Towards Digital Age: Trends of Academic

Libraries in Mainland China

PRDLA 2010 MeetingFudan • Shanghai

2010.10.20

Outline

• Introduction

• Challenges

• Trends

Introduction

• The cause of academic libraries is part of the cause of higher education

• The reform and development of academic libraries are depending on the reform and development of higher education of China

The development of Higher Education in China

Year Higher institutions

Total enrollment

Rate of enrollment

Average student

1977 404 625319 < 1% 1547

1987 1075 1958725 < 5% 1822

1998 1022 ～ 6000000 < 10% 5871

2007 1909 ～ 30000000 > 20% 15715

Source ： Yearbook of China Education ，Website of the Ministry of Education

• Public higher institutions 1908 – 4 years 740 　　– 2 or 3 years 1168 　　

• Including vocational institutions 1015

• Adults higher institutions 413

• Private higher institutions 906

• Another source (by 2009.9.16.): 1983　 　 　 　 　 　

The development of academic libraries

year Average budget

Average collections

Average staff

Average space

1980 77,851 294,000 21.3 1,791

1988 426,884.6 797,884.6 62.9 7,872

2007 3268611.3 926,262.5 47.9 16774

source ： Journal for Academic Libraries, statistics by Steering Committee for Academic Libraries

Case: Peking University Library

year budget collection staff space

1982 900,000 3,355,700 184 24,600

1991 2,250,000 4,169,200 252

1998 7,000,000 4,672,900 212 51,000

2007 29,000,000 5,618,500 192 52,979

Note: collection not including digital resource

• Administrative mechanism– Bureau of Higher Education, Ministry of

Education –Policy making– Steering Committee for Academic Libraries—

Advisory and Coordinating– Library Society of Academic Libraries—Scholarly

communication activities

• Cooperation and resource sharing– National :

• 3 “C”-CALIS, CASHL, CADAL

• DRAA-Digital Resource Acquisition Alliance

– Regional– Local– Special

Challenges

• In general, as for library development, this is the best period in the history

• However, we are facing serious challenges– Fast changes– Unbalanced development

• Environment changes– E-publishing– E-communication– E-science– E-learning– E-everything– Wireless networking– Open access

• User changes– Reading behavior

• Browsing

• Scattering

– Self-service– One-stop access– Copy and paste– Leaving library– Social networking

• Library changes– Catalog became weak– Cataloging is out of main stream– Circulation goes down– Reference decrease– Outsourcing increase– Digital conservation and preservation– Integrating e-resource with paper material

– ……

Report about Catalog for LC （ 2006 ） : The destabilizing influences of the Web,

widespread ownership of personal computers, and rising computer literacy have created an era of discontinuous change in research libraries—a time when the cumulated assets of the past do not guarantee future success. The library catalog is such an asset. Today, a large and growing number of students and scholars routinely bypass library catalogs in favor of other discovery tools, and the catalog represents a shrinking proportion of the universe of scholarly information.

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The catalog is in decline, its processes and structures are unsustainable, and change needs to be swift.

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• Change is so fast and broad, we are not fit in various aspects:– Vision and attitude– Administration– Management– Organization – Work flow– Staffing – Standard– ……

Trends

• Facing so many changes, it’s useless to resist or stand by, rather, we have to promote the digital library construction, from “Hybrid” to “E-only”.

• We may need to pay attention to the following trends:– Resource filtering and evaluation– Infometric services

– Embedding knowledge service into e-science and e-learning

– Information literacy education– Mobile services– Data linking and knowledge organizing with

ontology– Cloud services

• More and more, we need a lot of technicians and tools

• Staff training and knowledge sharing will be the proper way

• And, cooperation!

Thanks ！