Beitu to be State library of China 　　The 90-year-old Beijing Library (Beitu) was renamed the National Library of China (NLC) on February 11. 　　The naming of the library is expected to help Beitu better fulfill its function as the country's only national library. Beitu was founded in September 1909 and began serving as State 　　library in 1916. 　　It is China's best-equipped library and Asia's largest storehouse of books, with more than 20 million books. 　　The facility, located in western Beijing, provides the government with a wide range of data, information and reference materials, while 　　serving as a national bibliographic center. 　　The library began opening to readers year-round last February. Last year, it received more than 1.7 million visits, up 30.5 percent from 　　1997, indicating library statistics. 　　By the end of the year, information equivalent to 150,000 Chinese books will be loaded onto the website for readers to browse, free of charge. To speed up downloading time, NLC officials announced yesterday implementation of a library LAN (local area network), which uses the most advanced Ethernet networking technology. HomeNews 1999-02-12 Page1 Full Story in Chinese