Libraries in China

Since early in China's history, scholars have kept extensive private libraries, and imperial dynasties have constructed archives to house literary treasures and official records.

Intellectuals known as the Shi (historians) and Wu (diviners) emerged as specialised occupations dedicated to the creation and spread of culture.

Among the documents that these occupations managed were "the country's statute books, genealogies of imperial kinsmen, issued notices and orders, and recorded important events and natural phenomena."

Accordingly, the earliest libraries and archives were the result of conscious collection, process, coalition, and utilization.

In 1949 there were only fifty-five public libraries at the county level and above, most concentrated in major coastal commercial centers.

[3] Following the founding of the People's Republic, government and education leaders strove to develop library services and make them available throughout the country.

Seeing the lack of libraries as a major impediment to modernization efforts, government leaders in the early 1980s took special interest in their development.

It also houses a collection of books, periodicals, newspapers, maps, prints, photographs, manuscripts, microforms, tape recordings, and inscriptions on bronze, stone, bones, and tortoiseshells.

Approved by the State Council as the first batch of national key ancient books protection unit, has developed into a resource rich, modern, comprehensive, open research library.