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Survey and Analysis of University Libraries’ Information Resources Construction under the Digital Information Environment: Taking Key University Libraries in as Examples XU Junhua School of Information Management, University, Wuhan, P.R. China, 430072

Abstract—Based on the surveys of information e-books and digital newspaper [1]. resources construction of 75 key university libraries in So what is the present situation of information china and the literature survey of China National resources construction under digital information Knowledge Infrastructure database (CNKI) and Wan Fang environment? What measures should be taken to data, the paper analyzes the characterises of university meet requirements of digital environment? We plan libraries’ information resources construction in China, that to give these answers by investigating 75 key is: the paper-based resources still hold the larger university libraries in China. propositions; the digital resources are increasing rapidly Ⅱ. METHODOLOGIES and their types are diversified; the characteristic The concrete methods are: firstly, we get 75 key resources have become one of vital resources and have university lists through the website of Ministry of been widely acknowledged; the forms of OA resources Education of China [2], and then enter these are simpler, and their number is fewer; building national university library websites to carry on the and regional library consortia among libraries have made investigation. At the same time, we carry out the a great progress. Through data survey, we think digital literature survey and study by usage of China information resources should be paid more attention to in National Knowledge Infrastructure database (CNKI) E-Era and they can be constructed by the following and Wan Fang data, etc, in order to summarize the methods: increasing the proportion of digital resources; main features of these libraries’ information raising the OA resources rate; building co-construct and resources construction, including the paper-based co-sharing library consortia. resources, digital resources, characteristic resources, Index Terms—digital information environment, digital open access resources, e-print resources and libraries, university libraries, information resources resource sharing. sharing, web survey Ⅰ. INTRODUCTION Ⅲ. SURVEY RESULTS Along with the development of the computer A. PAPER-BASED RESOURCES technology, communication technology and network CONSTRUCTION technology, we have been surrounded gradually by There are the paper-based resources in every a digital world, such as e-commerce, e-government, university library. The largest collections are the digital publication, digital earth, digital city, digital library of Peking University (600 million volumes), community, digital campus and digital library. Take Jilin University Library (692.46 million copies), digital publication as an example, nowadays there Library (613 million copies), Sun are 500 thousand kinds of e-books, 9,000 kinds of Yat-Sen University Library (535.708 million copies), Internet periodicals, more than 600 digital and University Library (550 million copies). newspapers in China. And in the following five years, These are all super large library, and their affiliated there will be 30% of mobile phone users reading universities are also comprehensive ones that were

- 1 - http://www.sinoss.net merged by several colleges, which makes their The characteristic resources construction is collections expanded greatly in a certain degree. On another important topic of university libraries. In their geographical distribution, they distribute on digital information times, with carrying out resources north China, northeast China, central China, south sharing, characteristic resources have become one China and west China, which ensures there is a of vital resources that determine libraries’ survival large-scale university library in every large area in and development. It was also stipulated in "Rule": China. the university libraries should develop characteristic The survey has shown an average collection is resources construction in accordance with the 244 million coppices, which in general can meet the demands of teaching and scientific research, and development needs of teaching and scientific according to the collections features and the research. distribution in area or system’s literature guarantee B. DIGITAL RESOURCES CONSTRUCTION hierarchy building [5]. With he rapid development of digital documents There are 60 surveyed libraries developing and the unceasing growing digital demand of users, characteristic resources construction, their university libraries pay more attention to digital propositions are 80%, which shows they have been resources construction, which also complies with the widely acknowledged by libraries. Their rules of “PRC Academic Library Trial Rule” issued by characteristic resources mainly are self-constructed Chinese Ministry of Education (hereinafter short for database, and they build their peculiar resources, "Rule"): we should take account of paper-based such as all kinds of libraries according to their resources, e-documents and other ones in literatures universities’ position, characteristic and resources. acquisition [3]. D. OPEN ACCESS RESOURCES Their types are diversified, such as e-books, CONSTRUCTION database, e-journal and full-text electronic theses in The relative purchasing power of libraries is the surveyed librates. declining for the prices of books and periodicals are In addition, in recent years the proportions of increasing; scientific researchers require to timely digital resources are obviously increasing, for gain academic research achievements; the voices of example, there are 30 surveyed university libraries information resources’ open access (OA) from users whose e-books are more than one million copies, are so rise high. All above lead to OA’ development accounting for 40% of the total. The network and vigorously in foreign countries and many libraries digital literature resources have been energetically also join in them. However, in China, there are 24 strengthened in Wuhan University Library for the surveyed libraries collecting OA or e-print resources, past few years. They adjusted the types of literature only accounting for 32% of total investigated libraries. resources construction by increasing digital Their forms are simpler and the number is fewer, resources collections gradually [4], and its which indicates OA movement of domestic libraries databases are 412, which lies in the first in all fall behind overseas ones. We must strengthen it investigated libraries. The average number of energetically. databases is 93, which can cover the basic E. THE RESOURCES SHARING disciplines, meet the information demands of every It isn’t adapt to meet the development of times professional reader. and reader information demands as well as goes C. CHARACTERISTIC RESOURCES against general planning of literature resources and CONSTRUCTION can’t avoid overlapping projects if the library

