Summary of Public Library Market
Shanghai Hongkou District Library Compiled in 2011, Issue 3
Overview of the Public Library Industry in May-June 2011
Part I. Public Library Construction
1.Hardware Construction.
On May 10, 2011, the main library's south campus (old building) of the National Library of China closed for a three-year renovation. During the renovation period, some borrowing services for Chinese and foreign language books were suspended, and the remaining services were transferred to the north campus (new building).
On the morning of May 11, the opening ceremony of the new building of the Beichuan Library was held in the new county town of Beichuan. The new building covers an area of 2,500 square meters, three times larger than the old building before the earthquake. The construction of the new building started in December 2009 and was completed in October 2010. Currently, there are nearly 10 reading rooms, including periodical reading room, children's reading room, electronic reading room, and local literature reading room. The library currently has a collection of 70,000 volumes and is expected to reach 200,000 volumes by the end of this year.
On May 12, the "Ya'an Ji Xianlin Library," the only library in China named after Ji Xianlin, was completed in Ya'an, Sichuan. The library was built with donations from the renowned sinologist Ji Xianlin and will become the largest library in Ya'an. The exterior of the library was designed pro bono by architect Mr. Zhang Zhiyang. The total planned investment for the library is 5.5 million yuan, with a construction area of 191 square meters. It can accommodate 300,000 books and is a landmark project in the reconstruction of Ya'an's cultural facilities.
On the morning of May 13, the Shenzhen Futian District Library Creative Design Branch, called the Shenzhen Design Capital Creative Industry Park Information Exchange Center, was officially established. The branch is located within the Shenzhen Design Capital Creative Industry Park, filling the gap of a professional design library in the central urban area of Shenzhen. The branch currently focuses on design books, especially industrial design books, and includes over 20,000 volumes of design books, newspapers, magazines, journals, and other materials from both domestic and international sources. It is reported that the initial batch of books will be in physical format, and the second phase of the project will introduce electronic reading devices to provide more convenient and efficient diversified reading services for Shenzhen's design professionals.
On May 14, the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children held a launching ceremony for the first toy library in Hong Kong. The society received donations totaling HKD 200,000 from HSBC Insurance and the Social Welfare Department's Lump Sum Grant, establishing the "Family 'Love' Game" project. The project includes the establishment of a fully equipped toy library, with toys selected by educational psychologists and professional social workers available for children to borrow and play with for free. Children can borrow toys from the library to take home or share with other children at the center. The project emphasizes that toys and games are not just luxury items for children's entertainment but also excellent tools for promoting learning and development and improving parent-child relationships. In addition to the toy library, the society also regularly holds parenting workshops and provides child-centered play therapy services. The toy library is located at the society's children and family service center on Po On Road in Mong Kok. Committee member Ms. Bu Jianqiong mentioned in her speech that the poverty rate among children in Sham Shui Po district is as high as 40%, the highest in Hong Kong. Many of these children come from families with low educational backgrounds or newly arrived families facing financial difficulties. Their parents also face heavy work and life pressures, making it challenging for them to provide sufficient resources for their children's learning and play, as well as lacking the time and skills to parent effectively.On May 19, the Hongfa Temple Branch of the Luohu District Library in Shenzhen, covering an area of nearly 1,000 square meters, has been completed and is about to open to readers for trial operation. It is the first characteristic library in China that integrates a public library with a Buddhist studies library. The branch consists of a public library, Buddhist studies library, electronic reading room, and Buddhist literature research and exhibition hall. It has a collection of over 40,000 Chinese and foreign books, 200,000 electronic books, more than 10,000 CDs and audiovisual materials, and 450 types of newspapers and periodicals. Additionally, some of the scriptures originally stored in the highest floor of the temple's scripture tower will be gradually opened to the public. The various reading rooms have a total of 166 reading seats and over 30 computers.
On the same morning, after more than six months of reconstruction, the Mianyang Library reopened to the public free of charge. During the post-disaster reconstruction, the Mianyang Library installed central air conditioning in its reading areas and provided free bottled mineral water and paper cups to readers in each reading room. The enclosed partitions in the reading rooms were removed, increasing the area from the previous 1,500 square meters to 2,500 square meters, and blind paths were added. In the near future, photocopying equipment will be installed in each area for free use. Currently, the library has a collection of 600,000 paper documents, twice the amount before the earthquake, with the periodical reading room having close to 100 types of magazines and over 1,000 types of journals. The library also has over 4,000 ancient thread-bound books available for readers to read for free. A special room for earthquake literature has been set up in the local literature room, with over 1,000 types of related documents. On the third floor of the library, an electronic reading room has been established, with 100 new computers mainly available to minors. Additionally, the library has built three databases, with a collection of more than 10,000 types of journals and documents. Readers can access these resources not only in the library but also from home through online platforms using their library cards. The Mianyang Library has also established the first NSTL (National Science and Technology Library) service station in the country, with over 50 foreign databases and more than 20 domestic scientific and technological literature databases. Earthquake literature, microfilm reading, audiobooks, and old records can all be found here to meet various needs.
On May 25, the newly built Shuangliu County Library in Sichuan began trial operation. Covering an area of over 40 acres, the library has a collection of 600,000 books, making it the largest county-level public library in terms of area and collection in the central and western regions of China. The Shuangliu Library will be open to the public for free and is equipped with five self-service borrowing and returning machines inside the library and a 24-hour self-service returning machine and a mobile library outside. It is planned to be the first county-level library in the central and western regions of China to offer 24-hour self-service library services.
