Online Service: A Vital Task of Beijing Library 　　Online service has become an important operation of Beijing Library. 　　Beijing Library is the first in Asia in terms of the number of books kept. The library has offered a round-the-clock service to readers through its computer networking. 10 million visitors from over 80 countries and regions were reported. The monthly peak number of visitors reached 2.42 million And the yearly flow volume is 200 GB. The Online Reading Column has grown fast. 3 million pages are being carried online and 50% of the online readers are brawsing its data. And the highest online number of readers reached 1.42 million. 　　Over the past year, the library received 1.7 million readers/time, an increase of 30.5% over a year earlier. The literature circulation volume numbered 7618987, a rise of 70.3% over a year ago. Online readers have reached 10 million persons/time. A website with 1700 nodal points will be opened at the end of this month. In 1998, 5.41 million Tibetan books (items) in 0.19 million categories were accepted by the library. Its catalogued books totals 0.173 categories, up 26% over 1997. HomeNews 1999-01-24 Page4 Full Story in Chinese