The Shanghai Library, which also houses the Shanghai Institute of Scientific and Technological Information, is the municipal library of
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
, China. It is the largest library in China. At 24 stories and 348 feet (106 m) tall, it is the second
tallest library in the world, as well as one of the largest. The building has a tower that resembles a
lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
Lighthouses mar ...
.
The Library is located at 1557 Huaihai Zhong Lu,
Xuhui District
Xuhui District is a core urban district of Shanghai. It has a land area of and a population of 982,200 as of 2008.
The Xuhui District is named after its namesake, the historic area of Xujiahui. Xujiahui was historically land owned by Ming dyna ...
, Shanghai.
Early history: The Xujiahui (Zikawei) Library
The Bibliotheca Zi-Ka-Wei is the first modern library to have been established in Shanghai. It was established in 1847.
The Bibliotheca Zi-Ka-Wei (The Xujiahui Library)
. Shanghai Library. Retrieved on September 16, 2015.
Mergers
In 1925, Shanghai East Library, the first library run by Chinese, was opened. In 1950, the Shanghai Cultural Heritage Managing Committee launched a campaign to collect books and after about a year, the collection grew to more than 200,000 volumes. Many scholars and celebrities contributed and some of them made large donations. The committee also started to buy books from abroad. After the mission schools and scientific establishments had been taken over by the Chinese government, the last foreign Jesuits left Xujiahui in 1951.[King, Gail. (1997). The Xujiahui (Zikawei) Library of Shanghai. ''Libraries & Culture'', 32(4), (Fall, 1997), pp. 456-469, University of Texas Press.] The Xujiahui Library, along with other libraries formerly run by foreign groups, was placed under the control of the Shanghai Municipal Library, which had been established on July 22, 1952. This was the first large municipal public library in Shanghai. Marked the Shanghai library career in the founding of new China has taken a historic step. The library had a collection of more than 700,000 volumes. the Shanghai Municipal Library of Historical Documents(formerly known as Shanghai private Hezhong library founded in 1939 by Jingkui Ye and Yuanji Zhang), The Xujiahui Library (Bibliotheca Zikawei), which reopened in 1977, also became a branch of the Shanghai Library. It was the second largest comprehensive public library in China, in terms of collection, services, and professional expertise.
In October 1995, the Shanghai library merged with the Shanghai Institute of science and technology information, and became the first provincial (city) level library and information association.
See also
*Libraries in the People's Republic of China
The first libraries in China came into being during the time of the Shang dynasty (the sixteenth to eleventh centuries B.C.) as intellectuals known as the Shi (historians) and Wu (diviners) emerged from manual labor to special occupations for the ...
:* National Library of China
The National Library of China (; NLC) is the national library of the People's Republic of China and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It contains over 41 million items as of December 2020. It holds the largest collection of Chines ...
*Chinese Library Classification
The Chinese Library Classification (CLC; ), also known as Classification for Chinese Libraries (CCL), is effectively the national library classification scheme in China. It is used in almost all primary and secondary schools, universities, academic ...
(CLC)
*Archives in the People's Republic of China
On the basis of the General Rules for Archives published in 1983, historical archives were being expanded at the provincial and county levels. Two of the most important archives were the First Historical Archives of China (FHAC), located in Beijin ...
*Pudong Library
Pudong Library () is a library in Shanghai, China. It provides access to resources such as newspapers, electronic books and research papers. The library offers approximately 3,900,000 resources. Average daily attendance is 6,000; In 2017, the lib ...
References
Brief History
Further reading
*
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
Libraries in Shanghai
Library buildings completed in 1996
Public libraries in China
Xuhui District