Resource：http://en.shisu.edu.cn/resources/news/sisu-libraries-offer-excellent-atmosphere-of-reading
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I have always imagined that the Paradise would be a kind of library,” Argentine writer Jorge Lues Borges said. He compares the library to the Tower of Babel parable, in which humankind, united by one language, has the hubris to build a tower to reach heaven. Hu Lizhong, director of SISU’s libraries, has been trying for 10 years to do what he can to help make Borges’s vision a reality.
Hu has been named one of Shanghai’s “advanced workers” between 2010 and 2014 for his contributions to making SISU’s libraries loved by SISU faculty and students.
The Run Run Shaw Library on SISU’s Hongkou campus, funded by the Shaw Foundation, has a learning commons of more than 300 square meters now, with separate self-studying rooms, round tables for discussion and four all-glass blocks for seminars.
Hu often travelled to foreign countries to research library designs during its early construction, because he insists that libraries should be the best campus buildings where students go most often and stay the longest.
Hu has compared a university’s library that can show the campus spirit to a living room that shows its owner’s personality, taste and interests. He also emphasized that encouraging reading is more important, but more difficult, than collecting books.
Many graduates indicated that they were greatly impressed by the atmosphere of reading SISU’s libraries create for them, including the opening of second-floor reading rooms and seminar rooms, and the use of multifunctional sockets around reading desks.
Hu listens to students’ suggestions through frequent questionnaires and seminars, and informs them of any improvement of SISU libraries, which makes the students feel valued.
“If without libraries, we will have no history and future,” American writer Ray Bradbury said.
