At the end of March, I went to the National Library and borrowed Chen Zhushan's National Spirit, an important figure in the history of civilian education in China.
Thanks to the enthusiastic guidance of the library consulting group, I found this booklet published by 1940s in the library reading room.
In addition to charging 20 yuan for the "reader card", the collection reading room also stipulates charging 5 yuan for each reading.
After reading it, I think it's better to copy it.
The male administrator said, "Yes, 5 yuan per page."
I was taken aback: "5 yuan per page? Why is it so expensive? "
"This is a stamp album. For protection, you can't use the copier. It can only be scanned and printed with a scanner. "
This book 150 pages needs 750 yuan. I can't afford such a high fee, so I have to go back to my seat and make some excerpts.
That night, I talked to an engineer about the difference between copying and scanning. He smiled and said, "The function and structure of the scanner were never designed for copying. The working temperature and illumination of the copier are slightly higher than that of the scanner, but it only takes one or two seconds to copy a page and one hundred seconds to scan. In fact, the total amount of light and thermal radiation received by books during scanning is more than that during copying, and the folding wear of books is also more than that during copying. Moreover, after scanning, you have to print page by page. It takes about 90 seconds to print a graphic file. It takes several minutes to copy the book you want, but it takes four or five hours to scan and print it. If you don't do electronic text, don't use a scanner instead of a copier. "
After returning to Guangzhou, I saw Mr. Lin Bowen, editor-in-chief of China Times, introducing Song Ziwen's manuscript to the public (whether American citizens or not) in the Hoover Archives of Stanford University. Those ancient and fragile precious manuscripts can be read and copied for free, but scanning is not provided. This seems to verify the views of professionals.
Two months later, I went to the National Library for the second time to finish reading this book. This time it was a young female administrator. She checked my reader card and said, "There is something wrong with your card." I said, "What's the problem? Is it expired? " "You have to deposit a deposit of 100 yuan before you can see it." I said, "Promise what?" She didn't answer. I asked again, "Why didn't you need a deposit last time?" She suddenly became impatient. "It's a museum rule. Don't ask me." I went downstairs to the registration office in front of the library and paid a deposit of 100 yuan. When I returned to the reading room, I handed her the phone list. She said, "You have to fill in the book number to find it. Your B824 is not a book number. " I said, "Last time I filled in this book number, it was a book in the bibliography of the Republic of China." She said, "Then go to the bibliography of the Republic of China, check it out and come back." I said, "Don't you have a bibliography here?" She said, "No." So I went downstairs to the consulting room. The consultant said: "The bibliography of the Republic of China does not provide ISBN. You give her the title of the book, and how to find it is their business. " I went back to collection room and told her the advice of the consulting room. She looked angry and said, "There is no book number for us to find? ! "I quickly said," There really isn't a book number on the bibliography, only a serial number, or should I copy that number? " She didn't answer, so I went downstairs again, went to the consulting room, copied the only number in the book of the Republic of China, 2952, and panted back to collection room. She was bored and motionless with the list. I couldn't help sighing and saying, "It's really difficult to read here, just like visiting a prison-no one is so difficult for you."
She immediately dropped my phone list and said, "You swear, you insult my personality, you have to apologize!" " "Said and ran out of the reading room. A few minutes later, a lady was called. This lady seems to be the group leader, staring at me and saying, "You have to apologize!" " "I said," I didn't say anything wrong, so I don't need to apologize. In order to read, I ran three or four times upstairs and downstairs, tossing for more than an hour. Am I wrong? "Three people deadlocked, just like that. At this time, an elder sitting in the reading room (one of the only two readers in the reading room) stood up with a book in his hand and said, "What this comrade said is a bit harsh. I apologize for him and tell you my opinion. How many times did you charge for reading such a book? Readers have to pay for the card, but also pay the deposit, and pay for it after reading it. This is the national library, and books are national books, but you can charge them at will, just like your private books, and you can collect them at will. Is this reasonable? ..... "Storage fee (books and periodicals are not allowed to be brought into the library): 0.5 yuan for each package, 20 yuan for reading cards, RMB 100 for Chinese books, RMB 1000 for foreign books, 5 yuan for reading books in the collection, and 5 yuan for copying (scanning) each page. ...
Without answering, they walked out of the reading room. After a long time, the team leader came back alone, sat down silently and was on duty for the administrator-she would deal with me. I am the only borrower in the whole reading room. I gave her the phone list and sat down to wait. After about half an hour, the team leader called my name (in fact, I was sitting next to her). I thought the book had arrived, but she said, "I don't have this book." She wrote the word "the original factory is missing" in the column of "reasons for not taking it out" in the call list and threw it to me.
I went upstairs to find the director of the collection department. The director said, "I will send someone who knows the business best." Let me sit down and wait. After more than 20 minutes, he said, "OK, look in the reading room." Said, and accompanied me downstairs into the reading room. The librarian said, "The book hasn't arrived yet." The director turned and left. I sat down and waited.
I just sat there waiting for more than half an hour, but nothing happened. I asked the librarian, "The book hasn't arrived yet."
I'll go upstairs and find the director of the collection department. The door is closed.
I have to go to the curator. In a luxurious office building, most doors are closed and knocking at the door is silent. After running around, I finally found a kind former deputy curator. She promised to tell the deputy curator in charge of the business and called the library reading room to let me go back to the reading room. "This book has indeed been taken away."
At this point, it is already more than 4 pm. After reading a few pages, the reading room is closed, but I have to pay 5 yuan's "reading fee"; More importantly, I don't think the problem of "taking books" will be solved. So, I didn't go into the library reading room again.
The essence of a library is not to collect, but to serve the public with documents. Even in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, their libraries consciously pursued the principle of "public welfare". The international community even lists access to library services as one of the basic human rights. The United Nations issued the Declaration of Public Libraries in 1949, which was recognized after his death: "Free and unrestricted access to knowledge, ideas, culture and information is the basis for individuals to exercise their democratic rights and obtain equal opportunities for development"; "Public libraries are the gates of knowledge and should provide free services to everyone regardless of age, race, sex, religion, nationality and social status"; "All people in society must really enjoy the services of the library, including providing special services and materials to those who cannot use their normal services and materials for various reasons, such as language minorities, disabled people or hospitalized patients and prisoners."
When Marx was in poverty, he was able to complete Das Kapital with vast contents, thanks to the perfect service of the British Library in London. However, in today's "market economy", the National Library has turned the national collection into a monopoly resource where rare commodities can survive, turned book lending into "borrowing" and "mortgage", plundered money from readers, and restricted or deprived low-income people, people with low positions, people with low professional titles, people with low academic qualifications, unemployed people and foreigners of their right to read or borrow. At present, the library stipulates that the conditions for handling the library card of China Book No.1 Lending Library (China Library with complete collections) are as follows: personnel with intermediate technical titles or above in Beijing, administrative personnel at or above the municipal level in Beijing, and personnel with postgraduate education or above in Beijing, plus a handling fee of 20 yuan and a deposit of 100 yuan; The conditions for obtaining a library card for lending books are as follows: Beijing intermediate or above technical titles, Beijing municipal or above administrative positions, Beijing doctoral degree or above, plus 20 yuan, deposit 1000 yuan. Getting a permit is only a preliminary condition for getting started, and each room in the museum has different "regulations" or fees. Obstructing progress and despising civil rights, the National Library tramples on the concept of public libraries and misleads the cause of libraries in China, which cannot but make people feel indignant.
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