Anhui Provincial Library

Anhui Provincial Library

Anhui Provincial Library is a cultural heritage site protected at the provincial level and a base for patriotic education.

Anhui Provincial Library is a comprehensive provincial public library established by the state. It is located on the picturesque banks of the Baohe River in Hefei. The library was founded in February 1913, originally known as the Anhui National Library.

In April 1953, Anhui Provincial Library was officially established on the basis of the former Hefei Library in Northern Anhui, with a construction area of approximately 1,100 square meters. In December 1962, it moved to the west side of Baohe Park in Hefei, with a construction area of 6,345 square meters. In 1981, a seven-story book storage building was completed, increasing the construction area to 13,900 square meters. In October 1998, large-scale expansion was carried out on the original site.

In October 2001, the expansion project of the new library with an area of 23,000 square meters was completed. The total construction area after expansion reached 36,900 square meters, with a design of over 1,400 reading seats and a collection capacity of 4.2 million volumes. The new library is equipped with advanced computer service management systems, satellite communication reception systems, and security support services. It ensures high-speed network transmission, flexible and convenient network configuration, and a multi-machine processing and centralized data management model that enables data resource sharing. The local area network connects over 1,100 information points within the library and links to major domestic and international information networks. External readers can access the Anhui Provincial Library’s webpage via the internet for services such as catalog searches and related website links.

Over its more than 90 years of operation, Anhui Provincial Library has collected a large number of precious historical and cultural texts, particularly excelling in the collection of Huizhou literature, forming a distinctive collection with strong regional cultural characteristics.

The library currently holds 2.97 million volumes of documents, including nearly 350,000 ancient thread-bound books and 3,121 rare editions totaling over 30,700 volumes. The earliest printed works in the collection include several from the Yuan Dynasty, such as the "Zhida Chongxiu Xuanhe Bogutulüe," with a significant number of Ming Dynasty prints. Notable examples include the Yuan Dynasty print of the "Zengguang Zhushiji Yinbian Tang Liu Xiansheng Ji" and the Ming Dynasty print from the seventh year of the Wanli era, the "Sishu Renwu Kao."

In addition, the library has also systematically collected works by scholars from Anhui associated with the Huizhou studies culture, which holds an important place in the history of Chinese cultural development during the Ming and Qing periods, as well as a well-organized collection of local Anhui documents.

The main services provided by Anhui Provincial Library include: document lending, information consultation, thematic services, education and training, academic lectures, and exhibitions. The new library has 17 service windows open to the public, implementing an open management model with open-shelf document access and integrated borrowing. It also offers new services and features such as electronic document retrieval, audiovisual services, online borrowing, and online search engine navigation. The multi-functional lecture hall is equipped with a simultaneous interpretation system.

The library has also set up exhibition halls for various cultural and educational activities, audiovisual rooms, as well as study rooms and research rooms to meet the needs of different types of readers. This modern, multifunctional library will satisfy the diverse spiritual and cultural needs of all members of society for reading, seeking knowledge, and leisure.

Protected area: 30 meters to the east and west, and 20 meters to the south and north, outside the main building walls.

Construction control zone: 100 meters to the east and west, 50 meters to the north, and extending to the planned red line on the north side of Wuhu Road, outside the protected area.