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Work Under Way on National Library Expansion

Expansion of the National Library of China to 250,000 square meters of floor space is now under way. When completed in 2008, the Beijing library will be the third largest in the world, the biggest being the US Library of Congress in Washington DC.

By the end of last year, the China's National Library had about 24 million books and ranked fifth in the world in terms of quantity-a collection that expands by about 600,000 volumes each year. While conventional in terms of its stock and lending facilities, the library offers comprehensive research facilities and serves the central legislature, government, key research institutions, academies, the educational sector, business and the general public. Its financial grants for buying books have gradually increased, last year totaling more than 100 million yuan (US$12.5 million).

The earliest books in store include some in the form of scripted turtle shells and animal bones which can be traced back to the Shang Dynasty some 3,000 years ago. The library has both the largest collection of Chinese books in the world and the biggest collection of materials in 115 foreign languages, the latter accounting for nearly 50 percent of the total collection.