Shandong University Library is developed from the libliotheca of Shandong Metropolitan University founded in 1901, which was one of the earliest libraries of China in modern times. It has a history as long as 110 more years, and the extensive in-library special collections embody its changes and vicissitudes over the years.
All the special collections are managed by the Research Institute of Special Collections of Shandong University Library, which was moved into Shandong University Chiang Chen Library in September, 2010, a fully-equipped new library. With the total area of over 2,100 square meters, it has three Specialized Ancient Books Stacks, two Minguo Literature Stacks, and a Photo-offset Ancient Books Stack. It also has a Special Collections Reading Room of 110 square meters with 32 reading seats. Besides favorable environment of constant temperature and humidity, those stacks are well-equipped with monitoring, fireproofing and waterproofing facilities.
The institute holds special collections over 400,000 items, among which are more than 310,000 volumes of ancient books of over 43,000 types（including over 37,000 volumes of precious collections of over 11,000 types, such as block-printed editions of Ming, Song and Yuan Dynasties, hand-written copies of Qing Dynasty, sound block-printed editions, calligraphy copybooks, rubbings, calligraphy and painting works, letters, librettos and bibliographic ancient books, more than 64,000 volumes collections of Minguo of over 31,000 types (including revolutionary literatures, books and newspaper of Minguo, Manchurian literatures, and bibliographic literatures).
Shandong University Library has a long history in ancient book collections, famous for its superiority in quality and abundance in quantity. The library is home to numerous rare editions of ancient books in Ming and Qing Dynasty, ancient local chronicles and bibliographic literatures of ancient books.
There are three main sources of those collections: first, purchase. Besides regular and piecemeal purchase, the library made purchase of a large amount of collections from celebrated bibliophiles. For example, over 300 local chronicles were bought from Ye family in Qingdao(青岛叶氏); nearly ten thousand volumes of books from Cao Yu'an(曹愚盦), a bibliophiles in Anqiu, Shandong province; over 3,500 volumes of ancient books from Qianmulu Library,established by Zhang Jingfu(1890-1955) in Zhucheng(诸城张镜夫千目庐), Shandong province. In addition, Shandong University pumped huge amounts of money into the purchase of more than 190 rolls of microfilms recording the overseas Dunhuang Tripitaka in the 1950s and 1960s.
The second source is acquisition from donations. Shandong University is renowned for its disciplines concerning literature and history. Many well-known Chinese scholars who worked here donated their private book collections to Shandong University Library. The families of Professor Dingshan(丁山先生)(1901-1952, a Chinese historian and philologist) donated all his books and manuscripts to Shandong University Library for three times separately, donating as many as 5,000 volumes once in 1952; the families of Mr. Jiang Jingzhen(蒋静贞先生) donated 4,653 volumes of his books; the families of Mr. Lu Zhenhua(卢振华先生)(1911-1979, Chinese historian) donated over 3,000 volumes of his book collections; the families of Mr. Guo Baojun(郭宝钧先生)(1893-1971, Chinese archaeologist) donated over 800 volumes of books; the families of Professor Pang Pu(庞朴先生)(Chinese contemporary historian) donated over 100 volumes of ancient books in 2016; Professor Tomohisa Ikeda(Japanese scholar in sinology) donated over 170 volumes of ancient books. In addition, Shandong University Library also received abundant books from the society. For example, thousands of private book collections in Shandong University Library were donated by the manager of Qingdao Hua Xin Cotton Mill(1913-1953).
Third, many ancient books in Shandong University were allotted by the government from other places such as Weimar Mission in Qingdao(introduced from Germany and dissolved in 1965) and the former Cheeloo University(established in 1864 and partially merged into Shandong University in 1952) Library.
The Research Institute of Special Collections, focusing on special collections, has laid equal emphasis on cultural inheritance and services innovation. Expert librarians of the institute are engaged in such work as stack management, ancient book cataloging and restoration. Now here are eight members of staff, including 1 associate research librarian, 5 librarians, and 2 assistant librarians. Among them, three have doctorate degrees, four have master degrees, and one has bachelor degree. Thus, this is a highly educated service team in the library. Meanwhile, this is also a dedicated one with team spirit. All the staff members, bearing the development goal of serving “Double First-Class” initiative and the mission of cultivating virtues and nurturing talents in mind, continuously improve working method and individual quality to grow into a first-class team with excellent work performance. With strong work ethics and competence as well as a sense of responsibility, the team has made notable progress in reader services, stack safety management, census on moveable national cultural relics, census on ancient books, and sorting and utilization of ancient books.
The Institute is home to 87 ancient books included in Catalog of National Rare Books of China, and 996 included in Catalog of Rare Books of Shandong. Shandong University Library is one of the key ancient book protection units of the nation and the province, and has been honored as an advanced unit in Shandong province for related work for several consecutive years. The library holds a number of valuable books. For instance, Fang Wangxi's Manuscript(《方望溪先生文稿》) was included in the first batch of the Catalog of National Rare Books of China, 48 books such as seventy-four volumes of the History of Five Dynasties(《五代史记》) made by Zongwen Academy in Yuan(1206--1368) and revised in Ming(1368--1644) were listed in the second batch, 19 books including Sun Xi(孙玺)’s block-printed edition of ten volumes of Ancient Yuefu(《古乐府》) in Ming dynasty (1368–1644) in the third batch, 15 books including the manuscript of Illustrated History of Grand Canal(《运河图说》) in the fourth batch, and 4 books in the fifth batch like hand-copied nine volumes of Xing Lu Bao Study(《幸鲁宝斋》) in Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Besides, 398 books collected in our library were included in the first batch of the Catalog of Rare Books of Shandong, 474 in the second batch, and 124 in the third.
Since the 2007 national census on ancient books, the institute, with the support from leaders of the university and library, has finished the establishment of database of all ancient books, ancient books of Minguo (1912-1949) and photocopied ancient books in the library by means of Huiwen management system. Those ancient documents such as books, paintings, and epigraphs and rubbings failing to be registered in the database, have been recorded in Excel spreadsheets. In total, the database has registered nearly 310 thousand volumes ancient books of over 36 thousand kinds, more than 61 thousand volumes Minguo books of 28 thousand plus kinds, over 24 thousand volumes photocopied ancient books of over 81 hundred kinds, and more than 64 thousand items of MARC. The registration information includes book title, number of volumes, author, transcriber and engraver, copying or engraving time, size, frame, format of lines, colophon plate, carving craftsman, preface and postscript, book-collecting seal, availability, etc.. These data are of great significance for enquiry, reading and cataloging of ancient books.
Location: Room 506, Chiang Chen Library
Books Available: rare editions of ancient books, ordinary ancient books, ancient local chronicles, copied Chinese ancient rare editions, Minguo literature, and bibliographical literature.
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday
8:00-12:00
14:00-17:30 (Summer) / 13:30-17:00 (Winter)