Soc Sci, Area Studies, Asian Studies

This article presents all cultural points of interest of Dakao, an old quarter of District 1 of Saigon, South Vietnam: elementary and secondary schools, universities, community halls, temples, zoo, museum, and local restaurants.

Phát triển thư viện tại Miền Nam trước 1975

Published: Jan 13, 2019 by Tập-san Việt-Học Journal
Authors: Vinh-The Lam
Subjects: History, Information Science, Area Studies, Asian Studies

This article describes in details all aspects of the library development in the Republic of Vietnam before 1975. The author of this article, Vinh-The Lam, was President of the Vietnamese Library Association (VLA) during 1974-1975.

Một chuyến thượng kinh

Published: Jan 10, 2019 by Tập-san Việt-Học Journal
Authors: Vinh-The Lam
Subjects: History, Area Studies

This article recounts the author's personal experience when he participated in the fact-finding trip to the old imperial city of Huế in January 1975. The mission was to make a survey of the Nguyễn Dynasty emperors' mausoleums in order to seek financial assistance from UNESCO to renovate them.