With the emergence of e-books and the development of network communication technology, electronic libraries appear gradually. Electronic library has the characteristics of large storage capacity, high speed, long storage time, low cost and easy communication. CD-ROM is a kind of mass storage, which can store thousands of times more information than traditional books, much more than microfilm, and includes images, videos, sounds and so on.

Using electronic technology, in this kind of library, we can quickly find the information we need from a sea of books. This kind of library saves information for a much longer time, and there are no problems such as mildew and moth-eaten. Using the Internet, you can use such books in your office and home thousands of miles away, which is very efficient.

The Beijing Library of the National Library of China has built an electronic reading room, with more than 400 kinds of CDs and more than 20 kinds of databases such as China Sci-tech Periodicals Database, with a total data volume of hundreds of millions. This electronic reading room is the prototype of China Electronic Library.