1.Long History 

Gansu Provincial Library developed out of Gansu Public Library which established in 1916. The ensuing years witnessed many changes in the names and locations of the library. It’s not until 1953 that the library was named Gansu Provincial Library. With a long history of about one hundred years, Gansu Provincial Library has been providing the public with books, knowledge and related services. The library is rated as National First Class Library, and enjoys the honor of the first batch of National key Protection Units (published by the State Council). Gansu Provincial Library also plays the role as one of the nine regional central libraries - the central library in the northwest. 

2. Departments 

 Gansu Provincial Library is a deputy city level institution, composed of 18 departments, including Department of Acquisition and Cataloging, Reader's Service Department, Department of Newspaper and Periodicals, Department of Information Resources Development, Historical Archive Department, Library Research Department, Department of Information Technology Application, Library for Si Ku Quan Shu ( Wen Su Ge Edition ), Ancient Books Protection center in Gansu, Regional Center for National Cultural Information Resources Sharing Project (Gansu Branch), Continuing Education Center, Conference and Exhibition Center, Office of the Chinese Communist Party Committee of Gansu Provincial Library, Comprehensive Business Office, Administrative Office, Department of Property Management and so on. In addition, the library is also the base for the Central Libraries Committee of Gansu Province, Gansu Library Association, Si Ku Quan Shu Research Institute (Gansu Branch), the Editing House of Library and Information and Calligraphy Research Institute of Gansu Provincial Library. 

3. Resources 

Gansu Provincial Library hosts vast holdings of over 4.6 million volumes, with ancient Chinese books and Northwest Local Document as featured resources. About 380 thousand ancient Chinese books are well-collected here, for instance, the renowned Si Ku Quan Shu (Wen Su Ge edition), block-printed editions of Song and Yuan Dynasty, the wood carving series of Yongle Nan Zang (Ming edition), transcribing Buddhism scriptures from Dunhuang, personal letters from Celebrities and invaluable calligraphy work and paintings. Over 100 thousand volumes of collected Northwest Local Document has made it possible for Gansu Provincial Library to serve as a main support for Northwest local Ethnic and Religious study and for the research on Dunhuang and the Silk Road. Along with the development of automatic management, data resources have been introduced and enriched. Thus, a complementary document keeping system has been built up. The library has cooperated with more than thirty business databases as outsourcing resource, such as CNKI, WANFANG DATA, Bo journal database, Taiwan classic literature journal database, New Oriental Multimedia. And more than twenty self-constructed database, including Northwest Local Document database, Sand Storm Research Resources, Si Ku Quan Shu Research Resources, Gansu Local Drama Resources and video resources of the Celebrity Forum on Weekends, constitutes the featured resources system. 

4. Reader Service 

 Gansu Provincial Library is open to the public 365 days a year for free. Readers can view over one million documents in open-stack reading rooms, more than 5,000 kinds of periodicals and 260 kinds of newspapers here. They can also enjoy comprehensive services and a plenty of data resources. Now the library has licensed readers of more than 130,000, and the annual reception of more than 1.6 million. Annual circulation number of books has reached about 6 million time. The library boasts 18 service windows, well-equipped report Hall, exhibition hall, and conference rooms. It also provides extensive services all over Gansu province, through 70 branches and book circulation stations in urban and rural area, and over sixteen thousand service stations in the National Cultural Information Resources Sharing Project. At the same time, Celebrity Forum on Weekends, Reading Service Center for the Handicapped, Reading Center for Migrant Children , Migrant Workers’ Home, Book Circulating Service, and 24 hours self-service library grow into its main library service brand in recent years. 

5. Honors 
Gansu Provincial Library has been honored many times as the municipal, provincial and national civilized library, as well as advanced collective of cultural work. Honorary titles: 

In 2007, "Star Award - Service Award for public library”, by the Ministry of Culture 

In 2009, “National Reading Base”, by Library Association of China 

In 2010, “National First Class Library", by the Ministry of Culture 

In 2011, “The advanced units in Gansu in the reform of the cultural system ”, by the Provincial Cultural System Reform Work Leading Group 

In 2012, “Demonstration Project of Cultural Services for Migrant Workers”, by the Ministry of Culture (Project of “Book Circulating Stations on Construction Sites” ) “Outstanding Project of National Basic Level Cultural Volunteerism”, by the Ministry of Culture ( “Volunteer Action-Training Sessions for Basic Level Librarians” ) “The advanced units in Gansu in the reform of the cultural system ”, by Gansu Provincial Party Committee Propaganda Department 

In 2013, “National First Class Library", by the Ministry of Culture “The Advanced Women Collective in Gansu”, by Gansu Women's Federation “Innovative Service Window" in “Efficiency Storm", by the Culture Department of Gansu (Reading Service Center for the Handicapped) 

In 2014, “The Assistive Advanced Unit”, by the working committee for the disabled of the People's Government of Gansu Province “The National Advanced Unit for the Protection of Ancient Books”, by the Ministry of Culture “The Advanced Unit of Informatization in Gansu”, by the Gansu Provincial Information Association 

In 2015, “National Advanced Women Collective”, by National Women's Federation “The Advanced Women Collective in Gansu”, by Gansu Women's Federation 

In 2016, “The Advanced Units in Provincial Cultural System”, by the Culture Department of Gansu “The Advanced Units in ‘Two Assistance Project’ ”, by the Culture Department of Gansu.