- 2 - http://www.sinoss.net individually combats to provide the services for are in line with principles are “resource sharing, readers under the network environment. Therefore, complementary advantages, mutual profitable, building national and regional library consortia voluntarily participation, equally cooperation” to among libraries will win more interests and develop borrowing reading and documents delivery conveniences in harmonious construction of [6]. Another University Library Combined System in literature resources, largescale database in Tianjin area shared of a set of software, server and combined purchase, cooperative cataloging, central database and realized seamless connection cooperation reference and document delivery with the systems of Tianjin University and Nankai resulting to build the omnidirectional-graphic formula University, among which can reciprocally be service network. We survey the related situations of retrieved [7]. The management of Jiangsu Academic 75 university libraries and carry on statistics as Library & Information System（JALIS）promotes the shown in Figure.1. correlation service plan of CALIS and plans literature resources construction,supervises service work of subject-center that there are special staffs presiding in document delivery [8]. Library and information committee of Zhejiang universities and colleges (ZADLIS) relies on construction achievements of CALIS and CADAL to set up a digital information guarantee service system. According to the principles of “concentration resource, division and cooperation, balanced load, unifies with Tibet” , ZADLIS service system is composed of 1 provincial, 6 higher education zones and some subcenters as well as documents delivery system [9]. Fig.1. 75 university libraries participating cooperative organization Ⅳ. DATA ANALYSIS situation In above investigation, 75 libraries’ paper-based

resources are very ample, however, their digital According to above figure, the proportions of 75 resources are fewer, and there are only 5 libraries university libraries participating nationwide whose e-books are more than two million copies. But professional library cooperative organizations under digital information environment, library's CALIS,CASHL and CADAL respectively are traditional resource outlook is strongly impacted on. 100%,77.3%,20.0%，which shows these libraries Therefore digital information resources should have been conscious of the importance in be paid more attention to and they can be developing co-construction and sharing library constructed by the following methods: consortia in order to meet users’ information ●Adjusting resources’ structure. We should demands in the higher degree. increase the proportion of digital resources. For There are also many regional alliances example, 44% members of International Internet emerging in many places. University Library Combo Preservation Consortium (IIPC) make network in Beijing area composed of 39 university libraries information collection work become a regular cuts off on March 14, 2008, was initiated by Beijing business [10]. The digital projects have been University of Posts and Telecommunications, who

- 3 - http://www.sinoss.net implemented by USA Congress libraries, and they REFERENCES centralize the amount of plastic recording and video [1] (2010) University libraries’ career development: retrospect and on one place, and then digitalize them [11]. prospect [Online]. ●Increasing OA resources construction. Available:http://210.43.188.3:8080/html/kunming.ppt University libraries should conform to development [2] (2010) Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China of the environment and demand of readers, and then website [Online]. Available:http://www.moe.edu.cn/ vigorously develop OA resources. With the progress [3] (2010) Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China of OA movement, the promotion to open network by webpage [Online]. Available: Web2.0 technology and ceaselessly increasing of http://www.moe.edu.cn/edoas/website18/37/info237.htm users’ requirements in information resources, OA [4] (2010) Library introduction [Online]. Available: resources that the quantity and quality are improving http://www.lib.whu.edu.cn/gk/tsgjj.asp have become significant information sources of [5] (2010) Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China university libraries. What’s more, they can relief webpage [Online]. funds and limited spaces pressure to some extent. Available:http://www.moe.edu.cn/edoas/website18/37/info237 ●Building co-construct and co-sharing library .htm consortia. American university libraries have a [6] (2010) Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications consensus: either collaboration or death [12]. Library webpage [Online]. Available: Because under digital information environment, http://lib.bupt.edu.cn/lht/ifrightneirong/libraries.htm resources are greatly enriched and the technologies [7] (2010) University Library Combined System in Tianjin area are mature, libraries and readers will be connected webpage [Online]. by a huge network. The idea that meeting Available:http://211.81.31.59/portal/portal/media-type/html/gro information demands of users by simple library’ up/usrgest/page/ilink2.psml collections are obsolete in the digital age. On the [8] (2010) JALIS webpage [Online]. contrary, firstly we should build own characteristic Available:http://202.119.47.5/about.php resource, and then develop cooperation with other [9] (2010) ZADLIS webpage [Online]. libraries, such as joint development and purchasing Available:http://libweb.zju.edu.cn/commlib/05/zadlis.htm database, united cataloging, inter-library loan and [10] (2010) Wang Zhigeng, Zhou Chen. 2008 IIPC member document delivery, so as to avoid repetitive nations conference report [Online]. constructions, and can satisfy the information Available:http://www.nlc.gov.cn/service/jltx/jltx2610.htm requirement of readers to the biggest extent. [11] (2010) Federal computer week [Online]. ACKNOWLEDGMENT Available:http://www.fcw.com/article91968-01-13-06-Web This paper is research result of the Key Program of [12] (2010) Li Jingkai, Zheng Xuejun. Digital library management Key Research Institute in Humanities and Social problems on the construction and development [Online]. Sciences, which was supported by the Ministry of Available:http://www.edu.cn/ruan_jian_ying_yong_1720/200 Education of P. R. China (Project Name: Library 6110 Management in Digital Information Age, Project No. 8/t20061108_204224.shtm 07JJD870221).

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