Digital Libraries in China
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Journal of East Asian Libraries Volume 2003 Number 129 Article 4 2-1-2003 Digital Libraries in China Jing Liu Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jeal 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 university 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 library 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 digital library 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 chinese culture 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 beijing many local cultural networks demonstrated digital products made digital museums digital archives 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 shanghai 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 universities 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 asia 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 peking university 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 shanghai library 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