The world's largest Chinese digital library, a database containing over 12 million documents or 25% of China's public information resources, opened on Saturday.
The digital library aims to make it possible for users to share 80% of China's intellectual resources through the Internet within three years. The database covers information from periodicals, newspapers, books, theses and on-line resources and information on many fields such as natural sciences, engineering and social sciences, and was jointly developed by the China Academic Journal Electronic Publishing House (CAJEPH) and Tsinghua Tongfang Optical Disc Co., Ltd (TTOD) eight years ago.
A survey by China's Press and Publication Administration in June showed Internet information resources included just 15 million Chinese documents on science, economy, culture and education, about 40 percent of the documents printed, and only 150,000 books with legal copyrights on the Internet, about five percent of the books available on the domestic market.