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The next chapter in libraries
By Xu Wenwen |
August 24, 2010, Tuesday
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HANGZHOU Public Library is changing the way people think with its commitment to providing free and easily accessible services for everyone. The early signs are encouraging as its members have increased notably since the change, reports Xu Wenwen.
Hangzhou Public Library is China's first all-free library and boasts an astonishing number of books and services.
Nearly 3 million books are free to borrow, more than 70,000 worldwide libraries' resources are free to browse online and over 3,000 DVDs and CDs are free to play.
Receiving 6,000 visitors per day on average, which has climbed to 13,000 this summer, the new library lying at Hangzhou's Citizen Center boasts 210,000 members after opening less than two years ago. The membership figure is three times the total number at the old Hangzhou Public Library.
The rise in members is all the more impressive when you consider the old Hangzhou Public Library was in a good location adjacent to West Lake while the new branch in Qianjiang New Town is a less-populated area. Also, since information is available on the Internet, why have so many people flocked to the new library?
The library said it is due to advanced facilities and its motto: "equal, free and easy to access services for all."
The four-floor building was packed during our visit with people of various ages occupying almost every seat, holding books and magazines, using their own laptops, or wearing earphones.
In the children's area, kids were lying or sitting on the floor with soft-play books or toys. On the second floor, people crowded the world-class music library equipped with the latest audio-visual technology.
In contrast to most libraries that restrict readers to certain areas, Hangzhou Public Library, which is more than 43,000 square meters, has opened 90 percent of its space to readers, fulfilling its goal of being "the people's library and citizens' reading corner."
Moreover, the new library cancels the deposit and annual fee. Hangzhou residents only need to use their ID cards or citizen cards instead of applying for library cards to borrow books.
Hangzhou Public Library's Director Chu Shuqing said that the old system of requiring a deposit discouraged some people from joining.
"A 100-yuan (US$14.70) deposit is not much to many people, yet to vulnerable groups it's a threshold," said Chu. "Canceling all fees ensures that everybody is equal before knowledge."
To provide a better atmosphere to readers, the library features a home-style design with thick carpeting, comfortable sofas and wooden book shelves instead of iron ones.
The library is well lit with a glass ceiling and walls. It also adopted low-carbon attitude and ordinary lights on the ceiling, personal study lamps on desks, and inductive lights on the top of book shelves, which turn on only when people approach.
Sometimes, homeless people come to take a rest. The library doesn't reject them; instead, it encourages them to read. Their only request is that they wash their hands before reading. Indeed, it is "the people's library."
Yet even though it is approachable, it doesn't mean it looks shabby. Rather, it boasts first-class decoration and technologies.
The municipal government invested nearly 40 million yuan in the library, which has 2,000 study areas equipped with personal lamps, power supplies and free WiFi.
It also boasts the country's first automatic book-borrowing machines in which patrons only need to spend a few seconds to borrow or return books. All they need to do is swipe their ID or residency cards.
Besides, the library holds numerous free activities including a reading salon, lectures, seminars, mini concert.
"A library is no longer just a place to borrow books, but a platform to communicate ideas and exchange culture," Chu said.
"Since the way people read has diversified, like reading on cell phones and computers, the meaning of reading is much enriched and will be richer," Chu added. "So it's a trend for the library to develop its own diversity."
Furthermore, the library provides a great number of computers with Internet connections.
Last October, Hangzhou Public Library became a member of Online Computer Library Center, a worldwide nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization. Members are capable of checking the resources from 70,000 libraries and informational organizations around the world.
This use of technology is changing the stereotypes people have about libraries, just like the Internet has altered reading habits.
Since the library's staff is not fixed behind the circulation desk, they are more likely to wander among book shelves and offer advice to readers, Chu said.
"Facing the mass of information on the Internet, readers need professional guidance," Chu said. "It's like people going to a hospital for doctors or going to a legal firm for lawyers. Now they can come to our library to talk to our librarians about reading."
Online reading has led to the rise of trivial reading, which hurt both libraries and book stores as people were less likely to come.
But Chu said the Internet is not meant to compete with public libraries, but is a tool to share and globalize information.
"Schools provide one form of education but libraries are supposed to provide further education - without the grades or degrees," Chu said.
When the new Hangzhou Public Library opened in 2008, both the new and old libraries canceled deposits and annual fees. Other public libraries in the city followed their lead.
