On 20 October, the ceremony of Cangzhou City donating Zhang Zhidong's bronze statue to the National Library of China (NLC) was held in Cangzhou Library. Zhou Heping, former Vice Minister of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Xiong Yuanming, Director of the NLC, Huo Ruijuan, Deputy Director of the NLC, Zhai Yuhu, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Committee of Hebei Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, Deputy Director of Hebei Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, and first-class inspector, Kang Yanmin, Secretary of Cangzhou Municipal Party Committee, and Xiang Hui, Deputy Secretary and Mayor of Cangzhou Municipal Party Committee, attended the ceremony. Li Fan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee and Director of the Publicity Department, presided over the ceremony. Zhou Heping, Xiong Yuanming, Kang Yanmin and Xiang Hui jointly unveiled the bronze statue of Zhang Zhidong.

In his speech, Xiong Yuanming expressed his heartfelt thanks to the Cangzhou Municipal Party Committee and Cangzhou Municipal People's Government for donating Zhang Zhidong's bronze statue to the NLC, and expressed his high respect and deep memory to Zhang Zhidong and the founders of China's modern librarianship. He said that Zhang Zhidong was an important figure in modern Chinese history and one of the founders of modern librarianship. He played an important role in the preparation for the Metropolitan Library, the predecessor of the NLC. The NLC would carry out the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's reply letter to the NLC's senior experts, inherit the glorious traditions of our predecessors, adhere to the original mission of "inheriting civilization and serving the society", vigorously carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture, innovate service methods, promote nationwide reading, give full play to the important role of the library in "nourishing the national soul and cultivating cultural self-confidence", and make new contributions to building a socialist cultural power.

In his speech, Zhai Yuhu said that the casting and donation of Zhang Zhidong's bronze statue was not only a vivid embodiment of commemorating our predecessors and reviving the librarianship, but also a powerful practice of publicizing Cangzhou's historical celebrities and cultivating Cangzhou's local culture. During the 14^th Five-Year Plan period, Hebei would earnestly implement the relevant deployment of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, continuously optimize the facilities and functions of public libraries, actively explore the management and service innovation of public libraries, and promote the transformation of public libraries.

In his speech, Xiang Hui said that this year marked the 184^th anniversary of Zhang Zhidong's birth. Cangzhou specially made a bronze statue of Zhang Zhidong and donated it to the NLC to commemorate his outstanding contributions to China's modern librarianship and continue his centennial relationship with the NLC. He hoped to take the donation ceremony and seminar as an opportunity to build a platform for Zhang Zhidong's literature collection and research, actively explore cross-border cooperation, realize integration and sharing as soon as possible, and accelerate the formation of a new pattern and model of national reading.

In the same period, the seminar on Zhang Zhidong and modern librarianship development was held. Experts and scholars at the meeting spoke highly of Zhang Zhidong's historical contributions to promoting the development of modern librarianship and education cause, and making every effort to prepare for the construction of the Metropolitan Library.

The meeting pointed out that setting up the bronze statue of Zhang Zhidong and holding the seminar on Zhang Zhidong and modern librarianship development was not only to commemorate Zhang Zhidong and other celebrities who had made important contributions to the librarianship, but also to review the development of modern Chinese librarianship, draw wisdom and strength from it, and promote the development of current librarianship.

The meeting stressed that through a series of measures, we should further deepen academic research and exchanges in the development history of Chinese libraries, promote the library community to pay attention to and promote classic reading, and encourage generations of librarians to work hard to better meet the spiritual and cultural needs of the people, and make new contributions to building a socialist cultural power and realizing the Chinese dream of the great renewal of the Chinese nation.

Huo Ruijuan, Zhai Yuhu, Li Fan, Cheng Huanwen, Vice Chairman of the Library Society of China and professor of the School of Information Management of Sun Yat-sen University, and Cao Yong, Deputy Director of the Publicity Department of Cangzhou Municipal Party Committee, Secretary of the CPC Committee and Director of Cangzhou Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism, jointly launched the seminar on Zhang Zhidong and modern librarianship development. Well-known experts from Chinese library community and more than 200 representatives from 21 provinces (cities) participated in relevant activities.