Page 10 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.45, 2019

RAO Quan / The experience and transformation of Chinese librarianship 009

Digital Library Promotion Program sponsored by the National Library of China (NLC), the
China Academic Digital Library Alliance (CADLA) run by Peking University Library, National
Science Digital Library (NSDL) operated by the National Science Library of Chinese Academy
of Science, as well as the China Academic Digital Associative Library, or China-America Digital
Academic Library (CADAL) led by Zhejiang University Library. Regional projects are represented
by Zhejiang Digital Library, Shenzhen Digital Network (SZDNet), and Ningbo Digital Library of
Zhejiang province.
Led by these projects, a large number of underdeveloped small and medium-sized libraries are
able to enter the fast track of transforming towards the digital and IT-based libraries. The Chinese
library community has made considerable progress in terms of the building of digital library
platforms, the research and development of key technologies, the development of digital resources,
and the provision of digital information services. It has gradually established a standardized,
unified and interconnected digital library service platform, accumulated diversified and multi-
medium digital resources, and cultivated a team of digital library professionals. Based on these,
digital and networked library services are available to the general public, the students and
researchers. Recent years have also seen exploratory research in smart library services. Innovative
services such as smart bookshelf, smart reference service, smart reading rooms, and smart book
return vans have been applied in some libraries in China.
Currently, public libraries in China have jointly digitized 4.15 million book pages, over 90,000
pages of newspapers and archived over 14.47 million items of government information disclosure
data〇. More than 38 public libraries above the sub-provincial level have been interconnected
〇a ①
through special digital library networks, and 410 public libraries have built mobile reading
platforms. The China Academic Digital Library Alliance (CADLA) has over 1,800 registered
member libraries, integrating academic resources and services of various types and offering
a cloud service platform based on collaboration and comprehensive support for the academic
library community. The China Academic Digital Associative Library (CADAL) has digitized
over 2.5 million volumes of books (Fan, 2017). The combination of onsite service and offsite
service has become a common practice in the Chinese library community. Chinese librarians and
researchers are also taking further steps in the study of developing the next generation of digital
library and smart library.

1.4 Advancing communicating, constructing and sharing of information resources by
cooperation

To enhance the national and regional coordination and support capabilities of information
resources, Chinese library community have been collaborating extensively to establish a three-

① Data Source: Internal statistics from the National Library of China.