Libraries in Taipei

Through Florence I am a legal resident of Taiwan. One of the benefits of being a legal resident is that I can apply for library cards. I have 3:

1. The National Central Library which is like the National Archives in the US. It not a "lending library" but you can request books in their collection and read them or copy portions while at the library. They have an extensive collection of uptodate journals and publications.

2. The National Taiwan Library, which dates from Japanese time, it has a good collection of English Language books. Of course the Chinese collection is more than 10 times greater. But in one location they have the most English Language books.

3. Taipei City Library  is run by the city of Taipei with 56 branches around the city of 2.3 million people.

Here are the front of my cards:

and the backs:

The libraries are open every day of the week from about 9AM to 9PM and to me they all seem busy. On one side, I wonder why so busy when Chinese is such a hard language, on the other side, I guess that if you have put in the effort to learn such a hard language then you should make use of that skill.

All the libraries are electrified with automated check out and computer searchable card catalogs and accessible though web addresses. And they provide hi speed internet access. All very modern.