The Role of Information Technology in Academic Libraries' Resource Sharing in Western China

LIBRARY TRENDS, Vol. 62, No. 1, 2013 (“Community Informatics in China,” edited by Kate Williams), pp. 180–204. © 2013 The Board of Trustees, University of Illinois Abstract This essay examines the work of China Academic Library and Information System (CALIS), an academic library community that has established resource sharing in a network environment. More specifically, it examines CALIS’s work in the developed Eastern and the underdeveloped Western regions in China and considers how CALIS has used information technology to narrow the gap between academic library communities in these distinct regions. It also attempts to promote professional understanding about academic libraries in China’s Western region, especially around the ways in which these libraries have used information technology and digital databases of local culture to help transform communities across their regions.