THE National Library of China has been digitizing its collection of antique books as a way to both preserve the historic treasures and increase the public’s access to them, the China Culture Daily reported earlier this week.

The library’s dedicated online database now has more than 32,000 sets of ancient books, accounting for over 60 percent of its total antique book collection, according to the report.

Transforming the books into digital versions gives readers equal access to rare-book resources, allowing anyone to read the online texts from anywhere, the report said.

“It brings great convenience to my day-to-day research compared with borrowing physical books,” said Du Zexun, a professor on ancient book studies from Shandong University.

Since the free database opened to the public in September 2016, viewership of the database has been on the rise, and it now ranks third among the library’s online databases, the report said.

The National Library of China holds one of the largest collections of ancient books in Chinese history.

(Xinhua)