Centennial Stories —— Compilation of Rare Books Catalogue of China Geological Library

(China Geological Library)

After decades of war, China Geological Library celebrated its 95th anniversary on 20 1 1, which ushered in the vigorous development of geological undertakings in China. The collection has also grown from more than 4,000 volumes when the museum was built to more than 700,000 printed books, including precious geoscience documents at home and abroad for about 200 years since the Enlightenment of Modern Geology. More than 10,000 sets of geological maps of countries around the world. It is the accumulated painstaking efforts of several generations of geologists. After nearly a century of unremitting pursuit, the geological library has a vast collection of books, just like a bright pearl in the treasure house of geosciences.

Firstly, the background and process of compiling the catalogue of rare books in China Geological Library.

In 2003, the book Yin Hongxue Mud, edited by Zhang, was published, which sorted out the seal of the geological library for 90 years and unveiled the veil of the development process of the geological library for the first time. However, the study of precious documents in geological libraries in the past century is blank. In order to integrate the essence of geological library collection, show the profoundness of China's geoscience culture, and fill the blank of precious literature research in geological library in the past century, in 20 1 1 year, Gu Xiaohua, curator of China Geological Library, set up a curator research fund, and the project of "Collection of Rare Books and Catalogs in China Geological Library" passed the expert evaluation, and it is planned to compile the precious literature of geological library into a book and present it to the world in the form of pictures and texts.

In the first step, the research group formulated a scientific technical route, working methods and working ideas. On the basis of referring to the basic principles of defining special collections in domestic libraries, the research group solicited the opinions of experts and scholars on the criteria for defining precious geoscience documents. Through the investigation of the paper documents in the collection, the number of rare documents in the collection is verified, and finally the catalogue selected from the catalogue is determined.

The second step is to excavate the historical background, professional academic value and socio-economic value of hundreds of documents selected into the rare book catalogue by consulting the information of the Internet, the National Library and the Library of Xi Jiaotong University, and complete the attribute description of the documents.

The third step is to solicit experts' opinions and revise and improve the attribute description text. Hold an expert seminar in the museum to seriously repair the contents of the catalogue and suggestions for editing the text.

Second, the basic situation of the directory

After more than a year's work, 106 books in Chinese and foreign languages, 13 periodicals in Chinese and foreign languages and 9 geological maps were finally selected and edited into books in the form of pictures and texts.

1. Definition standard of rare geoscience documents

The remarkable development of modern geological undertakings in China was after the establishment of the Geological Society and the establishment of specialized geological research departments and educational institutions. These geoscience documents in the initial stage of geological undertakings have played a great role in promoting China's geological undertakings and made outstanding contributions, bearing the great achievements of geological predecessors and the arduous course of geological undertakings development. Therefore, when defining the standard, we refer to the following principles: defining the time principle, having important academic value principle, giving priority to manuscript printing principle, giving priority to exquisite special material binding principle.

Standard for rare books of China Geological Library: 1949 documents (represented by publications in the Republic of China) are special collections of the library, 1937 documents with important academic value and research significance, and works of famous geologists in modern times (represented by geologists' manuscripts, copies to be printed and copied), beautifully bound and made of special materials (Xuan paper, thread binding and special materials).

2. Selected documents in the catalogue

This book is divided into three parts: books, periodicals and maps, and reproduces the essence of China Geological Library with pictures and texts. The selected documents in the Catalogue of Rare Books Collected by China Geological Library include not only the representative works of China geological experts such as Zhang, Weng, Huang, Xie and Yang Zunyi, but also extremely precious geological maps and pictures, as well as early geoscience monographs translated from abroad. Publications include thread-bound copies of rice paper, printed copies of rice paper, mimeographed copies, rare and precious manuscripts in the world, etc. Binding has the forms of scroll loading, folding loading, thread loading, hardcover and paperback. The literature covers the translation of foreign geological works by China scholars, foreign scholars' geological investigation in China, China people's own geological investigation and important stages of geological research development, including the development of modern geological undertakings, geological investigation, travel notes, minerals and museums. Each work embodies the sweat and painstaking efforts of the geological predecessors (refer to Figure 1 to Figure 5 for related literature).

Attached are 32 real scenes of Pengxian Copper Bureau (Figure 5) about mine scenery, mining, smelting and people's labor, which are very precious historical materials to understand the history of Pengxian Copper Bureau.

3. Attribute description of rare documents

Taking the book "Well and Mine Engineering" as an example, a professional photographer was hired to take photos of the document with a text introduction (Figure 6).

