New Developments of Chinese Government Publications and Library Collections

• Main Author: Susan Xue
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chinese American Librarians Association 2018-12-01
• Series: International Journal of Librarianship (IJoL)
• Subjects: Chinese government publication; Government information policy; Digital government information; Collection development; Government website
• Online Access: https://journal.calaijol.org/index.php/ijol/article/view/90

Chinese government publications constitute a significantly large portion of print and digital information output in China. This material genre is critical to the operation of the country, to people’s lives, and therefore, is important to research and scholarly work. Overseas scholars rely heavily on libraries to access and use Chinese government publications, however, collecting this type of materials has been a challenge since the scope of Chinese government publications has not been clear, and the collecting channels have been limited. This paper intends to discuss the scope of Chinese government publications, its availability in digital format, the types of publications library normally collects, and opportunities and challenges in collecting them.