Introduction

Southwest Jiaotong University was constructed in 1896, and the Library was founded subsequently. Through its history of more than a century, the university relocated several times, which was from Shanhaiguan to Tangshan, then to Emei, and finally to Chengdu. Wherever it is , and whatever the time of the day, the Library always attaches great importance to literature resources construction. From Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China and finally to the People’s Republic of China, that is the historical era the Library has been experiencing. From thread-bound book to paper-bound book and now to electronic book, that is the literature form the library has been experiencing. With the century-long heritage, the brilliant spectacle are now presented.

Southwest Jiaotong University is set up with three campuses, namely, Emei Campus, Jiuli Campus and Xipu Campus. And the Library is composed of three parts correspondingly, which are Emei Campus Library, Jiuli Campus Mao Yisheng Library and Xipu Campus Library, with a total area of 59316 Square Meters. Emei Campus Library, completed in 1981, has a build-up area of 6355 Square Meters. Jiuli Campus Library, completed in 1991, covers a build-up area of 16,961 Square Meters. Xipu Campus Library, completed in August 2007, occupies a build-up area of 36,000 Square Meter and now is the location the Library’s major business and administrative service.

With the development and accumulation over a century, the Library has established an abundant, reasonable distributed and distinctive collection system. The forms of literature collection includes thread-bound book, paper-bound book and electronic book, and the subjects of literature collection covers science and technology, engineering, liberal arts, law, medical science, etc, with strong superiority of traffic and transportation. By the end of 2016, the three campus libraries and the university’s branch and department libraries holds a collection of over 3,000,000 printed volumes, among which Chinese books and periodicals are 2,680,000 volumes, foreign language books and periodicals are 32,000 volumes. The Library also has 269 Chinese and foreign language digital databases, which could be converted into 12,500,000 printed volumes. In addition, the Library is one of the first members of key ancient documents protection unit of Sichuan Province. It collects over 20,000 volumes of ancient books, including 5,044 volumes of Qin Ding Gu Jin Tu Shu Ji Cheng which was bestowed by Qing emperor Guang Xu; Liu Jing Yi Wen, which was printed in the Qing Dynasty; and dozen of other precious ancient books such as Yu Gong Zhui Zhi, Zhou Li Shu Zhu, etc.

In order to adapt to new changes of information era, the Library initiatively makes innovation in literature resources construction mode, which lays emphasis on integration and utilization of printed resources and digital resources, acceleration of characteristic database and network resource guidance base construction, expansion of literature communication and cooperation with other information service organization both at home and abroad, and consequently establishes a three-level complementary document resources ensuring system based on the printed resources, digital resources and interlibrary loan-and-delivery service. This system realizes interlibrary loan-and-delivery service and sharability of databases among three campuses, thus basically satisfies the literature and information necessity of the university’s overall teaching, research, subject development and creative talents cultivation.

The Library sets up seven departments, namely, Administration Office, Literature Resources Construction Department, Subject Information Department, System Technology and Digital Resources Construction Department, Reader Services of Xipu Campus Department, Reader Services of Jiuli Campus Department, and Reader Services of Emei Campus Department. It has 103 authorized staffs, among which 42 had obtained master or doctorate degree, and 26 are with associate research librarian title or above. Guided by the principle of “being human-oriented and service-innovated”, the Library takes scientific management as a mean and advanced technology as a support to constantly develops its subject information services. The Library of Southwest Jiaotong University sets up Educational-ministry-level Novelty Check Station by the authorization of Ministry of Education. It owns a professional novelty check team, providing information services such as reference, novelty checking, information retrieval, selective retrieval, interlibrary loan and document delivery for research institutions and teams, independent researchers inside and outside the school.

The Library attaches importance to information literacy education. It is one of the early universities who set up information literacy courses such as Information Retrieval and Competitive Intelligence. The course, Information Retrieval, was awarded the title of SWJTU General Education Course, National Top-quality Course, National Top-quality Resources Sharing Course. The Library also focuses on cultivating students’ reading-and-writing centered humanistic quality with general education courses such as Reading & Appreciation and Guided Reading of Classics. It also sets up the first “Reading and Writing Center” among the country to have an overall unified and coordinated management of the teaching, extracurricular activities, soft and hardware condition construction, embedded writing instruction, online and offline customized consultation that relate to reading and writing capacity cultivation.

In recent years, the Library also focuses on reading promotion by creating a whole school participated, year-through “Two Time Points, Two Vacations” Classic Reading Promotion Atmosphere. Activities at “4. 23: World Reading Day” and “9. 28: Birthday of Confucius”, which are organized every year, have exerted a remarkable social influence among domestic universities. The activities have been reported by medias such as Guangming Daily, China Youth Daily, China Education Daily, Education Guide, China Reading Weekly, China Press and Publishing Journal, West China City Daily, Metro Express, SCTV, Official Website of Ministry of Education, People.cn, etc, and had a considerable social influence. The Library were continuously awarded as the title of “Advanced Unit for National Reading” in 2012 and 2013, and “Demonstrative Base for National Reading” in 2014.

Address: West Section, High-tech Zone, Chengdu, Sichuan, PRC

Zip Code: 611756

Tel: +86-28-66366532

Fax: +86-28-66366532

Website: http://lib.swjtu.edu.cn

E-mail: xnjdtsg@swjtu.edu.cn