On June 9, the first Chinese Biography Library, established in collaboration between the Chinese Biographical Literature Society and the Shijingshan Library, was officially unveiled. The Chinese Biography Library will be located within the Shijingshan Library and primarily collect outstanding biographical literature works from both domestic and international sources. The library will rely on the Chinese Biographical Literature Society to attract high-level cultural talents and conduct diverse academic exchange and research activities. At the unveiling ceremony of the Chinese Biography Library, representatives of the descendants of the first generation of leaders of the People's Republic of China, such as Major General Zhu Heping, the eldest grandson of Marshal Zhu De, donated biographical books about the older generation of revolutionaries to the library.
On June 15, the Shanghai Central Library Intangible Cultural Heritage Branch (referred to as the Intangible Cultural Heritage Branch) officially opened. Simultaneously, a special exhibition titled "Clothing the World" showcasing the transformation from Wunijing cotton textile fabric to Shanghai-style qipao was held at the Intangible Cultural Heritage Branch. The Shanghai Central Library Intangible Cultural Heritage Branch is themed around "intangible cultural heritage protection" and "Shanghai local history and culture," leveraging the resources and technological advantages of the Shanghai Library. It currently has a collection of approximately 4,000 books, providing free reading and audiovisual services to the public. The Intangible Cultural Heritage Branch and the Shanghai Central Library will leverage their respective advantages in documents, networks, and branding, strengthen cooperation, achieve resource sharing, complement each other's strengths, and establish the "Shanghai Story Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition Hall." As one of the first 13 venues for the "Shanghai Students' Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition Tour" for students under 18 years old, the exhibition hall offers free admission to students and provides commemorative stamps for visitors with an intangible cultural heritage passport.
On June 16, the Gansu Children's Library was unveiled at the Provincial Library and opened to young people. The Gansu Children's Library is exclusively open to children under 14 years old, with daily opening hours from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Founded by the Provincial Library and after six months of preparation, the library now has a collection of over 6,000 classic books suitable for children's reading. The Gansu Children's Library consists of reading areas, thematic activity areas, exhibition areas, and new book recommendation areas.
On June 28, the China Visually Impaired Culture Information Service Center, the largest braille library in China, was completed. The library covers an area of 28,000 square meters and consists of four book repositories. It plans to have a collection of 250,000 books and 660,000 audiovisual materials, greatly satisfying the reading needs of visually impaired individuals. Visually impaired individuals will be able to navigate the library smoothly through a navigation system. Officials from the China Disabled Persons' Federation introduced that the service center is equipped with facilities such as a braille computer training room, blind music training room, visual function training, psychological counseling, and an oral description gallery, providing comprehensive cultural services to the visually impaired. In addition to borrowing books, visually impaired individuals can participate in training, enjoy audiovisual content, and receive psychological counseling. Furthermore, the service center has established a visually impaired cultural experience hall, a tactile museum, and a gallery for blind cultural and artistic exhibitions. It is worth mentioning that the service center has an internal barrier-free navigation service system for the visually impaired. By using indoor navigation devices, visually impaired individuals can easily locate, identify, and navigate within the library, allowing them to move around freely. The service center can also provide free mail borrowing of books to visually impaired individuals across the country (visually impaired individuals can request books by phone).
2.Software Construction.
On May 7, cultural aid activities by the National Library were held at the Dujiangyan City Library in Sichuan province for the severely affected counties in the "5.12" earthquake disaster zone and some other heavily affected areas. The activities included donating 200,000 books, and the recipient libraries would establish dedicated shelves for the donated books from the National Library, covering various subjects such as literature, psychology, and economics. Additionally, around 5,000 recently published Chinese e-books would be provided to each library in hard disk format. Remote access to selected digital resources from the National Library would also be granted to the recipient libraries. The National Library would establish a "National Digital Library Service Zone" first at the Dujiangyan City Library and gradually expand it to other county-level libraries, enabling readers to directly access the abundant digital resources of the National Digital Library. From May 7 to 12, readers could apply for a reader's card at the Dujiangyan City Library, allowing cardholders to access the digital resources of the National Digital Library through office or home internet connections. Furthermore, the National Library would provide long-term remote reader's card application services for the people in the disaster-affected areas through mail-in applications.
In May, the San Shui Library in Guangzhou added an accessible reading area on the first floor, making it convenient for visually impaired individuals to access books and browse the internet through audio assistance. Readers only needed to place a book into the scanner, press the start button, and the pleasant voice would play through the audio player, while the adjacent accessible computer could read out web page content for visually impaired readers. Over 200 braille books, as well as dedicated braille readers, computers, and audio players, would be provided for visually impaired readers to borrow free of charge. Additionally, the San Shui District Library continued to recruit volunteers to record audio books for visually impaired individuals, enriching their reading resources.
On the morning of May 17, the inaugural "Southern Jiangsu Region Genealogy Cultural Research Forum" opened in Wujin District, Changzhou City. The forum was organized by the Wujin District Genealogy Cultural Research Association and the Wujin Library, with over 200 genealogy researchers from various counties and cities in southern Jiangsu attending. With the support of the Changzhou City Genealogy Cultural Research Association, the Wujin Library jointly planned the publication of the "Genealogy Culture" journal, gradually establishing Wujin as an information center, academic research center, and genealogy collection center. So far, the Wujin Library has collected nearly 200 newly compiled genealogies, ranking first among county-level libraries nationwide. The new genealogies also incorporated content such as "Five Emphases, Four Beauties, Three Loves," "Eight Honors and Disgraces," "People-oriented," and "Harmonious Society," further enhancing the educative function of genealogies.
Number of visits： 265