This month, a project to enhance the protection of 57 ancient libraries and ancient books (books published before 1912) stored in them will be launched, including a general investigation to rank their collections and renovation work of buildings and repairing damaged books.

In the investigation, a comprehensive list of all the books in the libraries will be composed, on which the books will be categorized according to their conditions, thus they can be better preserved. Of course, damaged books will be repaired. Besides, the storage houses of these libraries will be renovated, with advanced security and firefighting devices installed, or the books in them will be temporarily moved to other libraries.

"We want to extend the project to all the ancient libraries in China if it proves successful with the 57 libraries," said Zhou Heping, Vice Minister of Culture.

By the end of this year, the first list of protected books will be released, and the first batch of ancient books preservation center will be announced.
 
(Chinanews.cn August 8, 2007)