China’s Library Finds a Place for Old--and New

Its oldest pieces of writing are primitive Chinese characters scratched onto animal bones 3,500 years ago. Its newest are millions of pages of Chinese text inscribed onto computer microchips smaller than a human thumbnail.

That contrast--between old and new, past and present--has become an emblem of the challenge facing one of China’s most impressive institutions.

In the country that gave the world paper and revolutionized printing, the National Library of China is struggling to remake itself amid an information revolution that has forced it to find new ways of preserving the ancient while embracing the modern.

On a shoestring budget, the world’s fifth-largest library is trying to enter the Digital Age, catering to readers who are almost as likely to look for books on Web sites as they are to seek them on paper.

At stake, says Zhou Heping, the library’s operating director, is his institution’s survival as a provider of knowledge in a fast-changing, competitive environment.

“Modernization has posed a huge challenge to traditional types of library management and services,” Zhou said in an interview. “If we don’t accelerate our pace in adapting to the Internet, our services will wither.”

But the task is easier said than done in what remains a poor country of 1.3 billion people, only a small fraction of whom have access to the national library, whether in actuality or online.

The library’s ambitious drive to digitalize its holdings--and thereby open its collection to computer users around the world--has met with limited success. Only about 24 million pages of content are available electronically, out of a massive collection of 22 million books, periodicals and other materials, such as maps and photographs.

Officials hope to increase their database by more than tenfold within five years, a project that Zhou estimates will require $120 million all told.

“We’re not a digital library yet,” he said, “but we have the foundation for one.”

The central government will provide 80% of the money, leaving the library to scrounge up the remaining 20%, officials say.

It is a huge undertaking for a library whose budget last year, apart from the digitalization project, amounted to a mere $17 million. That had to cover the salaries of 1,300 employees as well as pay for upkeep and new acquisitions.

By contrast, the U.S. Library of Congress boasts a budget this year of about $400 million--more than 20 times the Chinese library’s--and 4,200 employees, who serve 1 million in-person users a year and log 60 million requests on the library’s Web site every month.

Zhou looks at such numbers with envy. But he is proud of the modest digital expansion his library has already achieved, which is a far cry from its roots as a simple collection set up by imperial decree in 1909, during the final years of the Qing Dynasty.

The Capital Library, as it was known then, outgrew its original location inside a Beijing temple and moved several times throughout the 20th century. In 1987, it settled into a new, 22-story building on Beijing’s west side, complete with climate-controlled underground floors to protect its ancient works, including oracle bones and precious imperial texts. (An exhibit of rare manuscripts and maps from the library is on display at the downtown Los Angeles Public Library until June 25.)

To keep abreast of the times, the Chinese library recently added computer rooms for Internet use and access to its electronic holdings (https://www.nlc.gov.cn).

“I come here to look up information I need for my research and to retrieve my e-mails,” said visitor Jiang Tao, who works for a public-health think tank. “The library definitely ought to supply computer services. I hope it will be expanded.”

To attract more patrons like her, the library must overcome a reputation for user-unfriendliness that “is legendary,” according to China’s own state-run news agency. In the past, visitors had to produce letters of introduction and their employment papers to gain access. Even now, borrowing books can be difficult.

The library also faces stiff competition from the Shanghai municipal library, which has upgraded its services and facilities in an attempt to outshine Beijing. The Shanghai library recently began staying open daily. Soon afterward, the national library followed suit.

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Times librarian Scott Wilson contributed to this report.