Page 6 - Journal of Library Science in China 2020 Vol.46

RAO Quan / Review and outlook on the problems of library transformation 005

Review and outlook on the problems of library

transformation 〇a ①

〇b *
RAO Quan〇
National Library of China, Beijing 100081, China

Abstract
The librarianship has made significant progress during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. The legal
system witnessed a great breakthrough. Innovative measures were taken to inherit and carry forward
fine traditional Chinese culture. Nationwide reading flourished. Digital and network construction
facilitated transformation development. Under the background of global library transformation, the
Chinese librarianship is confronted with the following challenges: 1) In the context of growing cross-
boundary integration, the library does not take enough initiative; 2) With the increasing iteration
of information technology, the transformation of the library becomes extremely urgent; 3) Lack of
marketing and means restricts the library’s social influence; 4) The demand on multi-cultural experience
makes an impact on traditional idea of the library’s space design; 5) In the era of digital civilization,
the resource harvesting and preservation in the library need to be endowed with new connotations; 6)
Problems existing in the institutional reform restrict the development vitality to some extent. The library
community is contriving to realize the long-term development with proactive thinking from various
aspects such as inheriting and promoting traditional culture, resource construction, service innovation,
application of new technologies, transformation development, cross-boundary integration, marketing
and management mechanism.

Keywords
Library transformation, Chinese experience, Chinese approach, Cultural confidence

As the main characteristic of the current development of global librarianship, transformation has
become the focus point in the industry and academia, which is a significant proposition for the
future development of librarianship and theoretical reconstruction of the library science in China
and even in the world. At this critical moment when the 13th Five-Year Plan is to wrap up and the
14th Five-Year Plan is being worked out, the National Library of China (NLC) held “The 15th Joint
Meeting for Directors of Provincial & Major Municipal Libraries in China”. The meeting analyzed
problems in the development of librarianship, and discussed how to confront challenges during the
transformation period and grasp the opportunity to realize the development in leaps and bounds.
On the eve of the 110th anniversary of the NLC in September 2019, XI Jinping, General
Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, President of the People’s

① This article is the keynote report delivered at “The 15th Joint Meeting for Directors of Provincial & Major Municipal Libraries
in China” held on November 26, 2019.
* Correspondence should be addressed to RAO Quan，Email: syrq@nlc.cn.