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The National Library of China (NLC) is celebrating its 100th birthday Wednesday. (Xinhua Photo)
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BEIJING, Sept. 9 -- The National Library of China (NLC) is celebrating its 100th birthday Wednesday. With the theme of "Pass on Civilization, Serve the Society" the centennial anniversary of the founding of NLC entails a series of activities such as exhibitions, academic conferences and story collections.
"We are commemorating the 100th birthday of NLC not merely for its extraordinary past, but more importantly for its inspiring present and bright future," Chen Li, vice library curator of NLC, told the Global Times.
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The National Library of China (NLC) is celebrating its 100th birthday Wednesday. (Xinhua Photo)
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During the past 100 years NLC has developed into a significant place of reading, learning and literature.
The founding of a national library was sanctified by Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), in September 1909. In the past century, the library has moved from its original temporary site at Guanghua Temple in Shichahai, to the old South School of the Imperial College, to No. 7 Wenjin Street near the Beihai Park and finally to its current site near Zizhuyuan Park near Xizhimen. It also has undergone several name changes, from the Capital Library to State-run Peking Library, then Beijing Library and now the National Library of China.
In its 100-year history, the library has also shared the ups and downs of the nation. Just before the July 7 Incident of 1937, in order to protect the nation's rare books, the then curator Yuan Tongli decided to transport them to the south of China. Yuan also employed this strategy in Shanghai. When the city fell to enemy occupation, Yuan risked his life to collect the most important rare books and send them to the US for microfilming. A total of 102 boxes were shipped, containing 30,000 books from 2,700 genres.
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The National Library of China (NLC) is celebrating its 100th birthday Wednesday. (Xinhua Photo)
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Nowadays, NLC covers a floor area of 250,000 square meters. It is the third largest national library in the world, next only to the Library of Congress in Washington DC and the Moscow National Library in Russia. NLC's collection ranks fifth in the world. Among others, NLC collects all of the published books within China. By 2008, NLC?s overall collection totaled 26.31 million volumes and artifacts.
Its rare pieces include the Oracle Bones (inscriptions on animal bones and tortoise shells from the Shang Dynasty) and four specialized collections, namely, Dunhuang Manuscripts, Zhaocheng Tripitaka of the Jin Dynasty, Yongle Encyclopedia and Complete Library of the Four Branches of Literature.
Dunhuang Manuscripts was discovered in the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang and includes ancient editions of Chinese classics and Buddhism sutras. Zhaocheng Tripitaka of the Jin Dynasty was printed in the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234). The Buddhist canon is comprised of 6,980 volumes of text, using 168,000 woodblocks. Yongle Encyclopedia is a Chinese compilation commissioned by Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) Emperor Yongle in 1403 and completed in 1408. It was then the world?s largest known general encyclopedia and one of the earliest. Complete Library of the Four Branches of Literature was compiled between 1773 and 1782, it is a collection and annotation of over 10,000 manuscripts from the imperial collections and other libraries. The Complete Library was bound into 36,381 volumes with more than 79,000 chapters, comprising about 2.3 million pages and approximately 800 million Chinese characters.
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The National Library of China (NLC) is celebrating its 100th birthday Wednesday. (Xinhua Photo)
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Today NLC is open to those over 16 years of age, enabling broad access to all of the ancient and modern collections. The library is also far more than a place to borrow and return books.
"The first function of NLC is to pass on the culture of the Chinese nation," said Zhan Furui, the fifth library curator of NLC. "Meanwhile, NLC takes the responsibility of offering document consulting services for the top leaders to facilitate their decision making. Of course, NLC also contributes to teaching and scientific research. Last but not the least, NLC serves ordinary readers."?
NLC initiated the Wenjin Book Award in 2004. The award honors 10 types of books (vacancy allowed) and also recommends 30 titles to the public every year in the fields of philosophy, social science and natural science. Up until now, the award has honored 39 from over 2,000 books entered in the competition. Among the entries, 117 have been recommended.
NLC also holds numerous lectures for the public, such as its Wenjin Lecture Series and the Wenjin Reading Salon. It also presents diverse and large-scale exhibitions of library treasures and collections.
However, as modern day technology advances, the library is facing new challenges. According to Zhan, the reading rate of Chinese people is dwindling year-on-year from 60.4 percent in 1999 to 54.2 percent in 2001, 51.7 percent in 2003 and 48 percent in 2005 and 2007. Many people are using the Internet and online books instead of traditional physical works.
Through the use of advanced technology, NLC is keeping up with the times by providing comprehensive and unique services for the public. In additional to the access of viewing more than 10,000 e-books compiled by NLC, readers can also enjoy reading and library services on their mobile phones and cable television channels.
Visitors to the library can take advantage of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to locate documents more conveniently and swiftly. In lending services, users can make use of online reservations and renewals, as well as self-service borrowing and returns.
In NLC's new building, separate areas are designated for reading rooms, research studios, general services and academic conferences, as well as leisure activities including a cafe, music hall, cinema and bookstore. The library now offers an extensive and integrated service system for all to use.
In the future NLC will continue to follow the theme of "Pass on Civilization, Serve the Society" explained Chen Li. He added that the library will "take use of all conceivable methods, including employing advanced technologies and ideas of administration, to maintain the leading position within the libraries in China and even the world."
(Source: Globaltimes)
