Citizens watch the exhibition of achievements of "The Wind is Hanging on the Sails - 40 Years of Guangzhou Library" Photo by Chen Chuhong
Guangzhou, January 2 (Reporter Cheng Jingwei) "Guangzhou Library has served more than 130 million people in the past 40 years, and currently has more than 2.4 million registered readers. On January 2, at the opening ceremony of the exhibition "The Wind is Hanging on the Sails - 40 Years of Guangzhou Library" held by Guangzhou Library, Fang Jiazhong, director of Guangzhou Library, announced the achievements of the library in the past 40 years.
On January 2, 1982, the Guangzhou Library (Spark Burning Original Library) located on Zhongshan 4th Road in Guangzhou was officially opened, ending the 27-year history of Guangzhou without a municipal public library. After 40 years, There are now 313 public libraries in Guangzhou, and 176 streets and towns in the city have achieved 100% full coverage of public libraries, and all of them have achieved universal borrowing and repayment.
Since 2014, Guangzhou Library has ranked first in terms of basic services for six consecutive years, with more than 50,000 readers admitted to the library on August 5, 2018 alone, setting a record for the highest number of daily admissions to public libraries in mainland cities. The Guangzhou Library is therefore known as one of the busiest libraries in the world. In November this year, guangzhou library achieved more than 2.4 million registered readers.
Photo by Chen Chuhong at the Guangzhou Library in Zhujiang New Town
Successive municipal party committees and municipal governments in Guangzhou have attached great importance to and strongly supported guangzhou libraries. When it opened in 1982, the old museum located on Zhongshan 4th Road was the first large-scale cultural facility newly built in Guangzhou after the reform and opening up. The new museum located in Zhujiang New Town is also the first construction project in the climax of a new round of cultural facilities construction in Guangzhou after entering the new century, with a total investment of 1.3 billion yuan and an area of 100,000 square meters, which is still one of the largest urban public libraries in the world with a single construction area, standing on the north bank of the Pearl River with the image of "beautiful books on the pearl river", becoming a beautiful landscape in the living room of Guangzhou city.
The purchase cost of Guangzhou Library increased from 187,000 yuan in 1982 to 59 million yuan in 2019, and the per capita new books in the city reached 0.2 volumes (pieces), reaching the standard stipulated in the Regulations of Guangzhou Public Libraries. Correspondingly, guangzhou library's collection resources have increased from 140,000 volumes when the library opened in 1982 to more than 10 million volumes in 2019, ranking third among public libraries in the Mainland.
In the 40 years since its opening, Guangzhou Library has set more than 25 leading records in services, including taking the lead in opening the shelves for reading books, taking the lead in opening up the issuance of library cards, setting up a public computer library, setting up an electronic reading room for the blind, and taking the lead in implementing deposit-free registration, etc., realizing the library industry to step onto a new level of public welfare and equal service in the field of public cultural services.
In addition, Guangzhou Library, as the central library of Guangzhou Public Library, has also actively promoted the construction of Guangzhou's "Library City", taking the lead in building the main branch library system of the central library in 2020, formulating unified logos and service specifications, and promoting the basic formation of Guangzhou's "Library City". (End)