Digital access to ancient and rare books of the National Library to be available

According to the Legal Evening News, the National Library has signed a co-development agreement with Harvard University Library regarding the digitization of the Chinese ancient and rare books in the Harvard-Yenching Library so that readers can read the precious ancient books on the National Library's website by the beginning of next year.

Digitalization is an effective way to preserve both ancient and rare books. It is planned that the National Library will officially receive digital information monthly beginning in January 2010, which, after quality investigation and metadata indexing, will be posted on its website for the reference of scholars from the world over.

As is prescribed by the agreement, the achievement of this project will be recorded in the full format of digital image file, and each party of the two will hold one respectively. The files will be posted online for free on their websites and also for academic and preservation purpose, which creates an unprecedented library of Chinese rare and ancient books.

Harvard-Yenching Library is famous in America and Europe for its East Asian collection, some of which are precious and rare, drawing the attention of sinologists from the world over.

Translated by LOTO