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AUGUST 22, 2008
Visiting a Chinese Library
Nihao (hello) from Beijing!
As the Summer Olympics come to an end, you may be saturated by coverage of China. Here is something you might not see between Michael Phelps and the Chinese gymnasts: My day job is at the checkout desk of Monterey Public Library. Right now, I am lucky enough to be on vacation in Beijing. I stayed with a Chinese family for several days, and the mother (Joy) was a tour guide, fluent in English. I asked her if it was possible to see a Chinese public library, and she said yes, if you visited with a local card-holder.  We drove about 15 minutes from her house to her district library. She explained there are eight in the city of Beijing, plus one large central library. The building looked like a modern office high-rise, but inside it reminded me of high school classrooms. On the 3rd floor, we found the equivalent of the checkout desk. There were two library catalog computers as you walked in, and a desk with two clerks at computers. The shelves here were “open,” meaning you could browse them just like in Monterey. The shelves were numbered and each book was numbered, but I could not make any sense of the organization. Joy looked up a novel she wanted in the catalog. The computer had a keyboard with English letters but somehow it typed Chinese characters. Even after she found the “call number” of her book, she had trouble finding it and had to ask a clerk for help. At the desk, the book was scanned and de-sensitized with equipment very similar to ours in Monterey. Joy could take the book home for four weeks, and it was renewable by phone. She said if it was late, there would be fines but she didn’t say how much. The clerks were curious to learn about my job in the USA, but I said it looked like what they were doing! On the next floor, we found a large room with desks and many shelves of magazines and newspapers. Down the hall was another room full of small student desks, like a classroom. Joy said we could not go there because you needed a special card: Students paid money each term to have a quiet study room. We ended our visit here so I’m not sure what else, if anything, was in the library. When I asked Joy if there were children’s books, she just said no, not here. I forgot to ask how to apply for a library card (of course, I forgot many questions) but I really enjoyed this non-tourist glimpse at Chinese life. 
Categories: In the Know, Library Tech |
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