This book belongs to mineral science. This paper mainly introduces the method of drilling artesian well and the method of drilling artesian well in Nuerdun. Mining methods, the current drilling method, frequent drilling accidents, lining of hole-filling pipe, diamond equipment, diamond equipment set by Briggs, and drilling equipment specific to Matthew and Bra; The method of digging up earth and stone with gunpowder, smoothing roads, polishing powder chambers, and other drugs used to crack earth and stone. Attached drawing 140.

In the attribute description, we explain and introduce important items:

Title items, including the number of volumes and issues of books;

Author project, including publication time, place, publisher and edition category;

Audit items, including account books, functions, charts, tables, etc. ;

Figure 1 Description of Pilot Geological Survey of Ministry of Industry and Commerce (written by Ding Wenjiang, 19 13).

Figure 2 manuscripts (silk rice paper) and 1 scientific research report (handwritten and field photos).

Notes are supplements and explanations to the above items, including the attached appendix materials; Such as inscriptions, seal collection, engraving and circulation, as well as special instructions about this book.

In order to provide readers with a summary of the contents of the book and the knowledge of evaluation, it is necessary to briefly introduce the general idea of the book, the author's life story, the writing process and the circulation of the version.

Preface and preface are prefaced by Shou Jiahua, former vice minister of land and resources and director of China Geological Survey, and Gu Xiaohua, curator.

Third, the purpose and significance of editing the catalogue

In the preface, curator Gu Xiaohua introduced the purpose and significance of writing this book.

Fig. 3 Study Notes of Junior Students in Geological College (co-authored by Zhang and Weng, 19 16).

Figure 4 "Nanxun Railway Planning Map" The only hand-drawn railway map in this museum.

It consists of three volumes, with a total length of 27.7m, ending with 1906. Appraised by the National Cultural Relics Appraisal Committee in 2000, it was determined that the map was of great research value to the early railway construction history of China and the modern social development history of China.

1. Show and carry forward

The selected documents in the Catalogue are selected from hundreds of thousands of books, and each work embodies the painstaking efforts of our geological predecessors, witnessed the bumpy and brilliant development of China's geological cause, and carried forward the geological spirit of geologists' "three honors".

Fig. 5 Photo of Pengxian Copper Bureau (1909, photo album)

Figure 6 "Well and Mine Engineering"

Berner series [English], interpreted by John Flair, written by Zhao and drawn by Cao Zhongxiu, edited by Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau in Guangxu Five Years (1879). This book is divided into two volumes and three volumes, which are bound on rice paper with silk.

2. Memories and nostalgia

China Geological Library has changed from "one library is particularly expensive and books are particularly valuable and useful" to the largest geoscience professional library in Asia. Its establishment and development have condensed the painstaking efforts of several generations of librarians. Through these works, people feel the wisdom of the geological ancestors and the patriotic feelings of fighting for the country.

3. Hope and encouragement

It is hoped that this book will enable readers to enter the geological library, enter the history of modern geological development in China, understand the development course of geological science in China and the rich geological theories of geological predecessors, and pay high tribute to geologists who have contributed to the prosperity and development of geological undertakings in China. At the same time, the geological library is also willing to meet the challenge of reform and development, build a modern digital library, write a new chapter for the development of geological undertakings and make greater contributions.

Four. Problems and deficiencies

1) Due to the lack of systematic understanding of rare books and the development of early geological theory, there are still some problems in the definition of rare books, especially some versions of documents are difficult to identify.

2) During the work, it was found that most of our special collections (especially those officially published during the Republic of China) were seriously damaged, and corresponding protection measures were not taken, which seriously affected the utilization of these documents. It is suggested that the protection and restoration of the collection should be strengthened.

3) We found that many precious early geoscience documents were not collected in our library. In the literature collected in our library, some of them lack drawings or have pictures without books. For example, Zhou Shuren's Mineral Records of China has books without pictures, and Wen Qi and Zhao Zhixin's Travels of Xu Xiake have pictures without books. , which seriously affects the integrity of the document and the definition of value evaluation. The collection of these documents is one of the tasks to ensure the integrity of our library's geoscience literature system, and we also urge all experts to provide clues and help for our library's literature acquisition work.

4) There are many unpublished manuscripts in the collection of rare books, and there are few references about their historical background, historical significance and academic value, which makes the research work encounter many obstacles, requires a lot of manpower and time to study, and hopes to get the help of experts.