Table 1 Overview of the establishment of libraries by universities in some provinces and cities in 1918.

From: Chinese universities’ social education: a historical perspective (1912–1945)

Province

Library name

Book lending request

Book Catalogues

Library fees and coupons

Annual funding

Beijing

Higher Normal School Library

No books will be loaned out except for reference by faculty research departments and for student use as designated by the Director of Academic Affairs

A catalogue letter, modelled on the Imperial Library in Tokyo, Japan, in which the book plates are prepared in accordance with the De Witt’s ten-point classification and stored for easy reference

One coin for reading magazines and newspapers, two coupons for ordinary books, half for students, five coupons for the Four Books, ten coupons for the Good Book, and one coupon for the Premium Book. Free coupons

15,000

Tientsin

National Peiyang University Library

Teachers and students

As catalogued in the US National Library

Free

1800

Shandong

Cheeloo University Library

No loan of dictionaries

Chinese Books by Confucian classics, history, philosophy and literature; Western language by decimal classification

Free

Uncertain

Jiangsu

Higher Normal School Library

No loan of Reference books

Decimal classification

Free

Uncertain

Jiangsu

St.John’s University Library

All

Decimal classification

Free

Uncertain

Jiangsu

Nantong School Library

Lendable with permission of officer

Confucian classics, history, philosophy and literature, Book Series

Two copper dollars per volume

2000

Jiangsu

Nanking University Library

No more than 3 books at a time

Western language by decimal classification; Chinese by Si ku quan shu

Free

Uncertain

Hubei

Boone University Library

All

Decimal classification

Free

3500

Hubei

Wuchang Higher Normal School Library

Staff only

Chinese by Si ku quan shu

Free

Uncertain

Jiangxi

William Nast College Library

All

Subject Classification

Free

360

Hunan

College of Yale-in-China Library

All

Decimal classification

Free

158

Guangdong

Lingnan School Library

All

Uncertain

Free

500 Hong Kong Dollars

  1. (Source: Shen Shaoqi, Education Bulletin, fifth year, March 1918; from the Second Historical Archives of China, Compilation of archival materials on the history of the Republic of China (Third Series Culture), Jiangsu Ancient Books Publishing House, 1991 edition, 118 pp.)