In Huangyangchuan, a common small town of northwest China's Gansu Province, there is a common small tailor's shop. Every day, some people go there to order curtains and clothes. At the same time, other people go there to borrow books, for the tailor's shop also serves as the library.

In the 35-square-metre room, Ren Yanxiu does sewing while looking after the 30,000 books that fill the room. When readers want to borrow books, she stops her sewing work and lets them write down their names and the date.

Ren's husband 35-year-old Liu Dongyao, a teacher of painting at the Vocational Middle School of Huangyangchuan comes to help Ren look after the books at noon so that she can pay more attention to sewing for a while.

With its sign that says "Need a Hand Library," this room has been serving people in Huangyangchuan for three years. Ren and Liu are volunteers who look after the library, and Ren uses the extra space to do her tailor's work. The books and the cost to rent the room, about 1,400 yuan (US$173) per year, are donated by people around China.

Because there is no railway station in Huangyangchuan, most donated books are transported by train to Wuwei, a city about 90 kilometers away. Liu often goes to Wuwei to pick up boxes of books.

This tailor's shop and library, in which there is no electricity, usually opens at 8:30 am and closes at 5 pm. Daylight makes it bright enough to see indoors. In winter, Liu and Ren light a stove to warm the room.

The books in the library are divided into sections of "foreign literature," "Chinese literature," "social sciences," "children's readings," "reference books" and "studying assistance."

Amongst the 20,000 population of Huangyangchuan, more than 1,000 people have borrowed books from the Need a Hand Library.

"Without this library, it's hard to find books to read in Huangyangchuan," says 20-year-old local resident Liu Hongyan. "We can buy some books in the county, but going there and buying books is usually too expensive."

Liu Hongyan says that she likes to read novels, and the library offers her a good selection.

There are many people like Liu Hongyan in Huangyangchuan for whom the library is basically the only resource for reading. Another reason she feels so close to the library is that it was initiated by Cong Feng, who was once her teacher.

Volunteers' help

In 2000, Cong quit his job in Beijing and became a volunteer teacher at the Vocational Middle School of Huangyangchuan.

For students in Huangyangchuan, life in Beijing is beyond their experience. At the same time, Cong found it a completely different world in Huangyangchuan when he first arrived. In this small town where everybody knows everybody, the only cultural venue is a defunct outdoor theatre. People entertain themselves mostly through drinking and finger-guessing games. When it gets dark, the whole town becomes quiet.

Trying to discover more about the students' lives, Cong spent much time chatting with them. From the various questions that students asked Cong, such as "Do you have chickens in Beijing," he found that they were living in a world where information was very limited and did not have many books to read except textbooks.

When Cong went back to Beijing during the winter vacation in 2001, he collected some of his books and called upon his friends to donate used books for students in Huangyangchuan.

Not long after he went back to Huangyangchuan, he gathered about 1,000 books and began to lend them to his students. When he finished his volunteer teaching work in the summer of 2001, he gave all the books to students according to their interests.

Even after Cong's teaching work ended and he returned to Beijing, he began to think of building a library in Huangyangchuan in order to provide more people with chances to read.

With the help of Cong's friend Tong Weiliang, an Internet designer in Shanghai, a website called "Need a Hand" (www.needahand.org) was built. Through the website, more and more people around China donated books to the library. Liu Dongyao, Cong's colleague at the vocational middle school, volunteered to run it.

On July 1, 2002, the Need a Hand Library was opened with about 5,000 books. The first reader was Han Shuping, a primary school teacher who borrowed the swordsman fiction "Lu Xiaofeng." She was followed by the town governor, Zhang Shimin, who borrowed "Biography of Su Shi."

"This library is very helpful for people in our town to study and learn more about the world, especially as books are expensive nowadays and the only bookstore here doesn't offer much selection," Zhang said.

The library is open to everybody. No card is required. Anyone who comes to the library just needs to pay a certain amount for deposit according to the number and prices of the borrowed books, and write down his or her name and the date. Usually a person is allowed to borrow four books at a time, but those who live far from town may borrow more.

Increasing popularity

In a short time, the library became popular among townsfolk, as reflected by the fact that one registry notebook was used up within one week.

Liu Taohua, a nurse from the town's hospital, is a frequenter of the library. Usually she borrows a book for herself and one for her child. The last time they were "Don Quixote" and "Questions and Answers of Knowledge for Children."

Readers also include migrant construction workers and farmers from nearby villages, but the majority are middle-school students.

Eighteen-year-old Xu Yang started to borrow books from the library when he was studying at the vocational middle school. Now he is a third-year student at the Second High School of Wuwei, but he goes to the library every time he comes back home.

"It feels free and relaxed here," Xu said. "This library has expanded my view greatly."

Xu says he likes to read prose literature and popular science books, which can help his study of writing and sciences. Now that he is preparing for the college entrance examination, he spends most of the daytime reviewing his lessons, but at night in his spare time, he reads books that he borrows from Need a Hand Library.

"I would also like to donate books to the library in the future, when I am able to do so," Xu said.

As the library became known through the Internet, not only individuals but also some companies donated books, such as the Xianfeng Bookstore of Nanjing and the Modern Publishing House of Beijing.

However, because of the limit of space and bookshelves, many of the recent books cannot be displayed, but still lie in boxes. Fortunately Liu Dongyao has found a bigger room for the library, where electricity is also available. The library will probably move there in two months' time.

Need a Hand is now not only a library, but has also expanded into an education-aid project. Donations are used to help students from poor families finish their school. More than 30 students have received stipends from donations made through the Need a Hand website. Some of those students have entered universities and colleges, such as Si Wanhong, who is now studying at Northwest University, and Chen Wencai, who is now at the Gansu Political Science and Law Institute.

Cong is living in Beijing now, but he goes to Huangyangchuan every year to see his friends and do some work for the project.

"What we do is very small in this big country, but as small as it is, we hope it is something substantial," Cong said. "At least we offer some people a helping hand."

(China Daily September 6, 2005)