Howlongdoesittakeforareadertogetabookafterplacinganorderinalibraryofover8million
TheanswerfromanewlibraryinsuburbanBeijingislessthan15minutes.
LocatedintheeasterndistrictofTongzhou,BeijingLibraryhasbecomeapopulardestinationsinceitopenedinlateDecember.Itreceivedover80,000visitsduringthethree-dayNewYearholiday.
Bookloversareattractednotonlybythelibrary'sarchitecturaldesign,whichresemblesareadingspaceundergiantginkgotrees,butalsobyitsabundantcollectionofbooksandsmartservices.
Coveringsome75,000squaremeters,BeijingLibraryhousesover8millionbooks.Thetoweringstacksonthelibrary'sbasementfloorcontributetoitsmassivecapacity.Theyarepartofthelargestsingleautomatedstorageandretrievalsystem,alsoknownasAS/RS,forbooksinChina.
Thestackshaveatotalstorageareaoflessthan3,000sqm,yettheycanstoreupto7.1millionbookslargelyduetotheirspecialdesign.Suchahugerepositorywouldrequireastorageareaofatleast10,000sqminatraditionallibrary.
Inadditiontothestacks,thesmartsystemincludesvarioustypesofsmartequipmentlikerobots,whichenableintelligentbookdeliveryandauxiliarysorting.
"Theautomatedbookstorageandretrievalsystemfunctionslikethesmartbrainofthelibrary,enablinganarrayofhighlyefficientservicesthatreducemanuallabor,"saysShiQi,generalmanageroftheAS/RSbusinessunitofJiatuTechnology,thesmartreadingserviceproviderresponsibleforthedesignofBeijingLibrary'sAS/RS.
BeijingLibraryisnotaloneinadoptinginnovativestoragemethods.TheSuzhouNo2Library,whichopenedinlate2019,wasthefirstChineselibrarytoembracethesmartbookstorageandretrievalsystem.
"Asmorelocalgovernmentsplaceenrichingculturallifehighontheiragenda,weareseeinggrowinginterestfrompubliclibrariestointroducethesmartstorageandretrievalsystem,"Shisays.
Tomakeborrowingbookseasier,visitorstoBeijingLibrarycanregisterforaseamlessborrowingserviceempoweredbyfacialrecognitionandothertechnologies.Adigitalguideatthelibrary'sentrancealsoofferson-demandinteractionswithvisitors.
Readerswhowanttoavoidtraveltothelibrarycanusetheonlineborrowingservice,whichwilldeliverthebooktotheirdoorstep.Thelibrary'sonlineborrowingserviceisopentoreadersnotonlyinBeijingbutalsoinneighboringTianjinandHebeiprovince.
"It'squitearefreshingexperiencetovisitthelibrary,"saysMengFan,alocalsixth-grader."Thebookshereenrichyourmind,andsomeofthesmartservicesherecanblowyourmind."