On 11 March, the National Library of China (NLC), the Library Society of China (LSC) and the China Science and Technology Museum (CSTM) held a signing ceremony of the strategic cooperation framework agreement in the NLC, officially establishing a strategic partnership and comprehensively deepening exchanges and cooperation. Yin Hao, a member of the CPC Committee of the CSTM and Director of the CSTM, Pang Xiaodong, Deputy Director of the CSTM, Rao Quan, Director of the NLC and Chairman of the LSC, Chen Ying, Deputy Director of the NLC and Vice Chairman of the LSC, and persons in charge of related departments of the NLC, the LSC and the CSTM, attended the ceremony. Rao Quan and Yin Hao delivered a speech successively and signed strategic cooperation framework agreement. The signing ceremony was presided over by Chen Ying.

In his speech, Rao Quan said that science and technology museum was a public-welfare science education institution with the main function of exhibition education, which undertook the important responsibilities of popularizing scientific knowledge, carrying forward scientific spirit, disseminating scientific ideas and advocating scientific methods; the library was an important place to nourish the national soul and cultivate cultural confidence, and an important position to promote national reading and support citizens' lifelong learning. The two industries had natural commonalities in carrying out science popularization education for the public and improving the scientific and cultural literacy of the whole people. For a long time, under the guidance of the CSTM, the NLC and the LSC, based on their respective advantages, science and technology museums and libraries at all levels throughout the nation had been actively exploring and innovating in supporting science and technology innovation and promoting the popularization of science and culture, and constantly making new breakthroughs. In particular, libraries and science and technology museums at all levels constantly deepened exchanges and cooperation with important time nodes as an opportunity, such as "World Book Day", "National Science and Technology Activity Week", and so on.

Rao Quan emphasized that we would continue to give full play to the literature and information advantages and social education platform advantages of the libraries, and further strengthen the cooperative development and sharing and mutual learning with the CSTM and science and technology museums in the nationwide in the construction of high-quality science popularization resources, science popularization exhibitions, science popularization lectures and so on. We should do a good job in popularizing science among people in the nationwide, promote the formation of a good atmosphere for the society to learn and use science, and promote the significant improvement of the scientific and cultural quality of people in the nationwide, so as to make greater contributions to the great development and prosperity of socialist culture and science and technology with Chinese characteristics, and to the overall construction of a socialist modern country.

In his speech, Yin Hao said that both the CSTM and the NLC were the most influential venues in their respective fields, and undertook extremely important social responsibilities and missions in public service and science and culture education. In the new era, in the face of the constantly updated and developing demand of the public, how to give full play to their own brand, resources, channels and other advantages, and realize the resultant effect of "1 + 1" greater than "2" was a common issue of the times. "Great Union, Great Cooperation" had become the inevitable development trend in social public service industry.

Yin Hao stressed that the CSTM signed strategic cooperation agreements with the NLC and the LSC respectively to carry out in-depth and multi-dimensional cooperative development and sharing. We hoped to take this opportunity to further strengthen the cooperative development and sharing of resources between science and technology museums and libraries, further enrich and improve the resources development of science and technology museums and cultural venues, stimulate the curiosity and thirst for knowledge of the public, especially young people, and promote the spirit of scientists, and popularize the scientific spirit, scientific knowledge, scientific thought and scientific methods, which would accelerate the construction of modern public cultural service system, improve the scientific and cultural quality of people in the nationwide, and enhance cultural confidence.

According to the framework agreement, around the key areas of their career development and business work, the NLC and the CSTM would carry out a series of activities. First, both sides would jointly hold exhibitions, actively provide featured science popularization products and services, publicize and popularize ancient and modern scientific and cultural achievements to the public. Second, both sides would hold science popularization activities to cultivate the scientific spirit and scientific literacy of the public, such as lectures, youth summer camp, theme science education activities on campus or community, and so on. Third, both sides would build a platform for academic exchange, improve the level of academic research, and strengthen the construction of talent team. Fourth, both sides would strengthen the sharing and cooperative publishing of literature resources, and create a social atmosphere of nationwide reading and advocating science. Fifth, based on their own abundant digital resources, both sides would promote cooperative development and sharing of digital resources, and improve the efficiency of public services. Finally, both sides would enhance information technology cooperation and exchanges, jointly promote the embedding of digital library, mobile library and China Digital Science and Technology Museum, explore the application of AR, VR, artificial intelligence and other technologies, and jointly build a resource and service platform for science popularization.

During the 14^th Five-Year Plan Period, the LSC and the CSTM would implement a tour exhibition project, which would carry out free popular science education and cultural activities for the general public based on the national county-level public libraries and the county-level association for science and technology. The project would take the national county-level public libraries as the main activity position, take the "China Mobile Science and Technology Museum" tour exhibition as the main activity carrier, integrate the existing high-quality exhibition and education resources of the physical science and technology museums and online resources of the digital museums, adopt a variety of activities, such as offline exhibition, special lectures, online resources sharing and recommendation of popular science reading, and so on, which would attract grass-roots people to enter the library and participate in science popularization and cultural activities, promote the wide popularization of science and technology, enhance the scientific and cultural quality of the grass-roots people, and explore useful experience for "Getting through the last mile of science popularization service at the grass-roots level".

In order to consolidate and expand the existing cooperation achievements of libraries and science and technology museums, further expand the cooperation space, enrich the cooperation content, and innovate the cooperation manners, the NLC, the LSC and the CSTM had conducted extensive and in-depth research, exchange and discussion in the early stage, and strived to achieve strategic cooperation. In 2020, the LSC and the CSTM had overcome the adverse effects of COVID-19, and launched a pilot tour exhibition project, which selected Deqing, Zhejiang Province, Zhangshu, Jiangxi Province and Dunhuang, Gansu Province as the pilot places. The exhibition lasted for 2 months, and the total number of people visiting the exhibition was over 55,000 person-times, which received good response. According to the framework agreement, no less than 200 county-level public libraries would be covered during the 14^th Five-Year Plan Period. In 2021, the tour exhibition project would be implemented in 40 county-level public libraries in 17 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities).

After the signing ceremony, Yin Hao and his colleagues visited the Exhibition of Chinese Traditional Culture and Ancient Books and the Exhibition of Oracle Bone Inscriptions Memory in the National Museum of Ancient Books, as well as the Chinese Book Reading Area in the NLC North Area.

Related directors of department of the CSTM and the NLC attended the signing ceremony, including Ren Haihong, Director of the CSTM General Office, Qi Xin, Director of the CSTM Exhibition and Education Center, Ren Hechun, Director of the CSTM Information Network for Science Popularization Department, Tang Gang and Long Jinjing, Deputy Directors of the CSTM Resources Management Department, Zhao Yang, Deputy Director of the CSTM Science Research Management Department, Huo Ruijuan, Director of the NLC General Office, Xie Qiang, Director of the NLC Digital Resource & Service Department, Li Chunming, Director of the NLC Information Technology Department, Wang Yanhang, Secretary-general of Secretariat of the Library Society of China, Fan Hua, Deputy Director of the NLC Research Institute (Coordination & Operation Management Division), Liao Yongxia, Deputy Director of the NLC Social Education Department, and so on.