Yangtze University is located in the well-known historic and cultural city of Jingzhou on the hinterland of the beautiful and fertile Jianghan Plain in the middle reaches of Yangtze River. The river bypasses the ancient city which has a deep inside of culture and a beautiful geographical environment. The library of the university, like a bunch of wonderful flower on the campus, embellishes the knowledge garden of the school.

     The library is an archive and information center, an academic body for teaching and research as well as an important place to make the school and the society more informative.

     The library of the university is an amalgamation of libraries of former Jianghan Petroleum University, Hubei Agricultural University, Jingzhou Normal University and Hubei Vocational Medical College. The merged library covers an area of 26,428 square meters. It has a collection 918,000 volumes of all fields, of which there are 5026 Chinese and foreign papers and magazines. It possesses numerous electron archives and a series of old-edition books. The collection construction has formed into a system covering disciplines of economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine and management with the offer of its distinctive information of fields such as petroleum science and technology, water-logging and wetland agriculture, and Jingchu culture.

     The library can hold near 3000 seats for reading and receive about 10,000 people everyday. Reading rooms are open 84 hours per week. It has established good connections to exchange materials and to borrow and lend with more than 1000 institutions. The library has set up an intranet on the campus, and links up to Chinese and foreign websites through Education and Science Web. The library homepage has an access to American Dialog Data Service Center and offers readers above 600 large databases to index information. It has been fulfilled that archive information can be constructed and shared. The library has some electron index CD databases providing ample information, such as XSQK, KJQK, XWLW, SPE, Superstar Digital Library, Springer E-QK, OCLCECOPSP E-QK, EBCOHOST and so on. The library acceded the two agreements which stipulate that materials of libraries of Hubei higher institutions be developed and shared among them. And the library, a member in C group of CALIS, has been recognized as a first-degree station of the CNKI network center.

     The library has a good and quality professional staff. Now it has 168 people, of which more than 120 have bachelor or master degree, over 70% of the total; 11 has the title of associate professor, 7%; 90 has Medium Degree titles, which accounts for 60%, including some librarians with the specialty of Book Information with a professional knowledge. 

     With the continuous growth and development of Yangtze University to be a great flagship, the library is planning a new position for three shifts: from institute library to university library, from traditional service to modern service, from teaching-oriented library to teaching and research-oriented library. Today is a new start to develop it. It promises a bright tomorrow of vigor and hope. “A crane rises up to the blue sky as clouds do, which strongly urges a poetic creation.” Faced with a great potential to grow, the library, at the new beginning in the history of the university, will be soaring up like a dauntless white crane towards a grand prospect. With its rich collection and electron materials and service philosophy of convenience, promptness, enthusiasm and honesty, the library will make more progress in its development in the future.