Journal of East Asian

Volume 2003 Number 129 Article 4

2-1-2003

Digital Libraries in

Jing Liu

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BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Liu, Jing (2003) "Digital Libraries in China," Journal of East Asian Libraries: Vol. 2003 : No. 129 , Article 4. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jeal/vol2003/iss129/4

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of East Asian Libraries by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. DIGITAL LIBRARIES CHINA jing liu british columbia

july 2002 internet using population mainland china reached 45845.8 million ranking second largest world z natural demand internet user community networked digital content keeps growing compared developed countries chinese digital libraries DL got off late start developing amazing speed hundreds ofalofdlDL projects underway across country aim meet variety needs sharing cultural resources supporting learning research integrating digital libraries conventional services paper report development national academic private local DL projects china put much emphasis digital content services list challenges nation facing areas need improvement

national deavoursendeavoursEn china began take research development ofalofdlDL middle 1990s since then chinese government making substantial investments digitizing cultural heritage materials experts successfully sent message DL just within library world instead comprehensive project needs joint effort every industry every region nation whole far national endeavours represented following two projects china CDL httpwwwd librarycomcnlibrqrycomcn

years testing joint conference construction china digital library project set april 2000 ministry culture served convening unit 21 ministries commissions took part 2

CDL project aimed structure basic framework build largest repository online information heritage world centre project set national library china largest libraries world writing developed 30 multimedia databases featuring chinese customs book history antiquities ancient architecture chinese choswhos cainaschinas military penpermissioncissionnission based online lending service allows registered reader borrow 170000 ebooks downloaddownload three time local disk 10000 these ebooks free access national cultural sharing network NCSN based experience CDL project expanded telecommunication network solid technological foundation NCSN announced april 2002 xinhuadinhua news agency network completed 2005 aims enable people remote poor western areas share cultural resources found libraries museums art galleries research institutes

11 affluent east 2005 interlinkedinter linked library network includes collection multimediamulti media resources chinese equivalent 30 million books 6 million photos 8000 films TV 5 programs available 3

july exhibition many local cultural networks demonstrated digital products made digital museums digital digital theatrestheartresatres digital schools etc seemed good foundation urgent demand national network allows local digital information shared exchanged

top national network international DL collaborations actively developed northeast asian digital resources centre established liaoningLiaoning province involved building asian pacific data centre coming

academic projects

first revolution millennium china way people conduct learning research you easily feel revolution you actually many parents started new learning experience children using china middle school primary school digital library college student fudanbudan university told me easily read books journalorjoumal articles online therefore did need visit library buildings physically scholars do constrained within own institutional libraries following two networks utilized china spread worldwide

china academic libraries information system CALIS httpwwwcaliseducnhtipwwwcaliseducn coordinatedordinated chinese national committee colleges library work CALIS resource network based china education research net CERNET purpose preserve build research resources digital formats promote digital resource sharing between china countries eight regional bentrescentres across country each focusing development special disciplines subject areas strong collection CALIS enhance efficiency quality chinese academic library information systems provides rich immediate resource sharing support teaching research studying

CALIS expected completed year 2010 public service software system consists online catalogue system self building database system OPAC interlibrary loan system 44 now CALIS allows nonmembernon member internet users search through indexes dozens full text databases including dissertations subjects dunhuangDunhuang chinese emigrants databases particularly appealing me northeast documents covers resources chinese japanese russian languages another related project sinoussino US million book digital library officially announced june 2001 steering committee programmed project constituted policy guaranteed sources qualifications resources selected unique collections major academic libraries china US technical centre collaboration set

12 Zhezhejiangjiang university 12 digital resource bentrescentres based 12 universities 5 pekingt university tsinghuaTsinghua university 30 largelar9e data banks china national knowledge infrastructure CNKI httpwwwcnkinet launched 1998 CNKI national key project construct chinese digital resource system support chinese government led tsinghuaTsinghua tongfangtongkangTongfang optical disc ltd project focusing academic periodical digitization called century journal project project planned completed end 2002 entire academic journal database collect 1 l188 million full text articles 5120 journals since start publication grow integrated chinese document information resource 6 reflect growth latest development research fields china 100 years many east asian libraries north america CNKI users taking advantage experience developing electronic journals CNKI offers complete DL solutions fundamental education well government enterprise administration

efforts private companies

DL must built basis large amount digital content china private companies rescuing invaluable chinese cultural heritage materials chinese digitizing technology addition digitization classical old library collections work publishers create disseminate digital information besides tsinghuaTsinghua tongfangTongtongkangfang mentioned above focused academic periodicals digital efforts following three companies noteworthynote worthy unihancunihan fhttpht1pwwwunihancomcnwwwunihancomcn unihancunihan digital technology ltd provides digital content chinese digital technology completed many classical chinese digitization projects past few years besides serving chinese readers digital products extremely popular among japanese researchers warmly embraced scholars north america well si ku quan shu si bu cong kan shi ke shi liao xin bian kanglikangxi zi dian just few examples products sun yat sen digital library collaborations many libraries mainland china taiwan hong kong macao fulltextfulltext accessible unihansUniHans web site accessed december 212120022002 DL software unihandlerUniHanDler e cataloger developed applied companascompanyscompanys digital products Supersuperstarstar htlpwwwpdgcomchttpwwwpdgcomcn since 1998 Supersuperstarstar digitized 700000 chinese books made 300000 them available web registered readers Supersuperstarstar information technology ltd earliest largest digital content provider china digitized resources strong textbooks reference books historical resources 60 them humanities social sciences Supersuperstarstar cooperates dozens libraries publishers institutes library same time provides platform member institutes share digital resources work jointly offer better digital reference services

