An introduction about the Institute

The Institute was established on November 30th, 2014, co-founded by several institutes in the field of literature， history, philology, chemistry, polymers, bioscience, museology in Fudan University.

The Institute is affiliated to Fudan University Library. 

It aims to construct an academic system of ancient books preservation and conservation with Chinese characteristics, and to build a platform of national cultural resource information.

It received strong support from the National Library of China.

Five subdivisions of the institute

1. National Talent-training Base for Ancient Book Preservation and Conservation（National Center for Ancient Book Restoration Techniques— Fudan University Internship Institute）

The National Library of China has twelve talent-training bases in the country, including us. The main task of the base is for postgraduate student training. Currently we have 30 MLS（Master of Library and information Science）students and 4 Ph.D. students, majoring in ancient book preservation and conservation.

2. Ancient Chinese Bibliographical Books Data Research Center

Our center is dedicated to establishing a system to organize and demonstrate data on ancient Chinese books in the Chinese Generalized Information System with the historic maps. We also study how to use digital images to show audience and readers the story of those rare books.

3. The Research Center of Ancient Books Preservation and Conservation of Fudan University

This center focuses on the collation and study of the ancient books. Now Prof. Wu and Long have compiled general Catalogue of Chinese Ancient Books (including Index), and they are now compiling the Catalogue of ancient Chinese books collected by South Korea.

4. Digital Humanity Resources Library of Fudan University

We are on the way to digitalize the treasures of our Chinese rare books. This digital resource library will store all the digital data, and will establish a platform accessible to the readers.

5. Basic Science Laboratory of Ancient Chinese Books Preservative Techniques

The laboratory mainly conducts research and discovers new material, which can be used for repairing Chinese ancient books. We are focusing on study traditional Chinese hand-made paper process such as Kaihua paper(开化纸), Xuan paper and paper de-acidification.

A very strong team 

Our Dean is Yuliang Yang, a member of the Chinese Academy of Science.

Our Vice-Dean is Guanghui Yang.

We have 6 professors, 6 associate professors and 7 lecturers. We also have more than 10 part-time professors from other department, universities and libraries, such as Harvard University, Qinghua University, National Library and Shanghai Library.

There is a Huge collection to support the research and development of the institute.

In the Fudan University Library, there are 400,000 volumes of Chinese old and rare books, more than two-thirds of which were issued before 1911. Among those old and rare books, about 7,000 titles are the most treasured books, including 2,000 titles of manuscripts, and more than 1,000 titles of old rubbings. These Chinese rare books are good resources for research and training.

We have administrative access to the digital resources of the manuscripts collection in the Fudan University Library. We have finished digitizing 596 titles in the system in the first stage.

The Innovation Research Institute for Preservation of Paper Cultural Relics of Fudan University

The Innovation Research Institute for Preservation of Paper Cultural Relics is founded on November 12, 2019. It is supported by the Shanghai Government’s Three-Year (2019-2021) Plan of Combination of culture and education and will educate and train new qualified personnel who can preserve and conserve paper cultural relics such as paintings, rare books，rubbings，archives，photos, and maps.

Preservation and Study of Tibetan Texts

Our Institute facilitates the management and use of Tibetan texts, including Professor Michael Hahn’s private library of Tibetology, Indology and Oriental Studies kept at the Fudan University Library. We train students in Tibetan language and Tibetan book conservation. There is a plan to publish rare Tibetan books and related studies.

Research Association of Li-Yu Culture

The association studies ancient Chinese private gardens and modern Leisure health.

Research Association of Chinese Ancient Woodblock Painting

The association studies ancient Chinese woodblock paintings and plans to publish books on these paintings.

Research Association of Yu-Qiaqing Culture

The center is devoted to the research of the economic activities of Ningbo businessmen in Shanghai and the major historical events of modern politics, economy and society centered on Shanghai.