Shandong Library, founded in 1909 (the first year of Xuantong Emperor, Qing Dynasty), is one of China's top ten libraries with a long history and rich collection. As it is recorded in "The Founding of Shandong Library ", Luo Zhengjun the Education Director of Shandong Province initiated the constructing of the library to the north-east of old Examination Office. The building was constructed identically with the layout of "Tianyi Pavilion" in Ningbo City Zhejiang Province. Known as “the best scenery in Lixia district”, the elegant and chic yard of the library is decorated with old trees, rockery, winding spring and arch bridge.  

With the dedication of several generations over the last century, the collection of Shandong Library is becoming larger and larger, and forming its storing system with distinctive characteristic and organization. The collection of light industry, medicine, philosophy and other categories has reached the research level, the special collection of Local Chronicles of Qilu-Shandong District, Haiyuan Pavilion, the Book of Changes, Shandong Revolutionary Literature and some others has no equal in China. The existing Local Chronicles of Qilu-Shandong District in China are about 600 kinds, 528 kinds are collected by Shandong Library, among which 58 are rare ones and the "(Wanli) Yanzhou Chronicle" is the only existing copy. Its Haiyuan Pavilion Collection has 2280 kinds and 3280 volumes in total, accounting for about two-thirds of the existing collection, including much handwriting of celebrities, such as Lin Zexu, Weng Tongshu, Wu Shifen, Qian Yiji, Xu Han and others. Its Book of Changes collection amounts to 1317 kinds, 2205 versions and nearly ten thousand copies. In addition, the hand written sutra by people of Tang Dynasty, block-printed and butterfly binding edition "Wen Xuan" in Song Dynasty, block-printed Jin-Xiang-edition (small size format) "Wan Juan Jing Hua" in Song Dynasty, Pu Songling’s manuscript "Liao Zhai Wen Ji ", marginalia and proofread by Wang Shizhen edition "Kun Lun Shan Fang Ji" are all ancient treasures.

The periodical collection covers various disciplines, and basically forms a distinctive and comprehensive storing system. "Qi Lu Gong Bao" the official newspaper of Shandong Independent Tung Meng Hui during the 1911 Revolution, "Bo Hai Ri Bao" the original official newspaper of the CPC’s Bohai District Committee, "Da Zhong Bao" the official newspaper of theCPC’s Jiaodong District Committee and other periodical collection are very precious.

The collection of foreign language books and periodicals feature light industry, chemical industry, electronic technology, environmental protection, medicine and health, such as the United States’ "Chemical Abstracts" collected from the 1907, " Japan Patent Gazette "collected from the early 1960s, "American Patent Abstracts", "World Patent Index" and "The Engineering Index" , all of which are with high research and development value.

Shandong Library is a comprehensive public library funded by the state. It is an important part of socialist science, education and culture. It is also an academic institution that provides reading and information reference service to the public. Adhering to the guiding ideology "all is for readers", it provides reading, lending, science-tech search, reference, information, translation, exhibitions, seminars and other forms of services for readers by using its rich collection. There are 44 public service rooms, which open for 73.5 hours per week, receive nearly five thousand readers each day. It also established Literature exchange relationship with Japan, North Korea, the United States, Britain, Hong Kong and other countriesor regions.

After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of CPC and with the deepening of reform and opening up, the development of domestic libraries has entered the fast lane. In recent years, especially since theSixth Plenary Session of the 14th Central Committee of CPC, Shandong Library has been adhering to the service concept "people-oriented, reader first", deepening the reform, enhancing internal management, building external image, breaking the traditional mindset, targeting the same goal and being realistic to develop our vision as becoming the first-class library in China. It also implemented a series of measures to meet the needs of reform and opening up, to promote social civilization and development, to serve the Two Civilizations’ Construction policy. The newly opened best-selling book reading room, electronic audio room, foreign arts and crafts room, digital reading room, Hong Kong and Taiwan information room and Reference Department, etc., enriched the library service. All services aim to satisfy the need of readers and thus have a positive impact to the community. It also comprehensively promotes the modernization of the library by applying high-tech means. Science develops very fast in modern society, the popularity and application of high-tech in the library change the service concept and modes tremendously. Shandong Library seizes this opportunity to make extensive use of advanced technology to promote the reform and development, which will enrich its collection, simplify the working process, save the labor, deepen the service level, improve service quality, so that readers can access to information more quickly, accurately and easily. At present, the Chinese and foreign language books bibliographic database has been completed; online interlibrary loan and academic journals retrieval begun to take shape; acquiring, cataloging, circulation, periodicals, foreign language, special collections and other departments have achieved computer management; the application of micro-technology to protect precious literature made gratifying achievements ... ... all of which drive Shandong Library to take a solid step to the comprehensive modernization, and harvest fruitful results. It won the honorary titles of "National Cultural Advanced Group", " Popular Library ", one of "the Top Ten Units of Professional Ethics Construction of Shandong Province" and the provincial "Spiritual Civilized Unit", etc. successively.

At the turn of the century, challenges and opportunities coexist. Under the care and leadership of the provincial party committee, the provincial government, the provincial people's congress, the provincial CPPCC and the departments of culture and education, the construction of new Shandong Library became the largest cultural investment project in Shandong Province since the founding of PRC, it covers an area of 65 mu, and the construction area of 50,000 square meters. The new library officially opened in October 2002.

The new Shandong Library is located in Hi-tech Development District，Jinan City. Its construction was started in 1994. The whole project was divided into two phases, the first phase is the comprehensive reading building with a construction area of 35,830 square meters, investment of 110.881 million RMB. The six-storey main building is hollow-designed with a column grid structure and big bay inside, the space between neighbor columns is 7.2 meters, the area of each floor varies from 2000 square meters to 6,000 square meters. It used modular design to build the library, which has an appearance of magnificence, compactness, both strength and chic, it is a modern symbol of Qilu culture. The second phase of the project is the stacking building with 12 stories.

Adapting to the requirements of modern information and opening to public, the new library carries out multi-directional and deep level services. First of all, relying on modern computer network equipment, the library aims to fully realize the automation of its business, the computer management of book acquiring, cataloging, circulation, bibliographic information query and information conference services, and gradually establish the bibliographic database of its collection, secondary source database and full text database with rich content, accuracy and high efficiency.  Secondly, Aiming to achieve the transition from close to open in management and service, it has fully implemented the open shelf management of books and periodicals’ circulation, added open shelf reading rooms from 2 to 8, increased open shelf literature from 150 thousand to more than 1.5 million copies, supplied more than 35 kinds of reading and research rooms and more than 2000 readers' seats, greatly increased the service projects, which enormously facilitates the readers and meets the needs of readers at all levels.

At the dawn of new century, Shandong Library is shining with brilliant light. With its elegant environment, excellent facilities, high quality services and modern management, it is carrying forward the human’s splendid civilization. It is a life long school for all citizens and will make our lives more colorful. It is the temple of knowledge in the information age and will make greater contributions to the "Civilized Shandong".