Page 61 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.45, 2019

060 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.11, 2019

Microcosmically, the explosion of information resources, new demands of users on resources
and diversified services, and the improvement of library funds, staff and buildings are both
opportunities and challenges.
The economic base determines the superstructure, and the superstructure also reacts upon the
economic base. The economic development will promote the development of cultural undertakings
including libraries. At present, the economy in China keeps growing at medium-to-high speed, and
the GDP of 80 trillion yuan ranks the second in the world (National Information Center, 2017).
The socialism with Chinese characteristics has stepped into a new era, which means that we have
solved the problem of food and clothing for hundreds of millions of people. In general we have
realized the well-off, and will realize the all-round well-off society before long. The principal
contradiction has evolved to the contradiction between the people’s ever-growing needs for a better
life and unbalanced and inadequate development. People not only have physical needs but also
spiritual ones. Higher spiritual needs are reflected in more demands on libraries. In accord with
social development, the librarianship also enters into a new era, which means that the library has
satisfied users’ circulation and reference service demands, and fulfilled the traditional basic tasks.
The principal contradiction has evolved to the contradiction between the people’s ever-growing
needs for diversified resources and services and unbalanced and inadequate development of the
library. With the changes of principal contradictions in both society and the library, the new-era
library is confronted with opportunities and challenges.
Human society is classified as agriculture, industry and information society according to
productivity. From this angle, we are advancing towards information society. Big cities, such as
Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, have entered into information society. In 2017,
the information society index in China was 0.474,9, increased by 4.61%. It is estimated that the
information society index will reach 0.6, stepping into the primary stage of information society
(X.H. Chen, 2017). One important characteristics of information society is that information
and knowledge are more significant than capital. It is the driving force for libraries and other
institutions that specialize in collection, organization and utilization of information (data included)
and knowledge. It should also be mentioned that institutions that deal with management of
information and knowledge are also increasing, which will compete with the library. This is the
new challenge for the library.
In view of library funds, “funds in 2016 were higher than in 2015 in all academic libraries,
and so are the funds for acquisition of materials and digital resources” (B.Wang, H. H. Wu,
Song, B. J. Gao, B. J. Zhu, & Q. Zhu, 2017). In 2016, the funds in key academic libraries, such
as libraries in Peking University, Wuhan University, and Sun Yat-Sen University, were 83.71,
76.11 and 76.09 million yuan respectively (Steering Committee for Academic Libraries of China,
2017). According to information acquired during the forum, funds in principal libraries witnessed
substantial growth in 2017. The funds of the Library of Sun Yat-Sen University reached 1.5 billion
yuan. The increase of funds signifies that more and better resources can be purchased and diverse