From June 25th to 27th, 2014, the Standing Committee of the Open University of China (OUC) Library Work Council and the digital library training conference held a joint meeting in Yinchuan, Ningxia Province. The theme of the conference was the strengthening of the construction of the OUC's system-wide library, building an operating mechanism for a perfect system, and improving the service level and practicality of the digital library.
The conference included practical training in the application of the digital library, discussed ways to improve training efficiency, and a review of the plans to provide training in the application of the digital library. Furthermore, a summary and evaluation was prepared for the “Promoting the Year of the Digital Library”, discussions were held on the mechanism of joint construction and resource sharing within the OUC, and research was carried out into the construction of the subsection of the OUC and the college library.
Various leaders attended, including the Vice President of the OUC and Head of the Library Working Commission, Zhanghui, the Secretary of the Party Committee, Fang Quanzhong, Vice President Ding Jinying of Ningxia Radio and TV University (RTVU), the Secretary of the Party Committee, LV Xiong, of Bingtuan RTVU, Vice President Xing Gucheng, of Liaoning RTVU, Vice President Zhang Lisheng of Inner Mongolia RTVU, Vice President Chen Guisheng of Guangzhou RTVU, Vice President Xiongjin of Gansu RTVU, Vice President Zhao Jinghua of Tianjin RTVU, Vice President Yan Jixue of Changchun RTVU, and Assistant Principal Wuning of Jilin RTVU. Additionally, 19 curators from provincial RTVU and 22 technicians also participated in the conference.
Zhanghui put forward seven requests in terms of the next step in the construction of the digital library. First, according to the features of the local library and the current purchasing situation of the OUC Library, the books need to be completed, especially those characteristic digital resources related to the final goal, as supplementary resources of centralized purchasing for the "RTVU Digital Library Project". Second, according to the characteristics of the various disciplines or the local situation, a specialized characteristic database should be planned and constructed. Third, based on the model of the OUC Open Forum hosted by the OUC library, each library branch could compile video recordings of lectures from scholars, local experts, celebrities, and masters to establish a local open university lecture video database. Exceptional works could also be submitted to the OUC library and integrated into the video database of the OUC library, thus allowing the national RTVU system to share these resources. Fourth, the library needs to increase resources used to collect paper books, and purchase paper books with value and high quality in line with the characteristics of the university. The library collection and reading environment also needs to be improved. If the conditions permit, the library management system should be used to offer an improved level of service, providing conditions for the future establishment of a unified national library data retrieval platform. Fifth, the library should digitize certain items from their collections such as rare books, tapes, and CDs. A corresponding storage and retrieval platform should be established for valuable or memorable old photographs and film for the convenient access and sharing of such resources. Sixth, the library should purchase a high-quality, precise, and advanced foreign and rare foreign languages database. Seventh, study is required on the subject of library construction. He also has pointed out 3 further tasks: the construction of the subsection of the OUC and the college library, joint construction and sharing of resources within the OUC library system, and summarizing training experience on the application of the digital library.
The curator of the OUC library, Zhang Ruilin, librarian Zhang Hongli and the curator of Zhejiang RTVU library Yuan Yuming, respectively explained The Construction Scheme of the Subsection of the OUC and the College Library, The Scheme of the Joint Construction and Sharing of Resources of the OUC Library System, and The Situation Report of “Promoting the Year of the Digital Library”. The conference also discussed plans on the joint construction and sharing of resources of the digital library, the construction of the OUC library resource system and college library, the programme of the summary and evaluation of digital library application training and the focusing point, breakthroughs in its construction as well as issues about how to build it and which model is better, the unified or the unique.
The training conference on the application of the digital library was also held. The OUC library mainly introduced the resources and services, with 22 technicians from 19 provincial RTVU libraries joining the training.
By Zhang Hongli, the OUC