More than 30,000 books and historical materials collection of senior journalists are stored in the reference room of School of Journalism and Communication.

After one year reconstruction, the reference room has been upgraded as the literature center of Journalism and Communication School of Renmin University of China. On April 24, retired teachers who used to work in the reference room met with the faculty of the school in the newly put-into-operation literature center.

The center has a collection of more than 30000 books on journalism and communication, thousands of graduation theses, more than 10000 periodicals, thousands of newspaper files and a large number of unstapled newspapers. In addition, it also preserves the precious historical materials collection of Shao Piaoping and other senior journalists. Not long ago, professor Gan Xifen's family donated his early interview notebook.

In the newly put-into-operation literature center, professor Hu Baijing, executive dean of J-school, introduced to the faculty and staff the blueprint for the construction of the journalism school building and future communication center in Tongzhou new campus of Renmin University of China. The planning of the new site includes the museum and the literature center.

At present, the literature center is divided into four parts: document preservation library, area for individual study, exhibition room of historical articles of the college and literature protection and digital development studio. In the near future, a literature data development studio will also be built. The area for individual study can accommodate 70-100 people with tables and chairs.

Professor Fang Hanqi, first class honorary professor of Renmin University of China and famous historian of journalism, once came here to talk about his stories with the Literature Center dating back to more than 60 years ago.

In 1953, Fang Hanqi donated his collection of more than 3,000 newspapers to the journalism school of Peking University, which set up a room in the teaching building of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature as a reference room for the journalism major. At that time, Fang Hanqi was in charge of teaching the history of journalism, but the only textbook was The History of Journalism in China, written by Ge Gongzhen. In order to obtain more teaching and research materials, Fang Hanqi went to various libraries to collect literature for several years. At that time, the central cities of second-hand bookstores were Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing and Yangzhou, etc., and he spent several holidays visiting all of them.

In 1955, the fine works of more than 3,000 newspapers donated by Fang Hanqi and the newly acquired materials over the years were displayed in the first exhibition held in Peking University's Journalistic Reference Room

In 1958, the journalism major of Peking University was merged into Renmin University of China, and all the materials were accepted by the Journalism Department of Renmin University of China, and a reference room with a certain scale was formally established, with more complete management personnel. "Now the development of the reference room has entered a new period with good hardware facilities and very substantial collections. It is hoped that the literature center will not only be the literature center of the School of Journalism and Communication, but also become an important base for the literature of journalism and communication colleges in China. "said Professor Fang Hanqi.

Editor/Meiyu Zou