Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This study analyzes the development of Chinese academic libraries for identifying the emerging patterns and trends based on the nationwide operational data. By using a stratified sampling method, the annual operational data of the academic libraries from 1323 Chinese universities are collected. Five perspectives are adopted for analyzing the collected data using the common statistics. The study finds that the total fund for developing Chinese academic libraries is increased tremendously compared with that in the previous year. This is exemplified by the average literature resources purchase fee of RMB 2.126 million Yuan, the average electronic resources purchase fee of RMB 3.842 million Yuan, and the average library space of 0.271 million square meters. The study reveals that library directors are mostly senior and associate senior professionals and the average number of positioned librarians at 27.4, which is decreasing in a downward trend. It finds that the education qualification of positioned librarians has been improved significantly, especially with postgraduate degrees. The study discovers that there is only 3.8 percent of positioned librarians who are younger than 29 years old and the average number of young and positioned librarians is 1.05 librarians for each academic library. It shows that the average number of contracted staff is increased with decreased temporary staff and increased part-time students. Furthermore, the study reveals that the utilization rate of library resources is increased significantly based on the average volume of books and periodicals borrowed in academic libraries at 45 thousand volumes, the average cumulative volume of paper books at 1.426 million volumes including 48.9 thousand volumes of Chinese ancient books, and the total volume of ancient books in Chinese undergraduate academic libraries at over 14.437 million volumes.
Authors: Hanhua Wu, Hepu Deng
Institutions: Jianghan University, RMIT University
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4410978507