Current situation and future development of CALIS

Abstract

China Academic Library and Information System (CALIS), funded primarily by the Chinese Government, is a nationwide academic library consortium in China. As one of the two public service systems in “Project 211”, in China's ninth five‐year plan, CALIS plays a multiple resource‐sharing role among the participating libraries. During past five years, CALIS has established a three‐tiered coordination and management network comprising national information centers, regional information centers and member libraries. In addition, a number of resources have been developed or imported which have made considerable improvements to the service to Chinese higher education and also accelerated the growth of CALIS. The target for CALIS is to build the China Academic Digital Library within the next five years. Currently, CALIS is doing research on the strategies and development of digital library systems, with cooperation and coordination from member libraries. With the development of “digital service environment”, “public service platform”, “imported and self‐built resources”, “service network”, etc. the digital library and information system will be established. The extension of digital library consortium resources and services will thus operate in a digital, networked environment. This paper provides information about the background, initiatives and the strategic plan of CALIS, illustrating how it operates and what it provides.