China's Ministry of Culture released a work plan outlining a projected aim at protecting ancient books as part of the country's 13th Five-year Plan (2016-20) on Wednesday. This is the very first five-year plan to focus on protection of ancient books in China, according to the ministry's press release.
The plan aims to collect basic information concerning collections of ancient books in the country, improve protection measures for books stored at national and provincial levels, and restore a number of precious ancient books as well as digitalize and print selected key books.
According to Chen Binbin, deputy director of the Department of Public Culture at the Ministry of Culture, the plan also outlines 16 key programs in five categories that belong to the Project of Chinese Ancient Books Protection, which was initiated by the ministry in 2007.
Over the past 10 years, 12 national level ancient book restoration centers have been established, which has led to the restoration of more than 2.5 million pages.