@misc{eprints34395,
          volume = {12},
          number = {1},
          author = {Ben Gu},
           title = {Western language books in the Beijing Library: criteria for acquisition and the method of selection},
       publisher = {ALPSP - The Association of Learned \& Professional Society Publishers},
         journal = {Learned Publishing},
           pages = {33--40},
            year = {1999},
        keywords = {acquisitions, policy, National Library of China, collection development, selection.},
             url = {http://eprints.rclis.org/4395/},
        abstract = {Each year, the National Library of China acquires about 20,000 English language books, about 2,000 each of German and French and a small number of Spanish, Italian and Romanian books. Books in other languages are acquired only occasionally and not on a regular basis.
As the library has limited funds for purchase, we have defined the principle of 'Completeness for Chinese books and essence for foreign language books'. We can only make a limited selection from countless foreign publications, to satisfy the needs of readers and, in addition, to reflect the characteristics of the collections. It is easy to imagine the difficulties involved with the task.}
}