Xianju Library

In August 1949, after the establishment of the library room of the Xianju County People's Cultural Palace, the next month saw the planning of a new library in the Confucian Temple. It consisted of two east wing rooms totaling 40 square meters, while ancient books were stored in three rooms upstairs totaling 50 square meters. The following year, the library room was relocated to the Wending Building, consisting of three rooms with a total area of 80 square meters (with ancient books still stored in the original location). In August 1951, the library room moved back to the Confucian Temple, with an additional south-facing bungalow of nearly 40 square meters. In June 1963, it moved to five bungalows on Xueqian Street, covering 75 square meters, offering lending and newspaper reading services to the public, and adding a "Youth Home" (which relocated to Chengguan Town -now in the area of Taiping Street- in 1965 and became the town cultural station). In 1964, some books were moved to the vicinity of the Xiaocai Market, renting two rooms totaling 40 square meters in a civilian house. In 1965, the library on Xueqian Street temporarily moved to three bungalows totaling 50 square meters in the west wing of the Xianju County Cultural Palace, but soon returned to Xueqian Street.^[10]

After the start of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, the library room was closed. In 1968, the library room's book depository moved to two rooms totaling 40 square meters at No. 212 Nanmen Street, with an additional room of 10 square meters. After the reopening of the library room in 1972, it moved back to the west wing of the county cultural palace, and ancient books were also moved to the county cultural palace in July and August, stored in the east wing. In 1973, the three bungalows in the south wing were expanded, with an area of 60 square meters. From summer 1975 to October 1976, the juvenile reading room opened at the entrance of Jiufang Lane, opposite a rented civilian house. From 1974 to 1975, a total of 70,000 yuan was allocated by the provincial and county governments of Zhejiang and Xianju to begin construction of the cultural palace building, which was completed in August 1976.^[10]

In April 1977, after the end of the Cultural Revolution, the library room moved into the cultural palace building. The ten small rooms on the west side of the third floor were used as book depositories, covering an area of nearly 150 square meters, while the six large rooms on the ground floor were used as reading rooms, with an area of 231 square meters. Among them, there was one lending library, two semi-open-shelf lending rooms, two reading rooms for newspapers, and one reference book depository. Ancient books were moved to the third floor of the building in the second half of 1977, occupying three rooms. After the formal establishment of the Xianju County Library in August 1978, the building remained at the original location for eight years. During this period, the independent library building started construction in June 1984, consisting of four rooms on four floors and three rooms on five floors, covering an area of 0.5 mu, with a construction area of 1440 square meters. The project was completed in October 1986, and it was put into use in January 1987. After the completion of the new building, the nine staff members worked overtime to move and decorate, saving the state more than 3,000 yuan in expenses.^[10] The building has been in use ever since. The original cultural palace building is now used as dormitories for some employees.^[11]

The area of the library building is among the lowest in the entire city of Taizhou, and the original building has long been unable to meet daily needs,^[12] so the library has been planning to build a new one.^[11] In December 2014, the design of the new building of Xianju County Library began, and the new building was located on the north side of the foot of Nanfeng Mountain, designed by the Landscape Design Institute of China Academy of Art.^[13] In May 2019, the construction of Xianju County Urban Cultural Complex project started, which is the first large-scale comprehensive public cultural infrastructure project in Taizhou City. The project is located on the east side of the Xianju Party School, at the junction of Yong'an Creek and Nanfeng Mountain,^[12] with a total land area of 47.48 mu and a total construction area of 70,400 square meters. The total investment of the project is about 636 million yuan, and the construction period is 3 years. Xianju County Library, Xianju County Museum, Xianju County Cultural Center, and Xianju Theater will all settle in the project. Among them, Xianju County Library has collection areas, reading areas, conference areas, etc.^[9] After the completion of the project, Xianju County Library will be able to store at least one million books, effectively alleviating the current shortage of seats and bookshelves.^[12]

The main building of Xianju County Library is located at No. 2 Jiefang Street, covering an area of 0.5 mu, with a main building area of 1440 square meters and a total area of 3725 square meters.^[4] The library is equipped with book lending room, newspaper reading room, children's room, electronic reading room, reception area, local books room, etc.^[14] There is also an academic lecture hall in the library, which is fully equipped and can accommodate more than 100 people.^[15]

