Chapter 32 Section 6 The National Library of China——Beijing Library

The Beijing Library is the National Library of China. It is a cultural treasure house with a long history, rich collections and world-renowned.It was built by Zhang Zhidong on April 24, 1909 at the request of the Qing court.After the Revolution of 1911, it was taken over by the Beijing government and opened on August 27, 1912, known as the Jingshi Library. In 1917, it was determined as the National Library, accepting the submitted copies of domestic publications. In July 1928, it was renamed the National Peking Library. In August 1929, the Beihai Library affiliated to the China-U.S. Geng Fund merged with the National Peiping Library affiliated to the Ministry of Education, and the name was still the National Peiping Library.Since the former Beiping Library has many rare ancient books and the Beihai Library has many foreign books and foreign books, the combination of the two has greatly enriched the collection of Chinese and foreign ancient and modern books in the National Peking Library. The Wenjin Street Library, built in 1931, was the largest modern library in China at that time. In 1933, the Nanjing Central Library was established, and two national libraries coexisted.Most of the past directors of the Beijing Library are famous scholars at home and abroad, such as Cai Yuanpei, Liang Qichao, Ma Xulun, Yuan Tongli, Ding Xilin, Liu Jiping, and the current director is Ren Jiyu. In 1987, Beijing Baishiqiao New Library was built, covering an area of ​​7.42 hectares, with a building collection of 140,000 square meters. Together with the Wenjin Street Branch Library, the total is 170,000 square meters. At present, the collection ranks fifth among all major libraries in the world. Hall of the first.

Since its establishment, the Beijing Library, as a national library, has played an irreplaceable role in preserving Chinese cultural classics, disseminating knowledge and information, cultivating library professionals, and promoting the popularization and development of national libraries, which is unmatched by any library in China . The Beijing Library is the library that preserves the most ancient Chinese books in the world. It has a collection of 1,633,658 thread-bound ancient books and 316,955 rare Chinese and foreign books. Song, Jin, Yuan printed editions, "Yongle Dadian", "Siku Quanshu" and other precious documents.

Since the founding of the Beijing Library, especially after entering the Republic of my country, it has made due contributions in enlightening the wisdom of the people, innovating and strengthening the country, and introducing advanced theories and science and technology.So far, there are 8,368,337 foreign language books and periodicals, the most in China.Some masters in the Chinese academic circles are closely connected with the Beijing Library in different ways. Therefore, most of the books selected by Beitu are high-quality books, which reflect the development of academic and scientific development in that period, and promote the development of Chinese society. develop.

The total collection of books in the Beijing Library has reached 19.59 million volumes (pieces) by 1995. There are more than 30 reading rooms with more than 3,000 reading seats, and the average daily reception is more than 7,000 people. In 1995, it received 1,443,283 readers, read 5,228,978 books and borrowed 191,376 books.Now, it is transitioning to modernization, and we believe that it will welcome more Chinese and foreign readers with a new attitude and make greater contributions to human civilization.