Southern Taiwan does not have any national archives or research centers as the three national libraries are all located in the northern and central parts of Taiwan. In order to increase library resources in the Yunlin-Chiayi-Tainan area and provide more space for the National Central Library collection, the central government launched the National Central Library Southern Branch (NCL Southern Branch) and Joint Archives Center Construction Project this year (2017). The branch library will be located in Xinying District, Tainan City.
Premier Lin Chuan inspected the designated area for the new branch library today (Feb 14) and also attended the groundbreaking ceremony with Mayor William Lai, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Chen Mei-ling, Ministry of Education Deputy Minister Tsai Ching-hwa, National Central Library Director-General Tseng Shu-hsien. They expect the project to deliver a reader-friendly national public library which meets international standards for the Southern Taiwan region. Mayor Lai expressed his gratitude towards Premier Lin and Secretary-General Chen in his remarks. He mentioned that since Premier Lin began his term nearly eight months ago, Lin have granted over NT 10 billion dollars of budget to Tainan to carry out many major construction projects including an art museum, a multi-function convention and exhibition center, Tsengwen River Bridge, and Shalun Green Energy Science City. And today, the location for the NCL Southern Branch is officially set at Xinying.
Mayor Lai pointed out that the city government has long been promoting policies to cultivate a “reading city”. To establish quality environments that encourage reading, the government invested more than NT 100 million dollars of budget to improve junior and elementary school libraries and public libraries in 37 districts. In the past several years, Tainan city also built and opened three new municipal branch libraries to the public: Tucheng Branch Library in Annan District, Yuwen Branch Library in East District, and Yancheng Branch Library in South District. In addition to allocating budget to revitalize and renovate existing municipal libraries, the government plans to build a new Main Municipal Library building at the former location of Yongkang Artillery School. The new library will house millions of books and provide residents with more reading materials and options. According to statistics, the annual amount of books Tainan citizens borrow from libraries ranks second-most in Taiwan. In 2016, the number of books checked out reached 7.82 million, which shows that Tainan citizens really love to read. The Mayor thanked the central government for setting the NCL Southern Branch in Xinying, and hoped that the project can balance library resource distribution between the north and south and stimulate future developments in Xinying area.
Premier Lin Chuan mentioned that a nationwide passion for reading is an indication of an advanced society and expressed many expectations for Xinying’s NCL Southern Branch. According to the Premier, the new Branch library will offer advanced library and information science technology, a digital archive, and a pleasant reading atmosphere. Design concepts of the building will integrate local landscapes to make residents feel more welcomed and part of the facility will operate as a business to sustain itself financially. Premier Lin stressed that the Executive Yuan offers full support and hopes that the construction can be completed within four years as planned with the expected quality so that the locals can have access to a national library with comprehensive functions.
According to Tainan Municipal Library, the designated area in Xinying for the National Central Library Southern Branch (NCL Southern Branch) and Joint Archives Center has a base area of 5.71 hectares, and is easily accessible as it is close to Freeway 1 (Sun Yat-sen Freeway) interchange and Xinying Railway Station. Xinying is located in the middle of the Jianan Plain area which has a population of 3.37 million people and the resources to support academic research at 29 universities and colleges within the area. In addition to serving as the southern reserve base of National Central Library, the branch library will also be the first national joint archive center. This facility, which will be the first national public library in Southern Taiwan, will be open to the public, provide smart services to readers, and have children and young adult creative reading centers.