Sun Beixin, deputy-director of the National Library of China, said Thursday in Beijing that the construction of an information network has given a new look totraditional Chinese libraries.

With the wide use of computers in recent years, Chinese libraries of various levels and different types have established comprehensive information service systems, which is an important step in China's progress in building an informationized society.

At a press conference to introduce a computer knowledge contest among the staff members of all China's public libraries, Sun said a group of state-level scientific projects, including thetrial digital library project, have set up an elementary platform for the construction of digital libraries.

The contest, hosted by China's Ministry of Culture to promote the use of computers in libraries, will be held here December 4-6.About 30 teams from all over the country will participate in the contest.

China now has about 3,000 public libraries at county-level andabove.