On the 30th of August, the Collaborative Innovation Center for Chinese Culture Going Global, which belongs to the Beijing Foreign Languages University, released its “Report on the Influence of Chinese Books in World Libraries 2013”.

This report forms part of the larger study entitled “Report on the Overseas Influence of Chinese Books: an Analysis of the Data on Chinese Books in Foreign Libraries”. All the data in the Report is taken from the database of the OCLC (Online Computer Library Center).

According to this Report, the selection of Chinese books in libraries worldwide is increasingly varied, and their overseas influence is growing year by year.

As of August 23rd, 2013, the titles of Chinese books which are housed by over thirty libraries around the world have increased to 18,010, and they are published by 392 publishing companies.

Professor He Mingxing, the director of the research project, said that positive results have evidently been achieved in the effort to make Chinese culture go global. When libraries worldwide choose to store certain titles, this represents a recognition of the academic value of the books, the brand influence of the publishers, and the popularity of the authors.

According to the data of OCLC, the most competitive Chinese books are the works of literature (including ancient, modern and contemporary literature), which account for 66% of the titles, while Chinese learning and teaching materials account for 26%, Chinese art for 6% and historical reading materials for 2%.

There are thirty four publishers who have more than a hundred titles collected by the over thirty global libraries. All these books are included among the 10,817 titles. Among the publishers of these books, the Zhonghua Book Company is in the first place with 1,568 titles, and the China Social Sciences Press is ranked sixth for its high academic quality and influence in the field of humanities and the social sciences.

Revised by Gabriele Corsetti