New chapter for city libraries

Over a hundred Beijing libraries joined to establish the Capital Library Alliance on monday in a bid to facilitate reading and information sharing for local residents.

The alliance, whose 120 members include public libraries such as the National Library of China (NLC), and government-invested ones in districts and counties, joined in an effort to make reading more convenient by offering a one-card service that allows borrowing and returning books among different libraries.

Although the alliance consists of 120 members, only half, most of which are public libraries, offer the one-card service. Libraries in schools and hospitals are only able to lend a small amount of resources to the public due to safety concerns and management issues.

"Our library mainly serves the school faculty and provides resources for education and academic research," said Zhu Qiang, head of Peking University Library (PKU). If it opens to non-students, students might have trouble accessing resources, and allowing outsiders in may also bring about possible safety issues, for example theft.

But PKU Library does admit some readers from outside, for example those from other Beijing universities and institutes or visiting foreign scholars, Zhu said. Some local residents can get a temporary reading permit for a day, he said.

The Capital Library and some 60 public libraries in Beijing had already adopted the one-card service in 2004. After the alliance's establishment, readers could use cards issued either by the NLC or the Capital Library to borrow or return books, and browse online databases from both libraries.

"This makes borrowing and returning easier," said a resident surnamed Tang, who attended Beijing Union University and used to borrow books from the nearby NLC. Book lending is suspended at NLC now, as its south block has been under reconstruction since May last year.

"It'll be great if I can borrow books elsewhere and return them to a nearby library," Tang said. It's a good way of promoting knowledge and culture to give residents access to university libraries, but too many readers from outside could bring management problems to schools, she noted.

The alliance has come up with 10 measures to popularize and facilitate reading, including cooperating on lectures and exhibitions and book exchanges. Though many of the measures are only ideas that cannot be realized in a short time, Zhu said they will work out long-term plans and try to mobilize their resources for more public sharing.