On November 10 the Shanghai Library signed an agreement with the CALIS (China Academy Library and Information System) Administrative Center to make its ILS service (loan of the original copies) available to all colleges and universities in China.

The Shanghai Library Interlibrary Loan Service is a new project aiming to improve the accessibility of resources held by different libraries. Based on the 52m items of holdings of the Shanghai Library that are available for circulation, and relying on a well performed interlibrary loan system and the express delivery service as the logistics support, the Shanghai Library ILS is capable of sending the requested materials to users of its worldwide partners – 133 so far -- in a fast and safe manner.

Devised to promote library resources sharing among China’s universities and academic libraries, the CALIS is a nationwide academic library consortium under the leadership of Ministry of Education. It was approved by the State Council as a pillar public service system of China’s higher education strategy. It was initiated at the end of 1998 and currently has more than 1300 member libraries across the country. Shanghai Library is CALIS’s first public library member in China.