Construction of the southern branch of the National Central Library is to begin in September, after a bid of NT$5.7 billion (US$190.3 million) was accepted for the project, the library said at a contract-signing ceremony in Taipei yesterday.
Work on the new branch, which was initially approved by the Executive Yuan on Dec. 28, 2017, had been stalled due to the tender being abandoned 14 times, the library said.
The new branch is to be built in Tainan’s Sinying District (新營) and aims to make the library’s services available to a younger audience and those in southern Taiwan, as well as to provide more space for the library’s collections, a Ministry of Education news release said on Dec. 14 last year.
Image provided by the National Central Library
Among the facilities at the new branch would be a children’s and adolescents’ literary works data center that would store historical data about children’s works in Taiwan and aid research into the evolution of children’s publications.
Deputy Minister of Education Lin Teng-chiao (林騰蛟) said that digital resources are lost faster than printed resources, so the museum felt it was prudent to establish a digital resource preservation center.
“This is a project that the Ministry of Education and the Tainan City Government are greatly anticipating,” Lin said. “It is symbolic of what we can achieve by combining our efforts and it is symbolizes the value we place on our nation’s culture.”
Citing Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che’s (黃偉哲) response to news of the successful bid, Tainan Cultural Affairs Bureau Director-General Yeh Tse-shan (葉澤山) said the mayor described it as “the greatest new development” affecting the city in years.
The new branch is to cover an area of roughly 51,000m*2*, with the main facility housing collections and services across five floors and a basement, the library said.
The campus is to have 80 percent tree coverage and a park for reading outdoors, as well as an incubation center for start-ups, it said.
The branch was designed by architect Chang Ching-hua (張清華), who is best known for her emphasis on green spaces. Her works include the Beitou branch of Taipei Public Library and the Taipei Expo Park’s Xinsheng Area.
Construction was originally estimated to take 820 days, but that has been increased to 1,200 days.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
RSS