Shanghai Library
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shanghai Library is the second largest library in China after the National Library of China in Beijing. It is located in Shanghai, China.
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[edit] Early history
The first library in Shanghai was built in 1847. The name of the library was the Library of the Xu Jiahui Jesuit mission. 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.
[edit] Merge
The first large municipal public library was founded in Shanghai on July 22, 1952. The library had a collection of more than 700,000 volumes. Shanghai Library merged with merged with the Shanghai Municipal Library of Science and Technology, the Shanghai Municipal Library of Historical Documents and the Shanghai Newspaper Library in October 1958. It was the second largest comprehensive public library in China, in terms of collection, services and professional expertise.
[edit] Library in the modern era
Shanghai Library merged with the Institute of Scientific and Technological Information of Shanghai (ISTIS) in October 1995. It became the first ever library in China that combines public library services with SciTech and industry information research functions.
Today, it is the largest public library in China and one of the ten largest libraries in the world. It was opened to the public on December 20, 1996. It covers 3.1 hectares of land, with a floor space of 83,000 square meters.
