"Since its opening in 1982, in the past 40 years, Guangzhou Library has served more than 130 million guangzhou citizens, and at present, the registered readers of Guangzhou Library alone are more than 2.4 million, which is the pride of our librarians and the pride of Guangzhou citizens." On January 2, at the opening ceremony of the exhibition "The Wind is Hanging in the Sails - 40 Years of Guangzhou Library" held by Guangzhou Library, Fang Jiazhong, director of Guangzhou Library, introduced the achievements of Guangzhou Library in the past 40 years to the audience.
The reporter learned that from January 2 to 9, the precious collection of the Guangzhou Library, including the "Imperial Ancient Rare Sayings" written by the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, will also meet with the public for the first time at the "Wind is Hanging on the Sails - 40 Years of Guangzhou Library" Achievement Exhibition.
Fang Jiazhong, director of Guangzhou Library, delivered a speech.
Guangzhou's 176 towns and cities have achieved full coverage of public libraries
At 2:00 p.m. on January 2, 1982, the Guangzhou Library (Xinghuoyuan Museum) located on Zhongshan 4th Road was officially opened, ending the history of Guangzhou without a municipal public library for 27 years. On the day of its opening, more than 7,000 people entered the library to borrow books and periodicals, and during the subsequent Spring Festival, Guangzhou Library opened as usual, becoming the first public library in China to open during the Spring Festival.
In the following 40 years, Guangzhou Library set a record of more than 25 leading services in the national library industry: taking the lead in opening the shelves of books, taking the lead in opening up the issuance of library cards, setting up the country's first public computer library, setting up the country's first blind electronic reading room, 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.
Today, there are 313 public libraries in Guangzhou, and 176 towns in the city have achieved 100% full coverage of public libraries, and all of them have been repaid through borrowing. In November last year, Guangzhou Library achieved a registered readership of more than 2.4 million.
More than 150 physical objects show the library's 40 years of service to the citizens of Guangzhou.
Fang Jiazhong introduced that when the museum 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, and today the new museum in Zhujiang New Town is also the first construction project in the climax of the new round of cultural facilities construction in Guangzhou, with a total investment of 1.3 billion yuan and an area of 100,000 square meters.
According to reports, 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). Correspondingly, the collection resources of Guangzhou Library 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 China.
"At that time, the Guangzhou Library used a card-based catalog, it was not easy to find books, and the reading space was cramped; however, in the era of no Internet, its rich collection of books still greatly alleviated my 'reading hunger and thirst'." More than 30 years ago, Wang Yi, a representative of readers, was already a "fan" of Guangzhou Library, and in recent years, he has participated in the library's civil code publicity, cultural assistance for the disabled, poetry recitation and reading space activities for many times, becoming one of the deep participants in the construction of Guangzhou Library.
Readers spoke on behalf of Wang Yi.
He sighed that after the completion of the new library, it has become his second work unit, and he is "not in the library, on the way to the library." With the convenience of the modernization of the new library, he has written more than a dozen academic papers, led by him, "Knowing the Law and Knowing the Truth" (electronic version), which was read by 743163 people in the three issues last year (as of late December 2021), the first in the national library industry. "Culture is the soul of a country and a nation." Wang Yi believes that the strong radiation power of Guangzhou Library will become one of the propellers for cultivating citizens' self-confidence in socialist culture.
In addition, Guangzhou Library, as the central library of Guangzhou Public Library, also actively promotes the construction of Guangzhou's "Library City", taking the lead in building the main branch library system of the central library in the country in 2020, formulating unified logos and service specifications, and basically taking shape in Guangzhou's "Library City".
Fang Jiazhong said that the "Guangzhou model" of the construction of public libraries in Guangzhou has prompted public libraries in Guangzhou to transform from traditional libraries that only provide basic services such as borrowing and tibetan consultation to diversified public cultural services including literature and knowledge services, cultural and exchange services, digital network services, etc., and urban public libraries have also transformed from "book-centered" traditional libraries to "people-centered" social public cultural spaces, ultimately providing basic protection for citizens' cultural rights and interests.
For the first time, the extensive and precious collection was met with the public
It is reported that the "Wind is Hanging on the Sails - 40 Years of Guangzhou Library" achievement exhibition located on the negative floor of Guangzhou Library has opened on December 23 last year. With a span of 10 years, the exhibition is divided into four parts: "Opening the Museum, Serving the Establishment" (1982-1992), "Technological Change, Keeping the Right and Opening the New" (1992-2002), "Strategizing, Ready to Go" (2002-2012) and "Seizing the Opportunity, Transforming and Leapfrogging" (2012-2022), showing the 40-year development process with rich pictures, texts, videos and other means, exhibiting more than 150 objects, such as historical documents, local documents, The Friendship Library and Consulate donated books, signature books of famous artists, brand activities, etc., using both physical objects and texts, to show the public the bits and pieces of service to the citizens of Guangzhou over the past 40 years.
Exhibition site.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Guangzhou Library, the exhibition also exhibited a number of precious collections, including the "Imperial Ancient Rare Sayings" written by the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, which was selected for the second batch of the "National Precious Ancient Books List" and had Rong Geng's inscription, the three volumes of the Ming Jiajing Eight-Year Inscribed Taoist Classic "The Collected Classics of the Jade Emperor of Gaoshang", and the four-year engraving of the Ming Chenghua "[Anhui Qimen] Guixi Hu Clan Genealogy".
In addition, there is the Decretum by Gratiani (Italy) printed in Mainz, Germany in 1472 by the famous printer Peter Schoffer - as a kind of "cradle book" of the ancient Western book, this book has a huge opening, complete beginning and end, well preserved, is the earliest known surviving cradle book in China, and what is even more rare is that most of the pages of this book use extremely high technical requirements and in the early days." The "Cradle Book" is also rarely used on a large scale of mechanical cover red technology. "The Guangzhou Library has a total of 7 kinds of Western 'cradle books', ranking first among national libraries." Introduction of the person in charge.
In addition to the above-mentioned precious ancient books of China and the West, the "treasures" in the collection of the Guangzhou Library on display this time also include the "Yunlin Stone Notation" (Song Dynasty Treatise on Stone Monographs, Qing Li Zonghao Series), "Qing Huaitang Qin Notation" (The Biography of the Qing Dynasty Pianist Yun Zhigao and the Court Violinist Jin Tao), "Imperial Ancient Rare Sayings" (written by the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty), "Reprinting the Collected Works of Mr. Chang Li of the Five Hundred Zhuyin Dialects" (Wang Zhaoyong of Guangdong Panyu) and other Chinese rare books.
For the first time, the extensive and precious collection was met with the public.
The rare books on display also include a number of the basic copies of the "Guangzhou Canon": "Guangdong Customs Concerto Draft" (Qing Yue Customs Supervisor Has a Draft), "Supplementary Food Materia Medica Preparation" (medical book, the recorded dietary remedies are still circulated and used today), "Limu Shanfang Seal" a volume (Qing Ke has hazel Tibetan seal and its son Ke Tiesheng engraved) and so on.
[Reporter] Huang Chuxuan
[Correspondent] Zeng Qian
【Photography】 Qiu Minye
【Author】 Huang Chuxuan; Qiu Minye
【Source】 Southern Press Media Group South + client