Computer Network Readingrooms to be Set Up Across ChinaThe National Library of China will establish computer network readingrooms across the country, a development expected to extend the library into every corner of China.Liu Xiaobai, director of the library's information network department, said the Network Readingroom Digital Library Project has formerly begun, and that a single computer in the fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) can constitute a large library. Forty million pages containing tens of thousands of books held by the National Library of China will be able to be read without limits of space or time. The abundantly rich information in the library will be transmitted by cable TV Wide Band provided by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) at speeds much faster than through than Internet. A successful experiment has been carried out in Jinan in eastern China's Shandong Province, said the director. Four provinces and municipalities including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and Henan have finished FDDI installation, and altogether 15 provinces and municipalities will have these network readingrooms by the end of this year. He said that as a key scientific research project, the Network Readingroom Digital Library will be jointly hosted by National Library of China and SARFT, and this cooperation is a perfect marriage of information source and computer network. The National Library is the largest Chinese information source in the world, while SARFT is engaged in the cable TV networking system with 80 million users, and SARFT's wide band provides an information highway for the library. Founded in 1909, the National Library of China stores 20 million volumes and hosts 1.5 million readers every year. |
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