(CFP Photo)

Suzhou Library said it added 888 ancient books including local documents and national precious documents during an online press conference on January 4.

A total of six libraries including those in Tianjin, Nanjing and Sun Yat-sen University announced the total addition of 6,786 ancient books at the press conference, the 7th such briefing organized by the China National Preservation and Conservation Centre for Ancient books at the National Library of China.

Suzhou Library has attached great importance to the digitization of ancient books, publishing electronic copies of some books on its official website as early as 2001. In 2003, the library started to build a database of ancient books that allows full-text search, one of the first public libraries in China to promote this endeavor.

Up to now, Suzhou Library has completed digitization of 1,496 ancient books with 829,640 pages, which has a size of 16.12 TB. The library has also built databases specially for local documents, precious collections, family tree archive, and the city's literati. Readers can also find a database of 18 local newspapers published during the Republic of China period.