Chinese studies library collections in the digital age.

摘要

There are at least 3 major commercial e-book and 4 e-journal service providers inudChina today providing full-text access to over 80% of core academic serialudpublications and almost a million Chinese books, over 2/3 of all the books issuedudsince the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. There are currentlyudsome technical and commercial difficulties that prevent us from providing access toudthem in Western libraries. If we can overcome those difficulties and exploit theuddatabases in full, it will have a major impact on the way the research on Chinaudconducted, Chinese studies library collections and the Chinese studies libraryudprofession in the West. In this paper, I will analyze the current state of major Chineseude-book and e-journal services, their technical characteristics and possible use of theseudresources by Chinese studies libraries in the West to improve the informationudprovision to their users.