As of May 2019, Xianju County Library has built 18 township branch libraries,^[17] 8 HeHe Book Bars,^[18] 12 specialty branch libraries,^[19] and 8 academies.^[18] Among them, specialty branch libraries are set up in places such as community correction centers, PICC, and maternal and child health hospitals, selecting books with targeted content, such as medical and health books in maternal and child health hospital branch libraries,^[18] and will continue to build 4 to 5 in 2019.^[19]

Academies undertake the task of "inheriting and promoting local excellent culture" and have been recommended by the Xianju County Government as an important work. In May 2016, the "Xianju Academy Construction Plan" was specifically issued, clearly positioning the Xianju Academy as "a new type of cultural work carrier integrating traditional cultural education and modern humanities education." The academy has received support from the masses and various departments, and has had a positive impact.^[20] Xianju County Library also has a large mobile library, which regularly delivers books, exhibitions, and lectures to remote areas, providing services to people in remote areas.^[18] The collections of all branch libraries can be borrowed and returned throughout the county, achieving "one-card access" even in other branch libraries.^[12]

Xianju County Library is a subordinate unit of the Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism, and Sports of Xianju County, which budgeted 5.15 million yuan for the library in 2019, mainly used for personnel salaries and book purchases.^[21] The library has 11 formal positions, with 8 current permanent staff^[4] as of April 2019. As of April 2019, Jiang Zhien was the director of Xianju County Library.^[18] The mission of Xianju County Library is to "improve the quality of citizens and create a literary Xianju"; the vision is to "build Xianju County Library into a first-grade county-level library in China".^[22]

In 2017, Xianju County Library had an annual circulation of 772,000 volumes and received more than 1.39 million visitors annually.^[8] As of May 2017, Xianju County Library had issued 21,466 library cards.^[12]

As of July 2018, Xianju County Library had a total collection of 811,314 volumes (including 172,000 volumes in rural cultural auditoriums).^[6] As of 2017, Xianju County Library had a collection of 714,109 volumes of books, 18,300 periodicals, and more than 6,000 local documents.^[23] The library also has a set of reprints of "Siku Quanshu", as well as "Republic Series" and 16 sets of rare edition reference books, which are the "treasures" of Xianju County Library.^[24]

Previously, to apply for a library card at Xianju County Library, a deposit of 100 yuan was required. Starting from March 2018, residents of Xianju obtained library cards for free at the main library or branch libraries by presenting their Citizen Card, with the same privileges as regular library cards. Each cardholder can borrow up to 5 books for a period of one month, with an extension of 15 days allowed once.^[15][25]

Xianju County Library organizes professional personnel to digitize local chronicles such as "Xianju County Chronicles" and "Guangxu Xianju County Chronicles", processing them digitally through information technology so that readers can read them online without the need for physical books.^[26] Xianju County Library was the first in Zhejiang Province to initiate database project construction. Currently, it has built 8 databases including "Xianju Historical and Humanistic Map", "Xianju Lantern Database", "Xianju Colored Stone Inlay Database", "Xianju Folk Embroidery Art Database", "Millennium Ancient Town—Potan History of Changes", "Xianju Memory Database", "Xianju County Library Microenterprise Think Tank", and "Xianju County Special Literature Library", with a total digital resource volume of 6.63 TB.^[23]

The library has also launched the "Xianju County Digital Library" service platform, providing access to 420 million Chinese and foreign literature information and 3.3 million book catalog information through the Zhejiang Digital Library platform.^[4] The digital library also contains local documents and special books from Xianju County, making it, according to Library Director Jiang Zhien, "the first in Taizhou".^[6] In addition to the above digital resources, Xianju County Library also has access to Fangzheng Apabi digital books, Tsinghua Tongfang full-text journals, papers, newspaper databases, the National Cultural Information Resource Sharing Platform, Longyuan journals, and Weipu Chinese science and technology journals. Readers can search for resources in the electronic reading room on the first floor of the library,^[14] with only an internet fee of 1 yuan per hour charged.^[15]

In terms of offline equipment, Xianju County Library and some branch libraries support borrowing books^[23] and entering the library using mobile phone QR codes,^[6] as well as self-service card issuance through card issuance machines.^[23]

Xianju County Library organizes public lectures called "Xianju Story Collection", which are based on local culture and history, sparking a local cultural trend in Xianju County.^[27] Xianju County Library has also held activities such as "Celebrating the New Year with Literary Joy",^[28] "Exhibition of the Public Library Law",^[29] and a Spring Equinox Poetry Meeting,^[30] as well as lantern riddle guessing activities on Lantern Festival both online and offline via WeChat public accounts.^[31][32]