More people borrow eBooks than the print books thanks to improved digital service in the Guiyang Library, Guizhou province.

A digital library in the city of Guiyang, Guizhou province, was built as early as 2003.

A library in the city of Guiyang, Guizhou province, says that a digital library that it built as early as 2003 has now become so popular that it's way more popular than the traditional open-shelf borrowing system.[Photo/China Daily]

For 2014 alone, it explains, the Guiyang Digital Library active page view had 1 million hits while the number of books loaned out amounted to only 300,000.

Guo Chun, director of the library, goes on to say, "People above the age of 60 and below 18 prefer the old traditional reading method, but those aged 20-50 like digital reading, so the digital library can help save this group of readers."

The digital library service was set up in 2003 and it has been developing since then so that it has 920,000 books online, as well as 50 million academic papers and 2,435 local history archives.

Guo continues, "The digital library can help us librarians solve many problems, such as limited library storage space and unexpected losses from disasters or accidents. The literary archives and documents can be stored forever via digital methods. And what we’re really glad to see is that the digital library makes it much easier for people to access the library resources."

And, to keep up with trends, the Guiyang Library has an official App and WeChat account so that readers can log in to the library services and search for books and read online.