Building a digital network of Chinese ancient books - Chinese Ancient Books Resources Database construction and services

Ancient books are essential carriers of Chinese civilization. In 2016, the National Library of China officially released the Chinese Ancient Books Resources Database, establishing a digital network of Chinese ancient books, letting the world feel the enduring charm of oriental culture, breaking the restrictions of time and space, and realizing the sharing of ancient books resources on a global scale.

Comprehensively display precious Chinese classics, realizing the dissemination of ancient books across time and space

The total number of database resources exceeds 103,000 volumes items, covering almost all kinds of precious documents in the Chinese civilization. Through international digital cooperation, the Chinese Ancient Books Resources Database has gone abroad; it released 1.76 million shots of ancient book resources from overseas collection institutions such as the Harvard-Yenching Library, the Institute of Oriental Culture of the University of Tokyo, and the National Library of France, realizing the centralized display and digital sharing of Chinese ancient books around the world. With the release of high-definition images of the Dunhuang Documents donated by the National Library of France and the Donated Chinese Books by the Eisei Bunko Museum of Japan, the donors' willingness has been realized to serve readers worldwide. The International Union Catalogue of Chinese Rare Books database helps international scholars understand the collection of ancient Chinese books in North American universities. The international exchange and cooperation of Chinese precious ancient books allows Internet users around the world to share information and ideas, promotes the cultural diversity of the network, and realizes the dissemination of Chinese precious ancient books across time and space.

Effectively solve the contradiction between the collection and use of ancient books, change the ecology of academic research

Ancient books are the fruit of the wisdom and civilization achievements of the Chinese nation. The protection, research, and utilization of ancient books is an essential foundation for inheriting the Chinese context and traditional culture. Through digitalizing full-color images and transforming microfilm images, the Chinese Ancient Books Resources Database effectively solves the contradiction between the collection and use of ancient books which has been widely praised by scholars in the community. Several internationally renowned scholars commented that the Chinese Ancient Books Resources Database provides convenient access to ancient book resources through the network and ensures readers can remotely view the original images of ancient books, saving a lot of time, strength, energy, and financial resources, and changing the academic ecology of ancient book collation and research which is a significant turning point. Also, many of the ancient book resources released by the database are previously unpublished literature, surpassing the digitization of all ancient book resources worldwide. Recently, the release of the National Catalogue of Rare Ancient Books Knowledge Base and The Yongle DaDian High-Definitiont6 Image Database has further improved the knowledge services in this area.

Play a leading role in promoting the joint release of ancient book resources

The National Library of China has comprehensively improved access to the Chinese Ancient Books Resources Database and realized login-free reading, which greatly meets the public's demand for using ancient book resources. The number of readers' visits has increased exponentially.

Driven by the Chinese Ancient Books Resources Database, 39 ancient books collection institutions across the country have participated in the joint release of ancient books digital resources organized by the China National Center for Preservation & Conservation of Ancient Books eight times and shared online a total of more than 28,000 volumes/items, such as Song and Yuan Dynasty rare books, rubbings, Buddhist literature, Ming and Qing Dynasty ancient books, ancient books in ethnic minorities' scripts, a large number of chronicles, genealogies, and other characteristic ancient book resources. The institutions participating in the joint release cover a wide range of provincial, municipal, district, and county public libraries, museums, colleges and universities, scientific research institutions, etc. Up to now, more than 130,000 digital resources of ancient books and special collections have been released.

Openness and sharing of resources contribute to traditional Chinese culture research

According to the number of news reports and related comments, the open sharing of the Chinese Ancient Books Resources Database has fundamentally changed how many experts and scholars use library resources and services, which has attracted the attention of the community and readers and has been appraised by them. Some experts said that the release of the Chinese Ancient Books Resources Database has effectively alleviated the contradiction between the collection and use of ancient books and balances the character of ancient books as relics or literature, while some readers mentioned that more than 1/3 of the historical materials used in his doctoral dissertation came from the National Library of China, which has a large number of unpublished block-printed editions and transcripts that can be obtained by searching the database. Therefore, the Chinese Ancient Books Resources Database is valuable and beneficial to the public.