Right now, whether in terms of serving legislative bodies or serving the general public, the NLC lags behind first-class national libraries such as the U.S. Library of Congress.

How can China catch up with first- class national libraries around the world?

China does not have a law governing libraries and the legal framework for library administration is weak. For instance, in absence of a law on book submissions, many publishers do not submit their books to the library, so the NLC's collection of Chinese books is not complete.

Another gap between the NLC and top national libraries around the world is human resources. Many foreign national libraries require their employees to have good qualifications, such as a master's degree and professional certificate in library science. Due to historical reasons, the NLC did not have such requirements, and some of our employees are not well educated.

Now the NLC has put forth a human resource development strategy. It will launch a nationwide search for top experts and leading researchers to form the backbone of its future team.

Admittedly, during this period of economic and cultural prosperity, the NLC is booming. The Central Government has allotted more money to the library. Employees' income has improved. Before 1998, an average of one to two persons left the NLC each week due to low pay. In recent years, the NLC's new recruits are well educated, with over 90 percent of them having received post-graduate education and their job retention rate is high.

Another change that we should make is to our mindset. Many people out there and even many librarians think that the job of a librarian is simple manual work, and there is little room for growth. With this mindset, librarians tend to show little initiative. In fact, the job of a librarian is complex and requires professional training. A library needs to continuously optimize its business process. In recent years, the NLC has put greater emphasis on research to keep up with the newest trends around the world.

What are your expectations for the future development of the NLC?

It is our goal to build the NLC into a modern international library. It is not difficult to be modern, which refers to advanced hardware. The key is how to be international.

In my understanding, an international library should first open its doors to international talent. First-class libraries across the world, such as the U.S. Library of Congress, usually recruit people worldwide so that they gain an international perspective. Right now, the NLC can only recruit within China, for reasons such as the uncompetitive salary. The NLC is trying to launch a visiting scholar program to attract brilliant people from all over the world to the library to learn from each other.

In addition, an international library will not only serve people in China, but people in other countries. So far, China has signed official cooperative agreements with 17 national libraries in other countries. For instance, since 2007, the NLC has engaged in a series of consultations with the U.S. Library of Congress on a world digital library project. The project aims to bring valuable materials from various cultures around the world online, and provide free service in multiple languages. Details of the cooperation are still under discussion.