Page 18 - Journal of Library Science in China 2020 Vol.46

RAO Quan / Review and outlook on the problems of library transformation 017

2.5 The resource harvesting and preservation in the library expected to be endowed with
new connotations in the era of digital civilization

It is an important function of the library to preserve civilization. Nowadays, we have come into
the digital era. The traditional carriers, channels and methods of preserving civilization have
made dramatic changes. Digital resources have played a significant role in preserving civilization.
Notably the Internet Information and memory resources have become new carriers of human
civilization and social memory. Yet these resources are ephemeral and non-renewable, which
makes it urgent to harvest and preserve them. As far as a decade ago, IFLA realized the importance
of preserving and conserving cultural heritage especially documents by digital means and was
dedicated to promoting related research and practice in the world. Some countries such as the
US, the Netherlands, Singapore, Poland and Russia launched a series of national cultural projects
and projects preserving Internet information. Similar projects were conducted in China, too. In
2012, the NLC initiated the project “China’s Memory”. Cooperating with libraries of all levels,
the project conducted rescuing harvesting and preservation of oral history materials according
to special subjects such as modern and contemporary events and key figures in China. As of the
end of 2019, the total number of oral history materials and video materials surpassed 2,700 hours.
In April 2019, the NLC launched a project to preserve web information. The first pilot base was
founded on Sina.com, which would archive all contents on the website. These are all preliminary
efforts of the NLC in preserving digital civilization.
In the future, the library should continue to keep pace with the times to expand resource types.
In addition to preserving and conserving traditional materials, the library should explore the
harvesting and preservation of oral history and web resources to establish the three-dimensional
resource system covering paper documents, microforms, audio and video products, electronic
publications, digital resources, online resources, oral history materials. Drawing upon the work
already done, the NLC will cooperate with libraries of all levels and online information supplier to
construct a hierarchical and distributed national system to harvest and preserve web information.

2.6 Remaining problems in the institutional reform restricting the vitality of the library to
some extent

As the national institutional reform goes further, the function-based reform of public institutions,
and the reforms of corporate governance structure, professional ranks, distribution system, and
social security system in public cultural institutions are also carried forward. In comparison with
the past, the managing system of the library has made great changes. At present, the reform has
entered the critical stage, which will inevitably have a profound impact on the development of the
librarianship. In recent two years, two reforms directly related to public libraries have valid effects
on the managing system of the library, namely, the function-based reform of public institutions and