A library of ancient books opens in Suzhou, the first at a prefecture level in the country, Cheng Yuezhu reports.

Featuring a classical garden and assorted precious tomes, the new Suzhou Library of Ancient Books offers visitors an immersive experience of traditional Chinese culture.

The library opened to the public on Nov 29 in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, as the first library of ancient books in a prefecture-level city in China.

Visitors to the library are treated to its collection of ancient books, its database with the full-text retrieval feature, as well as a variety of events, including exhibitions, lectures and workshops.

It features a workspace, with chairs that allow visitors to sit and read the shelved books, computers for searching the books' content, and showcases displaying some documents and paintings from the library's collection.

Occasional events are also hosted in the space. At a recent event, visitors were offered the opportunity to browse through a few books, produced in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) with woodblock printing technique, under the guidance of the library staff.

The library was established on the foundation of Suzhou Library's department of ancient books.

Jie Ye, deputy director of the Suzhou Library, says the old library boasts a collection of more than 160,000 ancient books, including more than 20,000 precious volumes, and 124 book titles listed in the national directory of precious ancient books.

The library has also been carrying forward its digitalization project since 2007, so far having transformed 1,496 ancient books into digital formats.

It has established a database with various categories including ancient local documents, precious books from the library's collection, genealogy and literary works in the Suzhou area. Users can access the database both at the library or by logging in from an external computer.

"From the very beginning, we set on developing a database that allows full-text retrieval, which is pioneering, considering that in many places the digitalization of ancient books means scanning the books into image formats," says Sun Zhongwang, head of the department of ancient books at Suzhou Library.

At the library's opening ceremony, Suzhou's five institutes recognized as national key units for ancient books protection — Suzhou Library, Changshu Library, Soochow University Library, Wujiang Library and Suzhou Museum — signed an agreement to work together in the further digitalization of ancient books.

"All these organizations have been working on the digitalization of ancient books, but there isn't a unified platform or a set of standards for us to share the results. With this agreement, we are hoping to establish a digital platform that stores and shares the information across Suzhou," Sun says.

More projects are being planned to provide a series of systematic lessons and workshops to anyone with an interest in classical texts. The lessons are likely to focus on the representative classical texts, such as the Confucian Four Books and Five Classics, or those highlighting Suzhou local culture.

"We hope to establish the library into a rounded platform that incorporates the functions of libraries, museums and archives. We will work in the aspects of ancient book protection, including collection, exhibition, restoration, research, digitalization and exchange, with a focus on popularizing China's excellent traditional culture to the public," Sun says.

Zhang Zhiqing, deputy director of the National Center for Preservation and Conservation of Ancient Books, says Suzhou has set a fine example for the preservation of ancient books in prefecture-level cities.

This has to do with the favorable historical background of the region, he says. "Suzhou and its neighboring areas have historically been a hub of collectors, especially in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties, who collected a large quantity of books, including the precious editions and those with handwritten annotations by historical figures."

Today's Suzhou has more than 30 public organizations with collections of ancient books, the total number exceeding 1 million, of which some 319 are listed in the national directory of precious ancient books, ranking the top in China's prefecture-level cities.

"In setting up the library of ancient books, the city (Suzhou) has arranged for a venue and hired specialized personnel to preserve its collection and allow the public access to it. Suzhou Library has been an exemplar in serving society," Zhang says.

Zhang says he hopes that prefecture-level cities with a developed local economy and rich historical resources, such as from the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta areas, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, can learn from Suzhou's example and establish specialized libraries to upgrade their preservation of ancient books and services in traditional culture popularization.

Zhou Furong contributed to this story.

Contact the writer at chengyuezhu@chinadaily.com.cn