Thus Hangzhou became the first city in the country featuring public libraries with "equal, free and easy to access services for all."
Hangzhou Public Library is China's first all-free library and boasts an astonishing number of books and services.
Nearly 3 million books are free to borrow, more than 70,000 worldwide libraries' resources are free to browse online and over 3,000 DVDs and CDs are free to play.
Receiving 6,000 visitors per day on average, which has climbed to 13,000 this summer, the new library lying at Hangzhou's Citizen Center boasts 210,000 members after opening less than two years ago. The membership figure is three times the total number at the old Hangzhou Public Library.
The rise in members is all the more impressive when you consider the old Hangzhou Public Library was in a good location adjacent to West Lake while the new branch in Qianjiang New Town is a less-populated area. Also, since information is available on the Internet, why have so many people flocked to the new library?
The library said it is due to advanced facilities and its motto: "equal, free and easy to access services for all."
The four-floor building was packed during our visit with people of various ages occupying almost every seat, holding books and magazines, using their own laptops, or wearing earphones.
In the children's area, kids were lying or sitting on the floor with soft-play books or toys. On the second floor, people crowded the world-class music library equipped with the latest audio-visual technology.
In contrast to most libraries that restrict readers to certain areas, Hangzhou Public Library, which is more than 43,000 square meters, has opened 90 percent of its space to readers, fulfilling its goal of being "the people's library and citizens' reading corner."
Moreover, the new library cancels the deposit and annual fee. Hangzhou residents only need to use their ID cards or citizen cards instead of applying for library cards to borrow books.
Hangzhou Public Library's Director Chu Shuqing said that the old system of requiring a deposit discouraged some people from joining.
"A 100-yuan (US$14.70) deposit is not much to many people, yet to vulnerable groups it's a threshold," said Chu. "Canceling all fees ensures that everybody is equal before knowledge."
To provide a better atmosphere to readers, the library features a home-style design with thick carpeting, comfortable sofas and wooden book shelves instead of iron ones.
The library is well lit with a glass ceiling and walls. It also adopted low-carbon attitude and ordinary lights on the ceiling, personal study lamps on desks, and inductive lights on the top of book shelves, which turn on only when people approach.
Sometimes, homeless people come to take a rest. The library doesn't reject them; instead, it encourages them to read. Their only request is that they wash their hands before reading. Indeed, it is "the people's library."
Yet even though it is approachable, it doesn't mean it looks shabby. Rather, it boasts first-class decoration and technologies.
The municipal government invested nearly 40 million yuan in the library, which has 2,000 study areas equipped with personal lamps, power supplies and free WiFi.
It also boasts the country's first automatic book-borrowing machines in which patrons only need to spend a few seconds to borrow or return books. All they need to do is swipe their ID or residency cards.
Besides, the library holds numerous free activities including a reading salon, lectures, seminars, mini concert.
"A library is no longer just a place to borrow books, but a platform to communicate ideas and exchange culture," Chu said.
"Since the way people read has diversified, like reading on cell phones and computers, the meaning of reading is much enriched and will be richer," Chu added. "So it's a trend for the library to develop its own diversity."
Furthermore, the library provides a great number of computers with Internet connections.
Last October, Hangzhou Public Library became a member of Online Computer Library Center, a worldwide nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization. Members are capable of checking the resources from 70,000 libraries and informational organizations around the world.
This use of technology is changing the stereotypes people have about libraries, just like the Internet has altered reading habits.
Since the library's staff is not fixed behind the circulation desk, they are more likely to wander among book shelves and offer advice to readers, Chu said.
"Facing the mass of information on the Internet, readers need professional guidance," Chu said. "It's like people going to a hospital for doctors or going to a legal firm for lawyers. Now they can come to our library to talk to our librarians about reading."
Online reading has led to the rise of trivial reading, which hurt both libraries and book stores as people were less likely to come.
But Chu said the Internet is not meant to compete with public libraries, but is a tool to share and globalize information.
"Schools provide one form of education but libraries are supposed to provide further education - without the grades or degrees," Chu said.
When the new Hangzhou Public Library opened in 2008, both the new and old libraries canceled deposits and annual fees. Other public libraries in the city followed their lead.
Thus Hangzhou became the first city in the country featuring public libraries with "equal, free and easy to access services for all."
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