Taipei City Government

Residents from Taipei and New Taipei can now borrow books from city libraries in the two municipalities with library cards issued by either city.

The announcement was made by Deputy Mayor Chen Chin-chun during a press event on January 30. According to Chen, he believes that the new policy will create a win-win scenario for both cities and an important step towards connecting the respective social spheres through sharing of resources.


According to Chen, Taipei alone boasts a total of 7.68 million books from its library resources, and the two municipalities together have an accumulated collection comprising 15 million volumes. Statistics from 2017 indicate that 23 out of 100 people who applied for Taipei’s library card are citizens of New Taipei City; and New Taipei citizens borrowed nearly 13 million books from Taipei’s libraries.  


The importance of collaboration between the city libraries under the two municipalities is also highlighted by the fact that 21-percent of book borrowing or returning services at convenience stores took place in New Taipei.

Asked by the media about the possibility of expanding Taipei’s library card access to Keelung, the deputy mayor remarked that Taipei is willing to share library resources with Keelung residents at the proposal of Keelung government. The northernmost city has already implemented the municipal library joint service with New Taipei.  


As to the problem why books from Taipei cannot be returned at New Taipei’s libraries and only accepted at convenience stores which charge handling fees, Chen noted that more discussions will be conducted to address the issue in the next phase of the policy’s implementation.