The number of e-books has increased greatly, and ＂paperless＂ reading in Taiwan Province has gradually become a climate.
According to Taiwan media reports, with the progress of science and technology, the reading ecology on the island has changed, and online retrieval and reading electronic resources have gradually replaced borrowing paper books, which has become a common practice in colleges and universities and become the mainstream of book services.
E-books are gradually becoming mainstream.
According to the latest statistics of Taiwan’s education authorities, the number of e-books in college libraries on the island has climbed to 64.29 million in the 2017 academic year, a substantial increase of 20 million compared with the 2011 academic year. On the whole, the number of books borrowed on paper has been greatly reduced, and the average number of books borrowed per person has been reduced by half, leaving only 10 books.
According to the data of Taiwan Province Library’s 2016 University Library Yearbook, the expenditure on purchasing electronic resources of universities on the island has increased year by year, and now it accounts for 2/3 of the total expenditure. In addition, the number of e-books in colleges and universities has risen sharply, and the number of e-journals has increased by 1.2 million from the original 5.44 million. In contrast, the number of printed books and newspapers is decreasing year by year. The number of newspapers and western-language printed periodicals is only half of that of the 2011 school year, and the number of Chinese and Japanese printed periodicals is also reduced by nearly a quarter.
According to Taiwan’s education authorities, due to the change in the form of collection resources, the number of people borrowing paper books has decreased year by year. Compared with the 2011 school year, the number of people borrowing paper books decreased by 36% and the number of times borrowing paper books decreased by 46%. The average number of books and albums borrowed by students on paper has also dropped sharply from the original 20 to 10, which is equivalent to halving. The number of reading seats in the library has also decreased by about 10%. However, the number of people reading books as a whole has not decreased, and the number of people searching electronic resources approached 150 million in the 2017 school year, an increase of nearly 60% in the past six years.
According to the analysis of Taiwan’s education authorities, the increasing number of electronic books has become an important resource form of library collections. Coupled with the improvement of communication transmission rate and the application of cloud, online retrieval and reading electronic resources have gradually replaced paper books and become the mainstream of book services. It is expected that with the continuous development of electronic technology and emerging information applications, the mainstream trend of e-books will become more and more obvious.
The collection of art libraries has increased greatly
Libraries in colleges and universities often play an important role in academic research and supporting teaching resources, and reflect students’ reading trends and preferences. According to the statistics of Taiwan’s education authorities, the largest increase in the collection in the 2017 school year was art books, which increased by about 23% compared with the 2011 school year, followed by religious books, which increased by about 19%, while applied science and Chinese books both increased by more than 10%.
According to statistics, reading on the island is still dominated by Chinese books, with a total of 46.31 million Chinese books, which is about 2.8 times that of foreign books, compared with 16.59 million. Among the Chinese book categories in the 2017 school year, the largest number of Chinese books was 9.16 million, accounting for nearly 20%. Followed by 9.03 million copies of social science, accounting for 19%, and 8.09 million copies of applied science, accounting for 17%, ranking second and third in the category of separated books.
Affected by the trend of electronic books, the total number of books in the paper library in the 2017 academic year was 62.9 million, a slight increase of 7.15 million compared with the 2011 academic year, with an increase rate of about 12%. Affected by the electronic phenomenon, the average number of books owned by each student has increased significantly, from 41.2 books per student in 2011 to 49.4 books in 2017, equivalent to an increase of nearly 20% in six years.
The rise of cultural entrepreneurship promotes reading.
In recent years, the number of all kinds of books has increased the most, from 2.63 million to 3.26 million in the academic year of 2011, with an increase of 23%. Followed by religious books. In the 2011 school year, there were only 1.06 million copies, and in the 2017 school year, it has increased to 1.26 million copies, an increase of 19%. According to the range of change, it is applied science, Chinese, philosophy, history and geography, and social science in turn. Among all categories, the natural science category has the smallest change.
Why are art books growing the most? According to the analysis of Taiwan’s education authorities, this should be related to the rise of cultural and creative design industry in recent years, the people on the island like photography and attach importance to leisure tourism. The increase of religious series should be influenced by the popularity of folk activities in recent years.
Some college students in Taiwan Province believe that it is a trend to travel abroad in the global village, including graduation trips and short-term jobs. Almost everyone has visited the library to read or borrow books related to tourism. In addition, with the popularity of social software such as photo wall and Facebook, reference books related to photography have also been welcomed in recent years. The reason is that many people hope to highlight themselves on the Internet by taking beautiful photos. Modern people prefer a unique style, which also promotes the rise of cultural and creative industries.
People’s reading habits on the island have changed.
From the perspective of social holism in Taiwan Province, according to the lending statistics of Taiwan Province Public Information Library in 2017, the total number of loans reached 520,000 and 2.72 million copies, with the number of borrowers increasing by 11%. On the other hand, the borrowing volume of e-books in Taiwan Province Public Information Library increased by 11%, reflecting that with the advent of the digital age, people’s reading habits on the island are changing.
Xu Qionghui, chief of reading consultation in Taiwan Province Public Information Library, said that the e-book platform can be used by all readers in Taiwan. In 2016, nearly 230,000 books were borrowed, and in 2017, it increased to 270,000 books, with more than 50,000 people borrowing, a significant increase from the previous year. E-book lending has made a great leap forward, and numbers can speak.
Xu Qionghui said that paper books should be returned in person when they expire. E-books are convenient to borrow, so it is very convenient to borrow and return books directly online without going to the library. Even if you forget to return it, it doesn’t matter. As soon as the borrowing time arrives, the system will automatically return it, which is not limited by time and space. People in other counties and cities are also convenient to borrow and improve the borrowing rate. In terms of convenience, e-books are generally much better than paper books.
In the past five years, the number of books borrowed by public information libraries in Taiwan Province has increased by more than 30%, especially among young people. Coupled with the electronic reading of parents and children, the number of e-book readers will increase. According to the Taiwan Province Public Information Library’s 2017 annual lending list, children’s books, leisure books and reference books are the most popular e-book lending categories. Half of the top 20 books in the rankings are parent-child books, while others are leisure, investment and finance, and Chinese learning. Physical books have been borrowed more than 1.81 million times, and martial arts novels have won the championship, which is still the reader’s favorite.
The borrowing of physical books is still in bulk.
In terms of physical books, the most popular books are still literary books. More than half of the top 20 books in the borrowing list were made in last year’s list, mostly martial arts novels. Huang Yi’s Ming Huan of Heaven and Earth and Sun and Moon in the Sky were the first and second runners-up, but Jin Yong’s works are still warmly welcomed, except for the most popular trilogy of Shooting Carvings, Eight Dragons, and The Dragon Slayer by Eternal Dragon. Last year, film and television adaptation of novels was very popular, but this year, harem Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace is the only one left.
In terms of non-literary works, the top 20 works in the list include popular science, history and geography, investment, etc. There are as many as 13 new books on the list. In the middle of last year, Zeppelin was unfortunately killed while filming the documentary Seeing Taiwan Province II, which made the first episode Seeing Taiwan Province widely concerned and entered the list. In children’s books, popular science is popular, and comic books continue to be the world of Japanese comics.
At present, in Taiwan Province Public Information Library, physical books are still borrowed in large quantities. Last year, the total borrowing volume reached 1,811,677, down 1.18% year-on-year. In order to attract more people to read, some branches have been renovated and re-presented with a new look. In order to let readers better understand the latest and most popular books and make it easier for them to choose, some floors have newly set up a "popular new books and selected good books" display wall to drive more people to read. (Beijing Evening News, Taiwan Province Special Reporter, Yu Xiao, Cartography and Seal)