Beijing will expand its National Library to make it the third biggest in the world and the biggest in Asia.
It will also lay the foundations for a digital library to enable readers to surf the Internet and see more material in Chinese.
Shen Xiaojun, a spokeswoman for the engineering office in charge of the project, said yesterday that the State Council had already approved a budget of 1.14 billion yuan (HK$1.07 billion) to build the second phase of the National Library and lay the foundations for the digital one.
The building in northeast Beijing, completed in 1987, was far too small to meet rising demand, she said. It was built to store 20 million volumes, with 3,000 seats and a daily capacity of 5,000 to 6,000 people.
By the end of last year, the average number of visitors each day was 12,000 and up to 17,000 on holidays. With 23.11 million books, copies have to be left on floors or piled in rooms, making it difficult to trace them.
The 12-storey expansion, on the north side of the existing site, will expand the total capacity to 35 million volumes and 17,000 readers a day.
'We are now among the top five in the world,' Ms Shen said.