13 Supersuperstarstar attracted online readers compared digital libraries china offering large scale digital collections reader discussion reference services searching features developed include title table contents even full text featured functions Supersuperstarsstars portal supports readers comments book reviews readers personal digital libraries etc

university california san diego first library north america use digital resources Supersuperstarstar planning set mirror site US 2003

digital projects libraries library service china lagged far behind western countries many invaluable collections well preserved processed makes almost impossible users access them reference service still very limited especially public libraries rapid development ofalofdlDL provides libraries crucial opportunity survive grow support digital content providers rapidly developing techniques network computer libraries china actively integrating DL conventional services two outstanding examples guangdongGuangdong zhongshanZhongshan library

shanghai library htlpwwwhttp www library sh encn

serving populated city china shanghai library holds largest collections world many unique treasured materials started digital conversion own rare books 1997 shanghai library finished 7 digitizing projects cumulated 200 GB own digital resources 1999

end 1999 library imported IBM digital library solution aiming update traditional library information services provide infoportinfoport centre research public library international metropolis now shanghai digital library contains chinese classics historical local images audio materials chinese traditional drama opera digital collection accessed registered users via web shanghai library designed online cataloguingcataloguing system chinese materials internet hoped system help chinese metadatametadata applications

branch libraries across city take advantage rich resources attracting users through electronic means special databases various subjects main features citescitys community library movement influenced many public libraries country 7

guangdongGuangdong zhongshanZhongshan library h12wwwzslibcomcnhttpwwwzslibcomcn

facing era hybrid traditional digital libraries zhongshanZhongshan library guangdongGuangdong province integrated 350000 ebooks 100 databases variety digital content providers library portal now circulation rate digital resources 10 times print items every month 464.6 million pages average downloadeddownloaded 400 reference

14 questions answered 2000 periodical articles delivered users able 0 visit library physically 8

library workers shifted workworkflowflow digital world well organisedorganiorganizedsed digital collection creating metadatametadata cross database search engine users access major digital collections across country enjoy reference services provided online librarians scattered world linked national library china library chinese academy social sciences Supersuperstarstar digital library libraries province

remaining problems

I1 mentioned beginning china second internet users world US less 3 cainaschinas population currently 95 information cainaschinas domestic internet outside 5 native potential demand shared knowledge digital format incredible future ofalofdlDL china optimistic however development still very early stage following problems should taken account future developers

1 poor quality standards

building house quickly without considering much usage appropriate strategies said expert china many overlapped digital collections being created fragmented non interoperable digital systems being developed despite 100 called DL programs china many large scale public databases available materials public interest digital format free access available internet users aspect taiwan leading way hand useful free chinese resources internet well organized properly presented users users needs far considered focus development

2 legal issues legal issues called bottle neck further development ofalofdlDL china according copyright law publications 50 years old protected copyright constraints use early 2002 professor chen xingliangXingliang peking university won first copyright lawsuit against china digital library case sent clear warning DLs china need abide law even nonprofitnon profit public welfare sector 9

case caused heated debate inevitable seemingly elusive digital future now major DLs mentioned above actively seeking authorisationsauthorizations individual authors working national copyright protecting centre collective license program program fees charged users used pay collective license balancing interests owner user society crucial growth DL projectsprojbroj ectsacts

15 3 slow congested infrastructure

government communication industry making substantial investments broadband networks compared growing demands chinese materials web networked information environment huge space improve digital divides between southeast northwest between rich poor need bridged

conclusion digital library projects sprang china despite problems poor quality legal infringement drastic DL development obviously challenge chinese studies librarians here north america while provides us opportunities well those digital libraries china pulling users our east asian libraries ready integrate those DL products our traditional services how going gain financial support acquiring digital collections what our strengths competition those information service providers china ways collaborate them instead while many questions remain should definitely follow promising beginning digital libraries china

NOTES

author like express sincere appreciation xiaokuanXiaokuan wang giving me special tours major DL projects china suzanne clouthier ping comments

1 china internet network information centre semiannualsemi annual survey report development cainaschinas internet july 2002 available httpwwwcnnicnetcndevelst2002 7eindexshtml7eindexshtmi accessed december 1 2002 ahu2huu qihengqineng knowledge based economy construction digital libraries china proceedings digital library opportunities challenges new millennium beijing library press july 2002 appp 7167 16 dinhuainhua news agency information network planned link nation april 22 2002 available httpwwwhttpwwwchmachina orgcnenglish3orgcnenglish3139qhtm13 90htm accessed december 2 2002 allsscalis4calisALIS management centre introduction CALIS 199920021999 2002 available httpwwwcaliseducncalis indexaspfid220&classlindex asp fid22 o&class 1 accessed december 2 2002 shanghai library sinoussino US digital library under construction 2002 available httpwwwlibnetshenintercitynewsenhttpwwwlibnetshcnintercitynewsen 020607htm accessed september 30 2002 singhwa6tsinghuasinghuasinghua tongfangtongkangTongfang optical ltd CNKI progresses available hql2wwwhttpwwwglobalcnkinetprogresshtmglobal cnkinetprogresshtm accessed december 2 2002

16 aliu7liuiu wei shanghai digital library initiative asian libraries V 8 1999 appp 262265262 265

8moamomo shaoqiangShaoqiang tan zhichaoZhichao digital reference service practice study knowledge navigation library services proceedings thefirstfirst shanghai international library forum shanghai shanghai scientific technological literature publishing house 2002 appp 156 159 thenhen chuanfuChuanfu what position should take considering digital intellectual property issues library information service 2002 12 available http15922610020lisindexhtmihthttptp 5922610020lismdexhtml accessed december 30 2002 need select current issue

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