Brief History of the Library: Origin (1950s ~ 1960s)

      As NCCU re-established in Taiwan in 1954, there's neither collection of sources nor facilities, not to mention a library.  It was only in 1955 that a reading room was founded in Jhih-Si Building, current site of the College of Science, which was subordinated to the Office of Academic Affairs.

     In 1959, the Library was formally established and Mr. Ri-Chang He was assigned as the first Director of the Library.  The Library Committee had been constituted at that time for the purpose of smooth functioning of the library.

     The Social Sciences Information Center (or, SSIC) was established in 1961 for developing collections in social sciences subjects. Both the Library and SSIC were subordinated to NCCU President.

Brief History of the Library: Changes (1970s ~ 1980s)

    In earlier years, most departments had departmental reading room primarily to support for use of students of affiliated departments. Newspaper Reading Room, Law Reading Room and the Reading Room of College of Liberal Arts kept books on closed shelves then and students could only check out a book based on bibliographic records of index cards by filling out a request form.

      Considering that library materials were been scattered around the campus site, the former President Yuan-Cu Li determined to build a new library with an aim to have all materials centralized and coordinated to provide users with better library services. 

      On May 20, 1977, celebrating the University's 50th anniversary, the new Main Library was opened by former Vice President Jia-Gan Yan. The 5-story concrete building, characterized by the Chinese word 「壽」(“Shou” , longevity in meaning) in architectural appearance, had the area of 14,400 square meters and a featured court yard to maintain the comforts in terms of light and ventilation. The Modular structure and One-Room design made interior partitions more practical and flexible. At the time of completion, the NCCU Library was the largest University Library in Taiwan.

    Completed in 1962, the Newspaper Reading Room, located on the 2nd floor of Journalism Building, held materials in closed stacks and primarily provided services to the Department of Journalism. In 1972, the users were allowed to check out books. In 1976, the Reading Room had a Reference Area. In 1977, the Reading Room was merged into and managed by the Main Library.

  In 1982, the Reading Room was renovated and became an open-stack library allowing its patrons to enter the stacks to browse for themselves.  It contained over ten thousands of books, 100 kinds of periodicals and 14 Chinese or English newspapers. In 1990, the College of Communication was founded and the Reading Room was relocated to the 3rd floor of the College. In 1993, it was renamed to the “Communication Library” that is still in use.

Brief History of the Library: Growth (1990s)

        In 1990s, with the advances of new technology, the Library began utilizing computers and introduced automated system to accomplish more tasks and to deliver more services. With respect to simplification, library management became centralized and services, however, have been provided by each library on the basis of individual missions and goals.

        In July 1992, both the Acquisition Section and the Cataloging Section of SSIC merged with those of the Main Library. Starting from December 1992, the Library Director served also as the Supervisor of SSIC in the consequence that all libraries around campus became integrated to facilitate more efficient operation.

         In 1997, the College of Commerce was completed and the Commerce Library was opened in September of the same year.

        On March 16, 2001, after a plan schemed from 1997, the Social Sciences Library, housed materials in social sciences, law and international affairs that have been collected for more than 30 years, was opened to support for inter-disciplinary studies and research.

      To coordinate and fulfill resource sharing, libraries of Institute of International Relations, Center for Public and Business Administration Education and NCCU Affiliated Experimental Elementary School employed NCCU Library Automation System to manage their collections and provide support to the university's community.

Brief History of the Library: Development (2000s)

 　　As a result of more than 50 years of extensive efforts, NCCU Libraries hold one of the most comprehensive collections in humanities and social sciences in Taiwan. According to a competitiveness survey among 65 universities of Taiwan, China and Hong Kong conducted by Global Views Monthly Magazine published in October 2006, NCCU was the only Taiwan institution that was on the top 20 benchmarks in terms of the average number of books per student (106.95 per student). These remarkably diverse collections are the result of systematic, forward-looking acquisitions amassed over years and it will remain a vital part of the library's mission.

The statistical information on holdings as of August, 2009:

CJK books: 1,250,154; western language books: 556,795

CJK e-books: 16,835; western language e-books: 25,495

CJK non-book materials: 173,409; western language non-book materials: 1,103,906

CJK periodicals: 2,445; western language periodicals: 2,290; e-journals: 39,582

CJK bound periodicals: 102,773; western language bound periodicals: 112,650

CJK newspapers: 282; western language newspapers: 157

CJK databases: 102; western language databases: 109

　　These collections were housed among the Main Library, Social Sciences Information Center, Communication Library, Commerce Library, Social Sciences Library, Center for Public and Business Administration Education and Institute of International Relations Library.  As a selected deposit, the Libraries keep the most comprehensive collection such as theses and dissertations of Taiwan, social science research reports sponsored by National Science Council published prior to 1994 and the government publications.

      Moreover, the NCCU Libraries have made tremendous efforts to digitize NCCU research outputs and develop NCCU Electronic Theses & Dissertations, NCCU Scholarly Journals Online, NCCU Proceedings of Conference Database, NCCU Faculty Research & Publications and NCCU Institutionary Repository.

      To preserve and support online access to our unique holdings, the Library conducts consecutive digitization projects and creates NCCU Special Collection Website comprising a diverse range of resources including NCCU Newspaper Clippings Full-Text, Important News Clippings prior to 1949, R.O.C. Government Employee Database, Mr. Fang, Maurus's Archives, Mr. Cheng, Tien-Fong's Archives and Professor Chen, Fang-Ming's Manuscripts. In addition, the Library collaborates with organizations or individuals of interests to constantly digitize rare materials among which are Gazette of the Office of Taiwan Governor, Historical Resources Abroad Regarding Democratization in Taiwan.